Jeffries taps Schiff and Swalwell for intel panel, setting up fight with McCarthy

House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries has selected Reps. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., to sit on the powerful House Intelligence Committee, setting up

a fight with Speaker Kevin McCarthy over the assignments. In a letter sent to McCarthy over the weekend, Jeffries wrote that Schiff -- most recently the top Democrat on

the intelligence panel -- and Swalwell were both "eminently qualified" to continue to serve on the committee, despite McCarthy's criticism of their conduct. "It is my

understanding that you intend to break with the longstanding House tradition of deference to the minority party Intelligence Committee recommendations and deny seats to Ranking

Member Schiff and Representative Swalwell," Jeffries wrote. The House Intelligence Committee has special rules that allow the speaker to assign its members in consultation

with the minority leader. McCarthy is able to decline to seat members without relying on a full floor vote of the chamber. Typically, however, the minority party's

recommendations have been seated. McCarthy has repeatedly pledged to keep Swalwell and Schiff off of House committees in this Congress -- in Swalwell's case, because of

his reported run-ins with an alleged Chinese spy, though Swalwell wasn't accused of any wrongdoing; and for Schiff, because of what McCarthy has said was his promotion of a

disputed dossier about Donald Trump and Russia.