Adam Schif

The California Democrat is on the front lines of the Trump-Russia fight

- Massimo Calabresi

FOR MOST OF HIS 17-YEAR CAREER IN CONGRESS, Adam Schiff was boring. A Harvard-trained lawyer, he was careful and precise in his remarks to the media and lurked on low-wattage committees, like Intelligence and Judiciary, that are heavy on policy, light on political power. On the sometimes raucous congressional trips abroad known as CODELs, he stayed sober and went to bed early.

But now, as a leader of one of the investigations into Russia’s 2016 election operation, Schiffis suddenly exciting passion on all sides. At the annual Gridiron Club dinner in Washington on March 3, President Donald Trump lashed out at Schiff. “Adam is constantly on television pushing the idea that somehow I would undermine democracy,” Trump lamented. “He was going to come tonight, and then he heard that this was not a televised event so he stayed home.” Schiff’s notoriety at the White House is matched by adulation elsewhere. At a recent security conference in Munich, Schiff could barely make his way through the crowded halls without an admirer grabbing his arm and thanking him for “all [he is] doing for America.”

Which leaves Schiffbemused. “Before the Russia investigation,” he says, snacking on sushi and bottled water in the unprepossessing carryout market in the basement of the Capitol, “people would say, ‘When I see you on TV you sound very thoughtful and rational.’ And I always made the same quip in reply and would say, ‘Clearly there’s no future for me in this business.’” Now, he says, “I’m a walking focus group.”

What’s changed? At the crossroads of American politics and intelligence, where Schiffis a central player, the simple answer is, Everything.