The incoming chair of the House Intelligence committee explained how President Donald Trump was "compromised" by the Russians by lying about his Moscow Deal.
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), a former federal prosecutor, revealed the situation on MSNBC's "Meet the Press Daily" on Thursday.
Schiff said he "was left with a feeling of déjà vu" after today's revelations because of the case of Michael Flynn.
Flynn served as Trump's National Security Advisor before being caught lying to the FBI. Flynn pleaded guilty in December of 2017.
"Michael Flynn, we know from Sally Yates, was making public statements -- and others were making public statements on the basis of what Michael Flynn said -- that the Russians knew to be false, and that meant that Michael Flynn was in a position to be compromised," Schiff reminded.
"Well, Donald Trump was making statements that were false or misleading about this deal in Moscow -- and certainly Michael Cohen was making false statements under oath about this," he continued. "The Russians would know that, because the Russians were on the other end of this transaction, which means they were in position of exposing this anytime, any place they wanted."
"That is leverage over the president of the United States," Schiff explained.
The leverage could have allowed the Kremlin to blackmail Trump into making foreign policy decisions that were not in the best interests of the United States.
"And, of course, our most serious concern is, is there other financial leverage the Russians have?" he wondered.
"And this is why I continue to emphasize the money laundering issue, because if there was laundering of Russian money, the Russians would be aware of it," he explained. "That would be criminal activity, that would be the most compromising of all."
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