The Long Arm Of The Law

Adam Schiff says Trump should be prosecuted—and he’s not giving up

- Nina Burleigh

ADAM SCHIFF WAS ANGRY.

It was late March, and Attorney General William Barr had just released his summary of the special counsel’s Russiagate report, deflating many Democrats’ hopes for impeachment. Republicans, led by President Donald Trump, had spent the past few days trumpeting the finding of “no collusion” and then ridiculing Schiff, head of the House Intelligence Committee and one of the president’s fiercest critics, for continuing to press the case against Trump.

Now, in Schiff ’s own committee room, one by one, GOP members savaged him, demanding his resignation. Representative Michael Turner of Ohio even invoked the red-hunting legacy of Senator Joseph McCarthy, who had brought national disgrace “chasing after Russian Communists” in the 1950s. “Now, we have Schiff chasing Russian collusion,” Turner said.

Schiff leaned forward and scanned the room. A former federal prosecutor, he responded with an indictment of his own. “My colleagues may think it’s OK that the Russians offered dirt on a Democratic candidate for president as part of what was described as the Russian government’s effort to help the Trump campaign. You might think that’s OK,” he said. “My colleagues might think it’s OK that when that was offered to the son of the president, who had a pivotal role in the campaign, that the president’s son did not call the FBI, he did not adamantly refuse that foreign help.”