House intelligence committee hires 'Russian organized crime prosecutor' for Trump investigation

published March 5, 2019

As House Democrats ramp up their investigations into President Trump, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) has just hired a prosecutor who knows all about Russia.

Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, has hired Daniel Goldman as senior adviser and director of investigations, The New Yorker reports. Goldman is a former Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York who has "supervised the prosecution of more than thirty defendants accused of racketeering, gambling, and money laundering" and "convicted individuals associated with Russian organized crime of securities fraud and health-care fraud, and convicted leading figures in the Genovese crime family of racketeering and murder," Jeffrey Toobin writes, describing Goldman as a "Russia organized crime prosecutor" on Twitter.

This House committee is investigating whether Trump's 2016 campaign colluded with Russia to influence the election, and Schiff seems to believe they did. He recently claimed in an interview that there already exists "direct evidence" of collusion, per The Hill. News of Goldman's hiring comes after Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee demanded documents from 81 Trump associates, although Schiff reportedly hired Goldman last month.