PolitiFact – Kevin McCarthy questioned whether House should expel Adam Schiff, but didn’t call for his removal

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., gained notoriety among those on the political right while leading former President Donald Trump’s first impeachment trial. Since then, he’s been removed from the House Intelligence Committee he had chaired, and a Republican colleague moved to expel him from the chamber altogether. 

But there’s no evidence that the expulsion effort is backed by the House speaker, despite claims to the contrary circulating online.

“BREAKING: House Speaker Kevin McCarthy called for the immediately expulsion and prosecution of Rep. Adam Schiff for committing crimes of treason against the United States,” read a grammatically incorrect post shared May 17 on Instagram. It has been “liked” more than 12,000 times.

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McCarthy, R-Calif., publicly questioned whether Schiff should be expelled from the House of Representatives, but he has stopped short of calling for his colleague’s removal.

During a May 16 press conference, McCarthy was asked by a reporter whether he supported efforts to expel Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., who was arrested and charged by federal prosecutors with wire fraud, money laundering, theft of public funds and lying on congressional financial forms. 

“Look, I think the George Santos indictment is very serious,” McCarthy said. “I also know in America you’re innocent until proven guilty. But I don’t want to sit around and wait. So what I would like to do is move this to ethics.” 

Then, McCarthy brought up Special Counsel John Durham’s 300-plus page report about his probe into the FBI’s and Justice Department’s investigations of allegations that then-presidential candidate Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign had illegally coordinated with Russia to influence the election. 

“I mean, we just had this report come out from Durham,” McCarthy said. “What does that say about Adam Schiff? He lied to the American public. Should he be expelled from Congress as well?” 

Republicans including McCarthy have criticized Schiff for repeatedly claiming that evidence proved the Trump campaign had colluded with Russia in the 2016 election. 

Schiff continued making the claims after former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s 2019 report cleared the Trump campaign of criminal conspiracy or illegal coordination with Russia. At the time, Schiff said collusion may or may not be criminal and is distinct from proof of a criminal conspiracy. 

Following McCarthy’s May 16 remarks, a reporter asked for clarification: “To be clear, are you saying you’re going to move to expel Schiff?”

“No,” McCarthy replied. “I am raising the question to you.”

On May 17, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., introduced a resolution to expel Schiff from the House. It was referred to the House Ethics Committee, where it currently remains, according to Congress.gov. Expelling Schiff would require a two-thirds majority vote of the House.(Republicans currently hold 222 House seats, or about 51%, and Democrats have 213, or about 49%.) Luna’s resolution also has been the source of false claims. 

BREAKING NEWS:

A MAGA Republican Member of Congress just filed a motion to expel me from the U.S. House of Representatives.

I stood up to Donald Trump and held extreme MAGA forces accountable. Now they want payback.

They’ll go after anyone who defends the rule of law.

— Adam Schiff (@AdamSchiff) May 18, 2023

McCarthy told Politico on May 18 that he’d “have to look at” that resolution before deciding whether it would be given floor time. 

PolitiFact searched Google and Nexis news archives for articles from credible news organizations and found no reports of McCarthy announcing his support for Schiff’s expulsion and prosecution. We also did not find any press releases from McCarthy’s office on the topic. We found no evidence to support the claim that Schiff has committed treason.

PolitiFact reached out to McCarthy and Schiff for comment, but did not receive replies.

We rate the claim that McCarthy called for Schiff’s immediate “expulsion and prosecution” False.

RELATED: Durham report criticized elements of FBI’s investigation into Donald Trump’s 2016 

RELATED: Rep. George Santos has been indicted. Will he face consequences in Congress?