The Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Charles Grassley, called Minority Leader Chuck Schumer a liar for stating publicly that President Trump was under investigation by the FBI when he knew the opposite was true.

Grassley recounted a meeting he had with former FBI Director James Comey in March where he told Grassley and Senator Diane Feinstein, ranking minority member of the Judiciary Committee, that President Trump was not under investigation. Grassley urged Comey to go public with that information because at the time, there was wild speculation in the media - fed by Democrats and leaks - that the president was the target of an investigation. 

Grassley says that Comey also briefed the "Gang of Eight" - the top ranking Republicans and Democrats on the Hill. This would have included the Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. But the knowledge that the president was not under investigation didn't stop Schumer and other Democrats from claiming otherwise.

Daily Caller:

“So the media was wrong. So the Democrats were wrong. So the wild speculation and conspiracy theories ended up harming our country. They played right into Russia’s hands. And how did we all learn about this truth? In President Trump’s letter removing Mr. Comey from office.”

He went on to say, “At first most didn’t believe it. The media scoffed when they wrote what the president said in that letter. They insisted that Mr. Comey would never tell the president that he was not under investigation. Well we learned earlier this month from Mr. Comey himself that he had done exactly that. It wasn’t a surprise to me because Mr. Comey had told me the same thing.”

Grassley then turned his attack toward Democrats who he said knew that Trump was never under investigation but proceeded to tell the public otherwise—particularly Democratic members of the “gang of eight,” which are all the top leaders of both parties in Congress and the top leaders in both parties on the intelligence committees in both chambers.

“I have to note something else here. Mr. Comey didn’t just tell the president Senator Feinstein and me that the president was not under investigation. He had also told the gang of eight. Of course, the gang of eight includes Senate Minority Leader Senator Schumer. But even after Mr. Comey told the gang of eight that the president was not under investigation, the minority leader told the media that the president was under investigation and of course that further help feed media storm– Hysteria.”

Grassley recalled when Schumer stated that the Senate should not confirm then Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch because Trump was under investigation. According to Grassley, Schumer already knew Trump was not under investigation at the time.

Schumer stated on the Senate floor back in March, “You can bet that if the shoe was on the other foot – and a Democratic president was under investigation by the FBI – that Republicans would be howling at the moon about filling a Supreme Court seat in such circumstances. After all, they stopped a president who wasn’t under investigation from filling a seat with nearly a year left in his presidency.”

Grassley als osaid of Schumer, "He knew it wasn’t true. So media hysteria and baseless political attacks filled the vacuum left by Mr. Comey’s failure to inform the public to be transparent to be accountable.”

Editor Lifson pointed out weeks ago that Schumer wasn't the only culprit in this "conspiracy of silence."

The stunning truth is that the American political and media establishment allowed a phony story – that they knew was phony -- to dominate our political discourse for months. When James Comey testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee last week, he revealed that he had informed many important Congressional leaders that there was no investigation of President Trump and the Russians underway, even as MSNBC, CNN, The New York Times, and the Washington Post daily carried stories alluding to an imaginary investigation.

Desperate for power, unable to understand why they continue to lose at the ballot box, incapable of realizing the damage they are doing to American democracy, the Democratic-Media monolith has spun a narrative that even after the truth came out about the president's status, they refuse to amend or abandon it. Their continuing effort to destroy the Trump presidency will have currency as long as a compliant media sees truth and facts as something frangible and gives credence to the lies and hysterical exaggerations coming from the left.