Clause fining Schiff $16 million, half the cost of investigating Russian collusion claims against Trump, was dropped
Chaos erupted on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives on June 21 as Democrats contested House Republicans’ vote to censure Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.).
The House voted to censure Schiff a week after an initial resolution brought forward by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) was tabled. An earlier clause fining Schiff $16 million—half of the amount paid by the federal government to investigate debunked claims of Russian collusion with President Donald Trump in 2016—was removed, leading Republicans who initially voted against the measure to give it their support.
The tally was 213-209. Six voted “present.”
Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who gave his backing to the measure, presided over the hearing.
A censure resolution is a punitive action that can be undertaken by the House to discipline members for actions that fall short of grounds for expulsion from the lower chamber. Schiff is only the 25th member of the House in American history to face such an action out of over 10,505 who have served in the lower chamber.
The new resolution, like the tabled one, condemns Schiff, who was chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, for perpetuating the notion there was collusion between former Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia. That was debunked by special counsel Robert Mueller in 2019, Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz later the same year, and special counsel John Durham in May. The $16 million fine initially proposed by Luna was half of the $32 million cost to the taxpayer for the Mueller probe alone.