Adam Schiff

Quick facts

Key positions

Biography

Adam Schiff is a Democratic politician from California who served in the U.S. House of Representatives and was chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence during the first Trump impeachment investigation. He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2024.

As Intelligence Committee chair, Schiff led the committee inquiry whose work produced the primary public record of the Ukraine quid pro quo at the center of Trump’s first impeachment — the effort to condition U.S. aid and a White House meeting on Ukraine announcing investigations of Trump’s political rivals, documented in the released July 25, 2019 call record, the whistleblower complaint, and the House Intelligence Committee’s impeachment inquiry report. He went on to serve as a lead House manager in Trump’s first Senate impeachment trial in 2020. The committee’s oversight role also extended to the earlier Russia-interference investigation, including the March 2017 House Intelligence Committee hearing at which FBI Director James Comey confirmed an open investigation into possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia, and the subsequent controversy over Devin Nunes’s handling of intelligence materials.

Schiff was the target of years of sustained personal attacks from Trump and allied media, including repeated public accusations — which were not substantiated — that he had leaked classified information. His record reflects the use of legislative oversight mechanisms, including committee investigations and the impeachment process, to document and publicize alleged abuses of executive power.

Sources

• NPR, “FBI Director Comey Testifies Russian Interference Aimed To Help Trump Win” (March 20, 2017) — Comey confirms investigation into possible Trump campaign-Russia coordination at the committee Schiff sat on. https://www.npr.org/2017/03/20/520813036/fbi-director-comey-testifies-before-house-intelligence-committee
• NBC News, “FBI Director Comey Confirms Probe of Possible Coordination Between Trump Campaign, Russia.” https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/fbi-director-comey-confirms-probe-possible-coordination-between-trump-campaign-n735176
• CNN, “Read Trump’s phone conversation with Volodymyr Zelensky” (Sept. 25, 2019) — released record of the call at the center of the impeachment inquiry. https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/25/politics/donald-trump-ukraine-transcript-call/index.html
• House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, “Impeachment Inquiry Report” (GPO) — the committee record produced under Schiff’s chairmanship. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GOVPUB-Y4_IN8_18-PURL-gpo129303/pdf/GOVPUB-Y4_IN8_18-PURL-gpo129303.pdf
• The New York Times, “Trump impeached by House for abuse of power” (Dec. 18, 2019). https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/18/us/politics/trump-impeached.html