Dem Whistleblower Says Schiff OK’ed Classified Leaks To Hurt Trump
An intelligence officer who spent over a decade working for Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee repeatedly alerted the FBI, starting in 2017, that then-Rep. Adam Schiff had authorized the leaking of classified information to damage then-President Donald Trump during the now-discredited Russiagate investigation, according to explosive FBI memos recently provided to Congress by Director Kash Patel.
FBI 302 interview reports obtained by Just the News reveal that the staffer — a registered Democrat who described himself as a friend to both Schiff, now a California senator, and former Republican House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes — viewed the leaks as “unethical,” “illegal,” and “treasonous.”
The staffer claimed he was told not to worry because Schiff believed the Constitution’s speech and debate clause would shield him from prosecution, Just the News first reported.
There is no publicly available opinion from the Attorney General or Solicitor General supporting such a determination as a matter of law.
However, officials told Just the News that when the allegations were first presented years ago, the Justice Department showed little interest in pursuing Schiff, echoing the same rationale the lawmaker himself had offered.
In his most recent interview with the FBI in 2023, the whistleblower — whose name remains redacted — told agents from the bureau’s St. Louis office that he had personally attended a meeting where Schiff authorized the release of classified information, the outlet said.
“When working in this capacity, [redacted staffer’s name] was called to an all-staff meeting by SCHIFF,” the interview report said. “In this meeting, SCHIFF stated the group would leak classified information which was derogatory to President of the United States DONALD J. TRUMP. SCHIFF stated the information would be used to indict President TRUMP.”
The whistleblower told investigators that he “stated this would be illegal and, upon hearing his concerns, unnamed members of the meeting reassured that they would not be caught leaking classified information,” the 2023 interview report stated, according to Just the News.
The staffer first made similar allegations to agents at the FBI’s Washington field office in 2017, shortly after the start of Trump’s first term. While the alleged leaks are now beyond the statute of limitations for prosecution under most legal theories, the disclosures surface at a politically sensitive moment for Schiff, who was recently referred to the Justice Department for potential prosecution in a separate mortgage fraud case first reported by Just the News.
Officials also noted that several DOJ personnel who declined to pursue numerous classified leak cases during the Russiagate controversy still hold influential positions — a detail that may draw the attention of congressional lawmakers.
“For years, certain officials used their positions to selectively leak classified information to shape political narratives,” Patel told Just the News on Monday. “It was all done with one purpose: to weaponize intelligence and law enforcement for political gain.
“Those abuses eroded public trust in our institutions,” he added. “The FBI will now lead the charge, with our partners at DOJ, and Congress will have the chance to uncover how political power may have been weaponized and to restore accountability.”
Schiff, who served as both ranking member and later chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) before moving to the Senate, spent years promoting unfounded allegations of Trump-Russia collusion and championing former British spy Christopher Steele’s discredited dossier — even reading several baseless claims from it into the congressional record in March 2017.
That same year, the whistleblower began bringing concerns to the FBI, Just the News reported.
According to the memos, the Democratic HPSCI staffer told agents in one meeting that retired Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn — Trump’s first national security adviser — was being singled out as part of a broader committee effort to target Trump.
The whistleblower also identified Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) as a likely source of classified leaks, the outlet reported.
Top DHS Special Agent And His Wife Found Dead
A Department of Homeland Security special agent and his wife were found dead in their New Jersey home in what appears to be a murder-suicide, prosecutors said.
Police in Sayreville responded to the couple’s home on Glynn Court around 8 p.m. July 3 and found Kelly Latauro, 46, dead inside the residence, the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office said.
Her husband, 52-year-old Christopher Latauro, was discovered dead in the backyard.
Both appear to have been shot.
Authorities said Christopher is believed to be the shooter and the case is being investigated as a murder-suicide.
Police told residents to keep away from Glynn Court, from Deerfield Road to Scarlet Drive, briefly because of police activity.
The area was reopened about 40 minutes later, but police remained on scene.
According to NJ101.5, citing DHS records from 2019 and 2020, Christopher was a special agent for the Department of Homeland Security.
Authorities have not said what may have sparked the violence.
Kelly’s sister-in-law Robyn Perlman-Spencer confirmed her death in a Facebook post on July 7, remembering her in a heartbreaking tribute.
“As many of you may now know, my beautiful sister in law Kelly Iatauro was senselessly and suddenly taken from us on Friday. Kelly was a bright light- kind, thoughtful, hysterical, inappropriate, and just one of the most amazing people I’ve ever known. She left a lasting impression on anyone that was lucky enough to know her,” Robyn wrote in part.
Sayreville police confirmed officers responded to the Glynn Court residence on July 3 and found both people dead of gunshot wounds.
The incident is being treated as a murder-suicide, and Christopher is suspected to be the shooter, the spokesperson said.
The Department of Homeland Security and Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office did not immediately respond to additional requests for comment on the case.
What began as a heavy police response to a deadly scene left two people dead and the quiet Middlesex County neighborhood stunned.
Investigators are still trying to piece together what happened inside the home leading up to the gunfire.
Separately, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin made headlines last week with an election-related announcement.
Mullin on Friday said officials who don’t cooperate with the administration’s election security efforts may be slapped with fines — and potentially prison time.
“If the election officials, once we gave them the information they need to secure their elections — and they chose not to — then those individuals can also be held accountable by fines, by penalties, and even, depending on how far it goes, prison time,” Mullin said during a press conference at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.
Mullin also promised DHS would work to “speed up our security enhancements” for states.
He vowed to hold up federal election security grants until state officials took steps the administration demanded, including running their voter registration lists through a system that checks for non-citizen voters on the rolls.
Mullin made his comments after President Donald Trump’s primetime address on election security Thursday night, when he repeated already known concerns about the security of voting systems, alleged Chinese efforts to get into voter rolls, and aired old gripes about the results of the 2020 election, which he lost to Joe Biden.
In his remarks on Friday, the DHS secretary focused on DHS’s work with states to secure election systems and scrub voter registration rolls for fraud and concerns about noncitizen voting.
The Justice Department also sent letters this month threatening prosecution to election officials across the country if they don’t remove noncitizens from their voter rolls.
On Friday, Mullin seemed to suggest that the agency was able to estimate the numbers using the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and said 23 states are already working with DHS to analyze voter rolls.
And he criticized the legal challenges that are hindering the administration’s efforts: Last month, a judge blocked the Trump administration from creating a database of information about Americans, including Social Security numbers and citizenship status.
