Republicans angry and concerned about Schiff release of phone records

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff's decision to publish the phone records of the president's personal attorneys, a journalist, a fellow lawmaker, a National Security Council aide, and others has sent a chill among Republicans concerned about the reach of a powerful chairman determined to root out the communications of people with connections to the Trump-Ukraine affair. Rep. Devin Nunes, ranking Republican on the committee, whose phone records were included among those released, called the move a "gross abuse of power."

The Intelligence Committee Democrats' Trump-Ukraine impeachment investigation report, released publicly Tuesday, included records of some phone calls by presidential lawyers Rudy Giuliani and Jay Sekulow, Nunes, journalist John Solomon, Fox News host Sean Hannity, indicted Giuliani associate Lev Parnas, National Security Council aide and former Nunes staffer Kash Patel, lawyer Victoria Toensing, and unidentified people at the White House and Office of Management and Budget. 

The published records consisted only of the two parties on each call, plus the date and duration of the call. No content from any call was released.

Schiff subpoenaed AT&T and Verizon for the information. Sources involved in the matter have only minimal information of exactly what Schiff did, but they believe the chairman subpoenaed a total of five phone numbers — it is not clear who each number was associated with — from which the published information was taken.
It is also not clear how much phone record information Schiff received from AT&T and Verizon that was not included in the report.

To the layman, it seems worrisome that the committee would publish phone records of the president's lawyers — are there attorney-client issues involved? — plus a journalist — are there First Amendment issues involved? — and a member of Congress. But among insiders and experts, the concern is not that Schiff broke the law — it appears he acted legally — but that the committee majority used its authority to walk up to the edge of propriety in a politically-charged investigation.

In a text exchange, I asked one Republican lawmaker with knowledge of the situation whether Schiff's move raised any attorney-client issues:


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