Schiff: Resignation of Intel Officials Can Be a ‘Powerful Restraint’ to Trump’s Declassification

EXCERPT:

SCHIFF: "They should go back to the president and say look this is why we can’t do this. And if you need somebody so do this I’m going resign and you're going to have to find somebody else. That’s ultimately the only power they have. Now that though can be very powerful. If you have high ranking people in the government who do resign and resign out of conscience it becomes that much more difficult for the president to insist on their successors and they pay that much greater political price in the country. So that can be a powerful restraint, and I think we’ve seen that restraint operate before when the president said to Doug McGahn fire Bob Mueller and McGahn said I'll resign before I do it, them Bob Mueller's job was saved at least for a period of time. But ultimately if the president insists he can do it. This, of course, the  same president that says he’s doing it for transparency but has yet to release his tax returns. That's yet another alternate fact that you should point out. The remedy is to say, Mr. President, this is where we draw the line. And they made it clear to me, the Department of Justice as well as the intel community that some of these materials are an absolute red line for them, and in fact with respect to some of these materials they said they didn’t want those of us in the Gang of Eight to share it even with people outside the Gang of Eight let alone the public."