The ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee was the victim of a prank phone call by Russian comedians who offered to give him ‘compromising’ dirt on Donald Trump – including nude photos of the president and a Russian reality show star.
DailyMail.com can disclose that after the prank, his staff engaged in correspondence with what they thought was a Ukrainian politician to try to obtain the ‘classified’ material promised on the call.
On an audio recording of the prank call posted online, Adam Schiff can be heard discussing the committee’s Russia investigation and increasingly bizarre allegations about Trump with a man who claimed to be Andriy Parubiy, the chairman of the Ukrainian Parliament.
The call, made a year ago, was actually from two Russian comedians nicknamed ‘Vovan’ and ‘Lexus’ who have become notorious for their phony calls to high-ranking American officials and celebrities, including UN Ambassador Nikki Haley and Elton John.
Its existence was first reportedby The Atlantic but not how a staff member working for the minority on the House Intelligence Committee pursued the information after the call.
Schiff’s office said the congressman suspected the call was ‘bogus’ from the beginning and reported it to authorities afterward.
But in a recording of the eight minute conversation, Schiff appeared to take the call seriously – or at least played along convincingly – and emails from the Democrat’s staff to the fake politician afterwards said he had found it ‘productive’.
Spoofed: Adam Schiff, the ranking Democratic member of the House Intelligence Committee, had a seven-minute conversation with Russian comedians who offered him fake ‘kompromat’ including naked pictures of the president, which he said he would report to the FBI
Elaborate story: The two claimed that Trump had an affair with Russian glamour model Olga Buzova (left) after a Miss Universe pageant in 2013 – and that naked pictures of him were passed to Vladimir Putin by his ‘goddaughter’ Ksenia Sobchak (right)
Russian pranksters: Vladimir ‘Vovan’ Kuznetsov, 30, and Alexei ‘Lexus’ Stolyarov, 28, called Schiff and persuaded him to stay on the call for seven minutes as they outlined their fake claims
Laughed at: Vovan and Lexus posted their Schiff call to YouTube. Vovan posed as ‘chairman’ Andriy Parubiy for the call, and the duo then engaged in an e-mail correspondence with Schiff’s staff
Feud: The president has attacked ‘Little Adam Schiff’ on Twitter and accused him of leaking
Schiff began the call by thanking the ‘chairman’ Andriy Parubiy for his time and warning him that Russian spies were likely listening in.
‘I would caution that our Russian friends may be listening to the conversation so I wouldn’t share anything over the phone that you wouldn’t want them to hear,’ said Schiff.
Vovan, who was posing as Parubiy, reassured Schiff: ‘I don’t think that will impact on our investigation.’
The fake Parubiy claimed the Ukrainian government had obtained recordings and documents that proved Vladimir Putin was blackmailing Trump with naked photos taken during an affair between the president and a Russian glamour model.
Vovan also claimed the Ukrainians recorded secret meetings between a Trump campaign aide and a famous Russian singer-turned-spy that took place at a non-existent mafia hangout in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Brighton Beach.
Schiff appeared to be taking notes on the conversation and repeatedly asked for spellings of names and documentation he could send to the FBI.
I’ll be in touch with the FBI about this. And we’ll make arrangements with your staff. I think it probably would be best to provide these materials both to our committee and to the FBI
Schiff to bogus Ukrainian politician
‘I’ll be in touch with the FBI about this. And we’ll make arrangements with your staff. I think it probably would be best to provide these materials both to our committee and to the FBI,’ said Schiff during the conversation, which lasted around eight minutes according to the recording posted to YouTube.
A spokesperson for Schiff confirmed he was on the call but claimed the congressman had suspicions that the caller might not be Parubiy and reported it to law enforcement last April.
‘Both before and after the call, we were aware that it was likely bogus and had already alerted appropriate law enforcement personnel, as well as after the call,’ the spokesperson said.
‘Obviously, it was bogus – which became even more evident during the call – but as with any investigation that is global in scale, we have to chase any number of leads, many of which turn out to be duds.’
The spokesperson declined to address on the record why a staff member pursued the ‘politician’ after the call if the congressman thought it was fake.
The FBI said it could not comment on whether it received or investigated any information about nude Trump photos or other alleged Russian ‘Kompromat’ from Schiff.
‘We do not disclose whether not a complaint has been received,’ an FBI spokesman told DailyMail.com. ‘We neither confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation.’
Center of claims: The elaborate plot revolved around the idea that Putin had been given naked pictures of Trump during an affair the now president conducted briefly at the 2013 Miss Universe.
Correspondence: These are the emails one of the professional staff on the Democratic minority exchanged with the ‘politician’ and the material which the comedian said he sent to the staffer.
Schiff and Trump have publicly feuded over the past week in the wake of a classified memo released by House Intelligence Committee Republicans, which alleged that the FBI used abusive tactics to obtain a surveillance warrant against a Trump campaign aide.
Schiff has been one of the most high profile Democrats in congress investigating allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian government officials during the election.
Trump slammed Schiff on Twitter on Monday, calling the congressman ‘Little Adam Schiff’ and claiming he leaked classified information from closed hearings of the House Intelligence Committee.
‘Little Adam Schiff, who is desperate to run for higher office, is one of the biggest liars and leakers in Washington, right up there with Comey, Warner, Brennan and Clapper!’ said Trump on Twitter. ‘Adam leaves closed committee hearings to illegally leak confidential information. Must be stopped!’
The congressman from California shot back that the president was spreading ‘false smears.’
‘[T]he American people would appreciate it if you turned off the TV and helped solve the funding crisis, protected Dreamers or…really anything else,’ said Schiff on Twitter.
The comedians Vovan and Lexus – whose real names are Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexei Stolyarov – drew international attention last year for their prank calls to Turkish President Recep Erdogan and Sen. John McCain.
The phone conversation with Schiff took place early last April as the House Intelligence Committee ramped up its investigation into alleged Russian interference in the U.S. election.
Vovan and Lexus told DailyMail.com that it took them just 30 minutes to get the congressman on the phone after calling his office pretending to be Parubiy.
‘[Schiff] was pretty serious. He wrote all what we said on the paper. Remembered all the details,’ said Lexus.
Lexus said the congressman’s aide also followed up with them by email after the call and asked them to send the materials to the Ukrainian embassy so that one of Schiff’s staffers could pick up the documents.
The comedians claimed they would transfer the documents to Schiff through the Ukrainian ambassador to the U.S. Valeriy Chaly.
Lexus and Vovan provided emails to the DailyMail.com which appear to show Schiff’s staff discussing the documents after the call.
‘I understand Mr. Schiff had a productive call with Mr. Parubiy, and that Mr. Parubiy would like to make some material available to Mr. Schiff through your embassy,’ wrote Schiff aide Rheanne Wirkkala to the pranksters, according to the April 4, 2017 email.
‘Please let me know how best to arrange pick-up of those materials from your Embassy in Washington, D.C.,’ the email continued.
In another email on April 5, 2017, Schiff’s aide asked: ‘do you know when we might be able to meet your colleagues at the Ukrainian embassy here in Washington, DC to pick up materials?’
Schiff’s office did not respond to a request to confirm the emails.
During the call, the pranksters concocted an elaborate story about Trump having a tryst with a Russian glamour model named Olga Buzova after a Miss Universe pageant in 2013, which led to Vladimir Putin obtaining nude photos of the president.
Other individuals they claimed were involved in the scheme included a former Playboy model and Russian journalist named Ksenia Sobchak and Russian pop star Arkadiy Ukupnik.
Buzova ‘got compromising materials on Trump after their short relations,’ one of the pranksters told Schiff.
‘And what’s the nature of the Kompromat?’ asked Schiff.
‘Well, there were pictures of naked Trump,’ said the caller.
The pranksters told Schiff that Sobchak was a Russian secret agent and Putin’s goddaughter, and claimed she gave the Russian leader the compromising pictures of Trump to use as blackmail.
Meeting: The prank call claimed that disgraced national security advisor General Mike Flynn ad agreed to drop sanctions against Russia
Venue and codeword: Trump met Russia figures in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, and was also told to use ‘It rains again on Brighton Beach’ as a codeword. They told Schiff to use it to Trump to see his reaction
Two-part claim: The pranksters also suggested that Schiff use the passcode ‘The weather is good on Deribasivska’ the next time he talks to Trump and ‘look at how his face will change color’. The street is in Odessa, the Black Sea port in Ukraine
They also claimed the Russian government used pop star Ukupnik as a go-between to meet with former Trump aide Mike Flynn at a mafia-run restaurant in the Russian neighborhood of Brighton Beach, New York.
‘It was Russian singer, very famous singer, Arkadiy Ukupnik, who met with Mr. Flynn on Brighton Beach in Brooklyn in special Russian café Langeron,’ said the prankster.
‘And do you know what was discussed?’ asked Schiff.
The prankster said they ‘discussed many things’ and used passwords to recognize each other, including ‘It rains again on Brighton Beach’ and ‘The weather is good on Deribasivska.’
Schiff, seeming to have difficulty understanding Deribasivska, the name of a street in Odessa, asked the caller to repeat himself several times.
In fact Weather Is Good on Deribasovskaya, It Rains Again on Brighton Beach is the name of a 1992 Russian-American comedy movie about secret agents, with its title taken from the intentionally absurd passwords they use.
The street has slightly different names in Ukrainian and Russian and the comedian used the Ukrainian version.
Schiff eventually said he would have his staff call the Ukrainian legislator’s office later to ‘get spellings and more details on this.’
The prankster promised to send the materials, and also offered to have Sobchak and Buzova extradited to the United States ‘and you can put them to your special jail Guantanamo.’
‘Well, I’ll be in touch with the FBI about this,’ said Schiff. ‘And we’ll make arrangements with your staff. I think it probably would be best to provide these materials both to our committee and to the FBI. So we’ll make arrangements between my staff and yours on how to facilitate that. And we’ll also obviously let the FBI know about Buzova and Sobchak’s plans to travel to Ukraine.’
The caller also suggested that Schiff use the passcode ‘The weather is good on Deribasivska’ the next time he talks to Trump and ‘look at how his face will change color.’
‘And so those passwords were used with Mr. Trump?’ said Schiff.
‘Yes, of course,’ said the caller.
‘We will be back in touch with you through our staff to make arrangements to obtain these materials for our committee and the FBI. I appreciate you reaching out to us,’ said Schiff.
The comedians posted the video of the call online with the caption: ‘Democratic Senator Adam Schiff believed Russian prankers Lexus and Vovan that Ukrainian intelligence has confirmation that Russian ‘scouts’ Ksenia Sobchak , Olga Buzova and Arkady Ukupnik collected dirt on US President Donald Trump.’