WASHINGTON — As a younger federal prosecutor in Los Angeles 30 years in the past, Adam B. Schiff gained the conviction of an F.B.I. agent who was s
WASHINGTON — As a younger federal prosecutor in Los Angeles 30 years in the past, Adam B. Schiff gained the conviction of an F.B.I. agent who was seduced by a Soviet spy and traded secrets and techniques for gold and money — a case, he said then, “of presidency misconduct and authorities corruption of the best and most annoying order.”
Mr. Schiff is now a 10th-term Democratic Home member and the chairman of the Intelligence Committee, and he quickly could discover himself repeating that sentiment, this time because the lead Home supervisor within the impeachment trial of President Trump.
His choice by Speaker Nancy Pelosi is hardly a shock. A fellow Californian, Mr. Schiff, 59, first started digging into the accusations that gave rise to the impeachment inquiry when he pushed for the disclosure to Congress of a whistle-blower criticism associated to Mr. Trump that the administration was refusing to share.
As soon as that criticism got here out, alleging a scheme by the president to enlist Ukraine to assist him within the 2020 election, Mr. Schiff led the investigation that resulted within the president’s impeachment for pressuring Ukraine to research his political rivals.
Strait-laced and barely nerdy, Mr. Schiff tightly managed the divisive course of.
When Consultant Matt Gaetz, Republican of Florida, muscled his means right into a closed-door listening to with out invitation, Mr. Schiff calmly informed him to “absent your self.” When two dozen Republicans stormed the safe listening to room, accusing Mr. Schiff of running a secret “Soviet-style process,” he suspended the session reasonably than create the spectacle of getting his colleagues eliminated by Capitol Police.
“He’s a full package deal,” Ms. Pelosi mentioned in an interview final fall, including: “He is aware of his objective. He is aware of his topic. He at all times thinks strategically, and he respectfully connects with folks.”
Republicans revile Mr. Schiff and have jumped on him for, amongst different issues, dramatizing a phone name between Mr. Trump and the president of Ukraine. Mr. Trump calls him “Little Pencil Neck” and “Shifty Schiff.”
A lawyer educated at Stanford College and Harvard Legislation Faculty, Mr. Schiff gained a seat within the California Senate in 1996; in 2000, he was elected to the Home by beating a Republican incumbent, James Rogan, who — in a curious twist — had been a supervisor within the impeachment trial of President Invoice Clinton.
Mr. Schiff makes no secret of his disdain for the president. In an interview in October, he referred to as Mr. Trump “childish” and mentioned he had introduced “unwell reputation to the workplace” of the presidency.