Rep. Adam Schiff Falls For Russian Prank Offering 'Kompromat' On Trump

Last March, Democrat Rep. Adam Schiff was pranked by two Russian pranksters notorious for making prank calls to high ranking officials and celebrities in the past. Despite Schiff denying claims he fell for the prank, the recorded audio on the call tells a different story.

Two Russian pranksters nicknamed Vovan and Lexus masquerading as a Ukrainian politician placed a call to a top Democrat of the House Intelligence Committee, Adam Schiff, alleging they were in possession of compromising material against President Donald Trump. The caller offered Schiff "Kompromat" (compromising documents), gathered by two minor Russian celebrities on President Donald Trump’s visit to Moscow in 2013 that according to the caller included naked pictures of the President. The caller said that Russian President Vladimir Putin tried to use the Kompromat to coerce Trump into cancelling Russian sanctions.

In April, the congressman claimed that he wasn’t fooled by the call and reported it to the authorities. However, according to an audio recording of the phone call posted by the callers/pranksters, he can be heard engaging in the plot to bring Trump down.

In the audio posted by the prankster, Schiff is heard in a conversation with a man posing as Andriy Parubiy, the Chairman of the Ukrainian Parliament, who claims he’s got dirt on Trump including compromising pictures of the president with Russian model Olga Buzova.

Despite Schiff's denial of taking the call seriously, he can be heard having a serious conversation with the purported Ukrainian minister for eight minutes.

Schiff, who began the call by thanking the minister for his time and warning him about Russian spies he suspected could be listening, said: “I would caution that our Russian friends may be listening to the conversation so I wouldn't share anything over the phone that you wouldn't want them to hear."

The Russian prankster Vovan posing as Parubiy made bizarre allegations about Trump, while Schiff — who appeared to be taking notes — listened intently to everything he had to say. He asked for a few documents pertaining to the allegations that could be sent to the FBI.

"I'll be in touch with the FBI about this. And we'll make arrangements with your staff. I think it probably would be best to provide these materials both to our committee and to the FBI," said Schiff during the conversation.

To this the caller replied: “Of course, we will provide you all our copies of all our materials. But I also would like to let you know that Sobchak [Vladimir Putin's alleged god-daughter who the caller claimed introduced the model Buzova to Trump] and Buzova will pretty soon visit our country and we could arrest them and deliver them to your embassy and we also could extradite them to your country and you can put them to your special jail Guantanamo.”

A spokesperson for Schiff said the congressman knew the call to be fake and reported it to the authorities last April but declined to comment on the fact that Schiff engaged in the conversation with the caller for eight minutes.

"Both before and after the call, we were aware that it was likely bogus and had already alerted appropriate law enforcement personnel, as well as after the call," the spokesperson said. "Obviously, it was bogus — which became even more evident during the call — but as with any investigation that is global in scale, we have to chase any number of leads, many of which turn out to be duds."