‘Your Credibility Is’ Diminished, Morgan Ortagus Tells Trump Hunter Schiff On 'The View'

“The View” guest co-host Morgan Ortagus got into a tension-packed discussion with Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., following the former’s comment that Schiff possibly played a role in spreading Russian disinformation when he promoted the anti-Trump Steele dossier that has since been discredited by the FBI. Ortagus said Schiff’s actions on the matter could have diminished the latter’s “credibility.”

During the interview, Ortagus asked Schiff how he feels about his “role in promoting” the theory that the 2016 Trump campaign colluded with Russia, Fox News reported.

Schiff did not provide a direct answer and instead called out “whoever lied” to be prosecuted. Schiff also criticized former President Donald Trump for pardoning people who were convicted of lying to the government. As Schiff went on to claim that Trump’s campaign team colluded with Russia in 2016, Ortagus said Schiff “may have helped spread Russian disinformation” by promoting the theory.

“I think that’s what Republicans and what people who entrusted you as the intel committee chair are so confused about your culpability in all this,” Ortagus pointed out.

Schiff said the indictment of Igor Danchenko, who was indicted last week on charges of lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation regarding the Steele dossier, should not be used to set aside Trump’s alleged “culpability” in the Russian collusion, the Ukraine issue last year, and “inciting an insurrection” earlier this year.

“None of that serious misconduct is in any way diminished by the fact that people lied to Christopher Steele,” Schiff insisted. “No, I think just your credibility is,” Ortagus, who is a former Trump administration spokesperson, replied.

In response, Schiff said, “I think the credibility of your question is in doubt.”

The Steele dossier is a collection of rumors and unproven information about Trump allegedly conspiring with Russian intelligence officials during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Grand jury John H. Durham charged Danchenko with five counts of making false statements to the FBI last week. Some of the reports written in the dossier by Danchenko’s employer, former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele, were unproven and some have been refuted, The New York Times reported.

One of the charges is linked to Danchenko’s alleged interactions with a person described in the 39-page indictment as having strong ties with the Democratic Party.

In the FBI's declassified notes of a January 2017 interview with Danchenko, it was revealed that he informed the agency he had no knowledge of “the origins” in some of Steele’s claims in the dossier, the Washington Examiner reported.

He went on to tell the FBI that much of the information provided to Steele by a mischaracterized Russian source was “word of mouth and hearsay.”

Schiff played a major role in the impeachment trial of Trump as he led a team of other Democratic lawmakers in presenting their evidence of Trump’s alleged abuse of power, Reuters reported.

Trump’s legal counsel and political allies accused Schiff of not allowing the former president to undergo a “fair process” during the trial.