Why is Adam Schiff — as chair of the Intelligence Committee — running the impeachment inquiry?

Why is Adam Schiff — as chair of the Intelligence Committee — running the impeachment inquiry?

The Washington Examiner examines:

While the Judiciary Committee has traditionally handled the impeachment process and has held those hearings in public, [its chair Jerry] Nadler had run afoul of Pelosi over his handling of the investigation and his decision to hold a series of highly partisan public hearings that were criticized by both parties.

Republicans believe Democratic leaders were looking for a way to transfer control to Schiff, who is more closely aligned with Pelosi and runs a committee that traditionally holds hearings behind closed doors....

The whistleblower complaint prompted Pelosi to give Schiff total control over impeachment proceedings that he has so far conducted mostly out of the public’s view.

And didn't the whistleblower consult with Schiff before filing the complaint? Yes. Here is the Washington Post (from October 2):

The intelligence officer whose allegations of presidential wrongdoing have sparked a full-blown impeachment inquiry sought guidance from a Democratic-led congressional committee days before filing his complaint with an inspector general, according to panel aides. The whistleblower’s interaction with an aide for Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, reflects the officer’s sense of urgency in surfacing the allegations that President Trump had pressed the president of Ukraine to intervene in the 2020 election in a way that would harm a potential political rival....

Or did it reflect a sense of urgency about moving the impeachment proceedings behind closed doors — away from Nadler and over to Schiff?

Back to the Washington Examiner:

Schiff first told reporters his office had no prior contact with the whistleblower but acknowledged through a spokesman in an Oct. 2 in a New York Times article that “the whistle-blower contacted the committee for guidance on how to report possible wrongdoing within the jurisdiction of the intelligence community.”

I see ambiguity in that quoted phrase. It can mean: How do I report this so it will fall within the jurisdiction of the intelligence community? Or, more blandly: I have information within the jurisdiction of the intelligence community and want to know how to report it. Who initiated this consultation between the whistleblower and Schiff's office? It could have been Schiff's people, motivated by the desire to get impeachment out of the Judiciary Committee and into the Intelligence Committee.

Democrats have positioned Schiff to act as a special investigator, akin to former special counsel Robert Mueller, who investigated alleged Trump-Russia campaign collusion, or Independent Counsel Ken Starr, whose investigation of Bill Clinton led to his impeachment....

But Schiff is and was an anti-Trump partisan. There's no way he's the sort of person who would be chosen as a special counsel like Robert Mueller or Ken Starr. It's an entirely unbelievable characterization. It was better to have things out in the open with Nadler's highly partisan public sessions!

Schiff has since declared he will not seek testimony from the whistleblower, which Republicans believe is aimed at preventing GOP lawmakers from asking the whistleblower about his coordination with the intelligence panel.

Is there some reason why we the people are not entitled to that information? I want to know. Once you go into secrecy mode, you create suspicions about what you are trying to hide.

https://althouse.blogspot.com/2019/11/why-is-adam-schiff-as-chair-of.html