Adam Schiff forms legal defense fund to prepare for Trump attacks
The senator’s office said the fund “will ensure he can fight back against these baseless smears while continuing to do his job.”
Dante Ulanday - News Moderator 
California Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff, a top target of President Donald Trump’s political wrath, formed a legal defense fund last week, according to documents reviewed by NOTUS.
“It’s clear that Donald Trump and his MAGA allies will continue weaponizing the justice process to attack Senator Schiff for holding this corrupt administration accountable,” Schiff spokesperson Marisol Samayoa told NOTUS. “This fund will ensure he can fight back against these baseless smears while continuing to do his job.”
The legal defense fund, which was formed on Thursday, comes as the Trump administration ramps up its efforts against Schiff, who oversaw a congressional investigation into alleged Russian interference in Trump’s election in 2016 and a congressional probe into Trump’s alleged attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election in 2021. News of the legal fund was first reported by The New York Times.
Last week, Trump called on the Justice Department to investigate Schiff for leading the investigation into the president’s alleged connections with Russia.
FBI Director Kash Patel also sent Congress declassified whistleblower statements accusing Schiff of leaking classified documents in 2016 to benefit then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
Schiff’s office said the claims are false and politically motivated.
“These baseless smears are based on allegations that were found to be not reliable, not credible, and unsubstantiated from a disgruntled former staffer who was fired by the House Intelligence Committee for cause in early 2017, including for harassment and potentially compromising activity on official travel for the Committee,” a spokesperson for Schiff’s office told NOTUS.
Trump has also targeted Schiff on other grounds. In July, the president accused Schiff of engaging in a “sustained pattern of possible Mortgage Fraud,” as he wrote in Truth Social. Soon after Trump made the accusation, the DOJ opened an investigation into Schiff’s alleged fraud.
“The allegations against Senator Schiff are transparently false, stale, and long debunked,” Preet Bharara, a former U.S. attorney in New York and Schiff’s lawyer for this case, wrote in a statement sent to NOTUS on Tuesday. “The bias here is glaring.”
Dave Levinthal, a contributing editor at NOTUS and investigative journalist, contributed to this story.
This story was produced as part of a partnership between NOTUS — a publication from the nonprofit, nonpartisan Allbritton Journalism Institute — and NEWSWELL, home of Times of San Diego, Santa Barbara News-Press and Stocktonia.
