Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., launched a legal defense fund in response to claims President Donald Trump and his allies are "weaponizing the justice process." (Getty Images)
"Russia, Russia, Russia. Totally phony, created by Adam Schiff, Shifty Schiff, and Hillary Clinton and the whole group of them," Trump said from the Kennedy Center Wednesday.
Trump was referring to recently declassified documents alleging the Obama administration "manufactured and politicized intelligence" to create the narrative that Russia was attempting to influence the 2016 presidential election, despite information from the intelligence community stating otherwise.
"It made it very dangerous for our country because I was unable to really deal with Russia the way we should have been," Trump continued from the Kennedy Center, referring to Attorney General Pam Bondi. "And I'm looking at Pam because I hope something's going to be done about it."
Schiff also came under fire earlier in August when documents released to Congress by FBI Director Kash Patel reported that a Democratic whistleblower who worked for Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee for more than 10 years told the FBI in 2017 that Schiff allegedly approved leaking classified information on Trump that "would be used to indict President TRUMP."
Schiff notably served on the Jan. 6 committee, which investigated the day in January 2021 when Trump supporters breached the U.S. Capitol, and was among lawmakers who were granted preemptive pardons on President Joe Biden's final day in office in 2025.
Schiff, however, had publicly condemned the prospect of Biden doling out preemptive pardons as "unnecessary" and setting a bad precedent.
"First, those of us on the committee are very proud of the work we did. We were doing vital quintessential oversight of a violent attack on the Capitol," Schiff said during a media interview in December 2024. "So I think it’s unnecessary."
"But second, the precedent of giving blanket pardons, preemptive blanket pardons on the way out of an administration, I think is a precedent we don’t want to set," he added.
President Donald Trump has publicly sparred with Sen. Schiff over politics stretching back to his first administration when Schiff served in the U.S. House. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
The U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) sent a criminal referral to the Department of Justice in May claiming that in "multiple instances," Schiff allegedly "falsified bank documents and property records to acquire more favorable loan terms, impacting payments from 2003-2019 for a Potomac, Maryland-based property."
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Fox News Digital reached out to Schiff's office and the White House for comment on the legal fund but did not immediately receive replies.
Fox News Digital's Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/schiff-launches-legal-defense-fund-response-claims-trump-weaponizing-justice-system