Adam Bennett Schiff (born June 22, 1960) is an American lawyer, author, and politician serving as the junior United States senator from California, a seat he has held since 2024.

[9] In 1978, he graduated from Monte Vista High School in Danville, California,[10][11] where he played soccer and was both the class salutatorian and the student his peers voted "most likely to succeed".

[18] In that position, Schiff came to public attention when he prosecuted the case against Richard Miller, a former FBI agent who spied for the Soviet Union.

[21] In May 1994, Schiff was a candidate for the 43rd district seat in the California State Assembly in a special election and lost to Republican nominee James E.

In 2020, Schiff faced a crowded primary, which included Republican attorney Eric Early and Democratic drag queen Maebe A.

In lieu of running for a 13th term, Schiff ran to succeed Dianne Feinstein in the United States Senate in 2024, and won.

[50] Schiff said in 2007, "When you think about what we have against us – the president, a foreign policy establishment that has condoned this campaign of denial, the Turkish lobby – against that you have the truth, which is a powerful thing but doesn't always win out".

[58] In 2007, in response to disclosure of the Terrorist Surveillance Program, Schiff and Representative Jeff Flake offered a successful amendment to clarify that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is the exclusive means for collecting foreign intelligence information within the U.S.[59] Schiff criticized the National Security Agency's bulk collection of telephone metadata.

[69] The act passed the House by a vote of 403 to 12 and unanimously in the Senate, but the Senate removed a provision requiring the secretary of state (in coordination with the Department of State's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, and in consultation with the Undersecretary for Public Affairs and Public Diplomacy) to establish a grant program aiming to promote freedom of the press worldwide.

[78] In a March 22, 2017, interview with Chuck Todd, Schiff said there was "more than circumstantial evidence now" that Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign colluded with Russia.

[87] In December 2018, Schiff suggested that Trump associate Roger Stone might have lied to Congress, and said the transcript of his testimony should be forwarded to the Special Counsel.

[90] He came under fire when he demurred when asked if he would accept it if the Special Counsel's investigation concluded that Trump had not colluded with Russia, saying that he had great confidence in Mueller but that "there may be, for example, evidence of collusion or conspiracy that is clear and convincing, but not proof beyond a reasonable doubt", as is needed for a criminal conviction.

[91] On March 28, 2019, the nine Republican members of the House Intelligence Committee officially called for Schiff to resign due to his allegations that Trump's campaign colluded with Russians in the 2016 election.

521, which investigated his role as Chairman of the Intelligence Committee in promoting the "conspiracy theory" that Trump colluded with Russia in the 2016 United States presidential election.

[95] The resolution established that Schiff misled the American public with "falsehoods, misrepresentations and abuses of sensitive information" about the election and as part of the first impeachment of Donald Trump.

[101] In December 2016, he urged Obama to veto UN Security Council Resolution 2334, which condemned Israeli settlement building in the occupied Palestinian territories as a violation of international law.

The tweet received widespread bipartisan condemnation, including from Schiff, for implying that lobby money was fueling American politicians' support of Israel.

[105] The AIPAC-affiliated Super PAC, United Democracy Project, gave $5 million to the pro-Schiff superpac Standing Strong during Schiff's 2024 Senate primary campaign, as confirmed by its spokesman, Patrick Dorton.

[115][116] In this role, he led a team of seven House members responsible for presenting the impeachment case against Trump during his Senate trial.

We ask that the Administration use all available diplomatic tools to reduce tensions, end the fighting, and restrain Azerbaijan from further offensive actions.

[123] On July 1, 2021, Pelosi appointed nine members (seven Democrats and two Republicans) to the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol, which included Schiff.

On June 21, 2022, Schiff led Day 4 of the committee's public hearings, which included testimony from three Republican officials to whom Trump reached out after the election: Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger, his deputy Gabe Sterling, and Arizona House of Representatives speaker Rusty Bowers.

[124] The second half of the hearing focused on Trump supporters' harassment of and threats to Georgia poll worker Wandrea' ArShaye Moss and her family, which led her to quit her job and go into hiding.

[127][128] For the 118th Congress:[129] In early December 2020, President-elect Joe Biden announced he would nominate Attorney General of California Xavier Becerra for Secretary of Health and Human Services.

[137] Axios reported in February 2021 that Schiff was lobbying Governor Gavin Newsom and his allies to appoint him as Attorney General,[138] with Speaker Nancy Pelosi's approval.

[29] In response to Schiff's lobbying for the attorney general's post, 36 criminal and social justice groups, notably the Black Lives Matter Los Angeles and Long Beach chapters, wrote an open letter to Newsom expressing "strong opposition", citing his past support for "tough on crime" measures, though they also specified that their letter was not an endorsement of any other candidate.

[3] On July 17, in an exclusive interview with the Los Angeles Times, Schiff publicly called for President Joe Biden to end his bid for reelection, becoming one of the most prominent Democrats in Congress to do so.

[155] In 2014, Schiff was the first member of Congress to participate in the AIDS/LifeCycle, a seven-day charity bike ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles to raise awareness and funding to fight HIV and AIDS.

[156] The New Yorker reported in 2018 that "Schiff has been writing screenplays on the side for years", including a murder mystery, a post-Holocaust story, and a spy drama.

[157] In October 2021, Schiff published Midnight in Washington: How We Almost Lost Our Democracy and Still Could, a book recounting the effects of the Trump presidency.