Rep. Anna Paulina Luna still wants Rep. Adam B. Schiff to face censure this week after the California lawmaker escaped the punishment last week, and more Republicans are on board this time.
The censure was tabled 225-196, with seven lawmakers voting present. Five lawmakers did not vote.
Twenty Republicans helped Mr. Schiff’s fellow Democrats table the measure, which included a $16 million fine that many GOPers took issue with, authored by the conservative Florida firebrand.
Ms. Luna now plans to introduce a new censure resolution this week without a monetary fine attached.
A member of the right-wing Freedom Caucus, Ms. Luna tweeted that fellow Republicans, including Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who voted to table the censure resolution misunderstood the initial bill and that the $16 million penalty was a “suggested fine.”
Mr. Massie appeared ready to support the new censure resolution without the fine after Ms. Luna tweeted “Censure Schiff Round 2 next week.”
“Thank you for fixing your bill for next week,” Mr. Massie said.
Two New York Republicans who previously voted to table the measure say they will now support the censure with its new language.
“I respect the Constitution and the oath we take to it. These revisions address my concerns and I will vote to hold Rep. Schiff accountable,” Rep. Marc Molinaro tweeted.
Rep. Michael Lawler told The Washington Times he plans to support the new censure resolution of Mr. Schiff and expects most if not all of the 20 Republicans who voted to table it last week to do so as well.
Other than the omission of a financial penalty, Ms. Luna’s censure against Mr. Schiff will be similar to last week’s resolution against him — over his allegations against former President Donald Trump of Russian collusion in the 2016 election.
The measure condemns and censures Mr. Schiff “for conduct that misleads the American people in a way that is not befitting an elected member of the House of Representatives.”
It also cites special counsel John Durham’s recent report that condemned the FBI’s investigation into Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign.
The resolution says Mr. Schiff abused his power against Mr. Trump’s campaign allies as a House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence member: “Abusing privileged access to classified information, Representative Schiff composed a false memo justifying the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant application on Trump associate Carter Page.”
The resolution also says he “exploited his positions on HPSCI to encourage and excuse abusive intelligence investigations of Americans for political purposes.”
Ms. Luna’s original resolution came to the floor the same day Mr. Trump pleaded not guilty to a 37-count federal indictment from the Justice Department on allegations that he improperly retained classified documents.
In a letter to Democratic colleagues last week, Mr. Schiff called the resolution “false and defamatory.” He said Ms. Luna was bringing the measure to the floor “to gratify the former president’s MAGA allies and distract from Donald Trump’s legal troubles by retaliating against me for my role in exposing his abuses of power and leading the first impeachment against him.”
Mr. Schiff was the top Democrat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence for several years until this Congress, when House Speaker Kevin McCarthy removed him and fellow California Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell from the panel.
Mr. Schiff is among Democrats running to replace the retiring Sen. Dianne Feinstein.
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.
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