Exclusive: Democrat whistleblower told FBI that Schiff okayed leaking classified intel to hurt Trump
by John Solomon and Jeff Dunleavy, Just the News.com, August 11, 2025
A career intelligence officer who worked for Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee for more than a decade repeatedly warned the FBI beginning in 2017 that then-Rep. Adam Schiff had approved leaking classified information to smear then-President Donald Trump over the now-debunked Russiagate scandal, according to bombshell FBI memos that Director Kash Patel has turned over to Congress.
The FBI 302 interview reports obtained by Just the News state the intelligence staffer — a Democrat by party affiliation who described himself as a friend to both Schiff, now a California senator, and former Republican House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes — considered the classified leaking to be "unethical," "illegal," and “treasonous,” but was told not to worry about it because Schiff believed he would be spared prosecution under the Constitution's speech and debate clause.
No publicly-disclosed opinion from the Attorney General or the Solicitor General can be found making that determination as a matter of law.
But officials told Just the News that DOJ officials showed little interest in pursuing Schiff when the allegations were brought to them years ago, citing the very same excuse the lawmaker had offered.
In his most recent interview with the bureau in 2023, the whistleblower, whose name is redacted, told agents from the FBI's St. Louis office that he personally attended a meeting at which Schiff authorized leaking classified information.
"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.”
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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.
The staffer made similar claims to agents in the FBI's Washington field office as early as 2017, shortly after Trump took office for his first term.
You can read the FBI interview reports here:
Democratic HPSCI Staffer - FBI Interview Notes
Schiff did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.
The alleged leaks fall outside the statute of limitations for prosecution on most legal theories, but the revelations nevertheless come at a sensitive time for Schiff, who recently was referred to the Justice Department for possible prosecution for potential mortgage fraud, based on a story first written by Just the News.
Officials also said some of the DOJ officials who declined to prosecute a rash of classified leaks during the Russiagate affair remain employed in positions of power, a matter that may be of interest to lawmakers in Congress.
READ: Schiff Under Investigation by the Maryland U.S. Attorney for Mortgage Fraud
"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," he said.
Schiff, who previously served as the ranking member and then chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) before ascending to the Senate, pushed false allegations of Trump-Russia collusion for many years, and touted British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s discredited dossier — even reading multiple baseless claims from it into the congressional record in March 2017.
The whistle-blower began approaching the FBI that same year.
In one meeting, the Democratic HPSCI staffer told the FBI that retired Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn — Trump’s first national security adviser — was to be a specific focus of the committee as part of a broader effort to target Trump. The whistleblower also specifically pointed to Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., as a likely source of classified leaks, the memos state.
Punishment for duty to law instead of party loyalty
The Democratic staffer also allegedly told a former Republican colleague on the committee that he was terminated because Schiff's staff did not believe he had adequate "party loyalty" after he raised concerns about the leaks strategy, the FBI memos show.
The whistleblower was interviewed twice in 2017 and at least four times over six years about the alleged Schiff leaks, but Justice Department prosecutors declined to move forward, according to the memos, part of a large production of documents Patel sent to the House Judiciary Committee that identified several classified leak schemes carried out by senior government officials over the last decade.
The memos are mostly FBI 302 interview reports, which as explained by one criminal defense law firm, allow an FBI agent to draft a memo—in paragraph form—of what the witness said. It can be one-page long or twenty-pages long, depending on the length of the interview.
The memo section of a 302 is the key part. This is a combination of what the agent was able to write down during the interview and his recollection. It may list the questions and the answers or simply be a narrative of what the witness said. The witness generally doesn’t see the 302 or get a chance to correct any mistakes he thinks are in it before it is finalized.
Whistleblower: Schiff promised CIA appointment if Hillary won
The Democratic whistleblower told the FBI in a December 2017 interview at his home that “the HPSCI work environment started to change around August 2016 as the U.S. presidential election approached.” He said that, during a September 2016 staff meeting, other Democratic staffers revealed they had provided “on background” information to journalists about “their impressions of Russian activity surrounding the upcoming election.”
The Democratic staffer told FBI agents during an August 2017 interview at the Bullfeathers restaurant in the nation’s capital that he was told by various HPSCI staffers in the October 2016 timeframe that if former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton won the November 2016 election, Schiff would be offered the position of CIA director. The staffer told the FBI in December 2017 that “the mood within HPSCI was indescribable” after Trump's win, and that Schiff “was particularly upset, as he believed he would have been appointed as the Director of CIA” had Clinton won the election.
The whistleblower told the FBI in December 2017 that “the HPSCI minority viewed the [2016] election and its aftermath as a constitutional crisis” and that by February 2017, “all hell broke loose.”
He told the FBI in August 2017 that “Schiff believed Russia hijacked the election, and the United States was in the middle of a constitutional crisis. Classified information began leaking to the media. The Democratic minority leadership of HPSCI was aware of the leaks but was under the impression that leaking the information was one way to topple the administration and fix the constitutional crisis.”
The Democratic whistleblower provided details to the FBI in August 2017 about a February 13, 2017 HPSCI staff meeting where the HPSCI staff director and general counsel “advised the minority staff that he wanted to drive the ‘Russian involvement’ issue into a Joint Inquiry ‘similar to the 9/11 Commission.’ He instructed the staff to use any resources they had developed within the Intelligence Community to gather facts. … He wanted to make the information public and use the media to compel public opinion to bring about the Joint Inquiry.”
The Democratic staffer told the FBI in December 2017 that he believed that “this was an explicit request to gather classified information for public disclosure.”
He also told the FBI in December 2017 that a yet-redacted person had approached a HPSCI staffer and directed him “to reach out to his contacts at” a redacted place “in order to collect information on MICHAEL FLYNN’s contact with Russia.”
The staffer had told the FBI in August 2017 that, when another redacted staffer was asked about the Flynn information request, they “opined everything is directed at Trump and trying to get him impeached. Flynn just happened to be the issue of the day.”
The Democratic whistleblower also told the FBI in December 2017 that “a particular leak” from the summer of 2017 had caused him “to confront HPSCI on the issue.” He said that “a particularly sensitive document” was “viewed by a small contingent of staff, as well as SCHIFF and Representative ERIC SWALWELL” and that “within 24 hours, the information appeared in the news almost verbatim.”
The staffer told the FBI that it was “suspected that SWALWELL played a role in the leak and noted that SWALWELL previously had been warned to be careful because he had a reputation for leaking classified information.”
The whistleblower had told the FBI in August 2017 that the sensitive document was read by HPSCI staffers and by members of Congress in late June or early July 2017, and that its contents immediately leaked to the press. The staffer told the bureau that the general counsel for a redacted intelligence agency then “read them the riot act about disclosure.”
The Democratic staffer purportedly told the FBI in a May 2023 discussion at the Marriott St. Louis Grand Hotel that he “had several conversations with two unnamed FBI agents related to the matter and was eventually invited to attend a mock grand jury with the United States Department of Justice.”
But the staffer told the bureau that he “was eventually informed that the issue would not be investigated further by the DOJ, as Congressmen have immunity to all speech and actions made on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives.” No copy of any such legal opinion issued under color of law has been made public.
The whistleblower told the bureau that he “did not believe that the activity he witnessed would be protected by this legal provision.”
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