Longtime Trump political foe Democrat Sen. Adam Schiff for years has been accused of leaking classified documents — long before the release of a ‘bombshell’ whistleblower testimony claiming the California lawmaker approved leaking classified information in order to discredit the president during the Russiagate probe, Fox News Digital found.
Schiff, who served in the U.S. House for more than two decades before securing his spot in the U.S. Senate in 2024, is facing heightened scrutiny following FBI Director Kash Patel declassifying claims from a Democrat whistleblower that Schiff approved the release of classified information on Trump that allegedly ‘would be used to indict President TRUMP,’ according to the report.
The whistleblower, who reportedly had worked for Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee for more than 10 years, made the claims to the FBI in 2017. Schiff had access to classified information while serving on the House Intelligence Committee during his tenure in the lower chamber, including serving as its chair from 2019 to 2023.
‘In this meeting, SCHIFF stated the group would leak classified information which was derogatory to President of the United States DONALD J. TRUMP. SCHIFF stated the information would be used to indict President TRUMP,’ according to the whistleblower documents.
The whistleblower ‘stated this would be illegal and, upon hearing his concerns, unnamed members of the meeting reassured that they would not be caught leaking classified information,’ the report added.
Schiff has denied the allegations, with his office telling Fox News Digital Aug. 12 that the allegations were ‘absolutely and categorically false.’
But this isn’t the first time Schiff has been accused of leaking classified information to the public, with accusations following him since at least the first Trump administration. Fox News Digital took a look back at Schiff’s political history in recent years and gathered the times he previously had been accused of leaking classified materials.
The August declassified whistleblower accusations are ‘just the latest in a series of defamatory attacks from the President and his allies meant to distract from their plummeting poll numbers and the Epstein files scandal,’ a Schiff spokesperson told Fox Digital when approached for comment on the allegations, after White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called the whistleblower’s account a ‘bombshell.’
‘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,’ the spokesperson continued. ‘Even Trump’s own Justice Department and an independent inspector general found this individual to not be credible, have ‘little support for their contentions’ and was of ‘unknown reliability,’ and concluded that his accusations against Members of Congress and congressional staff ‘were not ultimately substantiated.’’
‘Leaked classified information that had been provided to him’
Just days after former President Joe Biden was sworn in as president in January 2021, Trump’s former acting director of national intelligence and U.S. ambassador from his first administration, Ric Grenell, took to X to list out ‘facts’ regarding Schiff.
‘Facts,’ a Jan. 22, 2021, post on X that is no longer available on the social media site read. The X post received media attention and was preserved in reports at the time, such as the Washington Examiner.
He listed off: ‘Schiff wouldn’t return my call to coordinate on DNI reforms.– the reforms were asked for by career officials for years. – Schiff complained when I appointed the 1st female head of counterterrorism (a career person). – Schiff & team regularly leaked classified information.’
Grenell’s message was in response to Schiff claiming in an interview with The Hill that Grennell and former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe under the first Trump administration ‘bent intelligence work products to the president’s will.’
‘The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, probably the most devastated of all of the agencies by terrible leadership of people like Rick Grenell and John Ratcliffe,’ Schiff said during a video interview at the time.
Fast-forward to 2023, former Secretary of State and CIA Director Mike Pompeo, who served under the first Trump administration, also accused Schiff of leaking classified docs.
‘Adam Schiff lied to the American people, and during my time as CIA director and secretary of State, I know that he leaked classified information that had been provided to him,’ Pompeo said in January 2023 during a Fox News interview.
Pompeo continued that he ‘held back’ sharing information with the House Intelligence Committee due to not feeling ‘comfortable’ when Schiff led the panel.
A representative for Pompeo told Fox Digital in August that the former Trump official stands by his 2023 comments on Schiff.
Schiff’s office slammed Pompeo’s remarks at the time as ‘another patently false and defamatory statement.’
Trump had also accused Schiff of leaking classified documents under his first administration, claiming in 2018, he was the ‘one of the biggest liars and leakers in Washington.’
‘Adam leaves closed committee hearings to illegally leak confidential information. Must be stopped!’ Trump wrote in one X thread at the time.
Schiff shot back at the time that Trump’s X post was a ‘false smear.’
‘Mr. President, I see you’ve had a busy morning of ‘Executive Time.’ Instead of tweeting false smears, the American people would appreciate it if you turned off the TV and helped solve the funding crisis, protected Dreamers or… really anything else,’ Schiff responded to Trump in February 2018.
As Trump railed against the alleged leaks during his first term, reports spread that the Department of Justice subpoenaed Apple for account data of House Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee, including Schiff, between 2017 and 2018. The DOJ, which was led by Jeff Sessions at the time, was searching for individuals who leaked to the media about Trump’s alleged ties to Russia.
The investigation dragged, including after Bill Barr was tapped as Trump’s attorney general in 2019 through the end of Trump’s first term, the New York Times reported in 2021, citing sources familiar with the investigation.
The Justice Department’s internal watchdog, under the Biden administration, opened an investigation into the subpoenas and published a report in 2024 that found the Trump DOJ did not comply with established procedures when it sought the records.
‘We are glad that the Department of Justice Inspector General conducted a thorough investigation, and that the Inspector General has recommended safeguards to further protect the media, and to safeguard the separation of powers,’ a spokesperson for Schiff said following the release of the report, according to Reuters in 2024.
As the 2020 campaign heated up, Trump continued accusing Schiff and other House Democrats of leaking, with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence at the time scaling back its security briefings with Congress that year as high-profile Democrats promoted concerns that Russia was interfering in that election.
‘Director Ratcliffe brought information into the committee, and the information leaked,’ Trump said in August 2020. ‘Whether it was Shifty Schiff or somebody else, they leaked the information.… And what’s even worse, they leaked the wrong information. And he got tired of it. So he wants to do it in a different forum, because you have leakers on the committee.’
Schiff denied leaking any classified intelligence in 2020, but said he could not confirm the same for other House Democrats.
‘I haven’t. My staff hasn’t. I can’t speak for what all the members of the committee have done or not done, including a lot of the Republican members,’ Schiff told CNN’s Dana Bash in 2020, following Trump claiming ‘Shifty Schiff’ may have been behind another leak of intelligence given to the House Intelligence Committee at the time.
The Trump administration continued its laser-focused hunt to identify and suss out internal federal government leakers during the second administration, with a White House official telling Axios in June, ‘We are declaring a war on leakers.’
The comment came in response to a leak of an internal assessment of the Trump administration’s bombing of a trio of Iranian nuclear facilities that claimed the strikes were not as effective as the president said.
Federal agencies such as the FBI, Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security have leveraged using polygraph tests on staffers suspected of leaking information under the second Trump administration.
Alleged mortgage fraud, ‘Russiagate’
Trump and Schiff have long been political foes.
This was underscored during Trump’s first administration when Schiff served as the lead House manager during the first impeachment trial against Trump in 2020. It also was highlighted when Schiff repeatedly promoted claims that Trump’s 2016 campaign colluded with Russia.
Schiff landed in hot water earlier this spring, when the U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) sent a letter to the Department of Justice in May sounding the alarm 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.’
He is currently under criminal investigation for mortgage fraud, Fox Digital previously reported. The California Democrat has denied any wrongdoing, claiming the matter is a ‘baseless attempt at political retribution.’
Days after Trump first posted about Schiff’s mortgages in Maryland and California in July, the president’s director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, declassified documents that reportedly show ‘overwhelming evidence’ that then-President Barack Obama and his national security team allegedly laid the groundwork for what would be the yearslong Trump–Russia collusion probe after Trump’s election win against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016.
‘It lays out, these over 100 documents that you’re referencing, that I declassified and released, spells out in great detail exactly what happens when you have some of the most powerful people in our country directly leading at the helm, President Obama and his senior-most national security cabinet, James Comey, John Brennan, James Clapper and Susan Rice and others, essentially making a very intentional decision to create this manufactured, politicized piece of intelligence with the objective of subverting the will of the American people,’ Gabbard told Fox News’ Sean Hannity in July following the release.
Schiff was an incredibly vocal lawmaker amid the Russian collusion claims, most notably when the House censured him in 2023 over his promotion that Trump’s 2016 campaign colluded with Russia. Schiff served in the House representing California from 2001 to 2024, when he was sworn in as a senator after his successful 2024 campaign to serve in the nation’s upper chamber.
Schiff also served on the Jan. 6 select committee, which investigated the breach of the Capitol building in 2021 by Trump supporters following then-President Joe Biden’s election win.
At the 11th hour of Biden’s tenure on Jan. 20, Schiff was among lawmakers who served on the committee who were granted preemptive pardons. The subcommittee concluded Trump’s actions played a key role in promoting the breach of the Capitol and recommended Trump be criminally prosecuted.
Biden specifically granted preemptive pardons to ‘Members of Congress and staff who served on the Select Committee, and the U.S. Capitol and D.C. Metropolitan police officers who testified before the Select Committee.’
Schiff, however, had publicly railed against the prospect of Biden doling out preemptive pardons, saying it would set a poor 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 an interview on ABC News 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.
Charges stemming from the Jan. 6 case were dismissed following Trump’s decisive win in the 2024 presidential election against then-Vice President Kamala Harris.
The White House responded to the whistleblower’s declassified testimony claiming Schiff approved the release of classified information to damage Trump, and doubled down on Trump’s stance that Schiff be ‘held accountable for the countless lies he told the American people in relation to the Russiagate scandal.’
‘This is obviously a bombshell whistleblower report,’ Leavitt said at a Tuesday White House press briefing. ‘Hopefully more people in this room will cover it as such.’
‘I understand Kash Patel, last night, declassified a 302 FBI document showing that a whistleblower, who is a Democrat, a career intelligence officer who worked for Democrats on the House Intel Committee for more than a decade, repeatedly warned the FBI in 2017 that then-Rep. Adam Schiff had approved leaking classified information to smear then-President Donald Trump over the Russiagate scandal,’ Leavitt said.
In August, a representative for Schiff confirmed a legal defense fund was established for the senator in response to Trump and his allies.
‘It’s clear that Donald Trump and his MAGA allies will continue weaponizing the justice process to attack Sen. Schiff for holding this corrupt administration accountable,’ Marisol Samayoa, a spokesperson for Schiff, told Fox News Digital Tuesday evening of the legal fund. ‘This fund will ensure he can fight back against these baseless smears while continuing to do his job.’
Titled ‘Senator Schiff Legal Defense Fund,’ the fund was filed with the Internal Revenue Service Thursday, The New York Times first reported.
White House spokesman Harrison Fields called Schiff a ‘fraud’ and ‘corrupt politician’ when approached for comment Tuesday regarding the legal fund.
‘Adam Schiff is a sleazy and corrupt politician who betrayed his oath to the Constitution by prioritizing his selfish and personal animosity toward the president over the interests of the American people,’ Fields told Fox News Digital. ‘No amount of money can shield Adam from the truth that he is a fraud.’
Fox News Digital reached out to Schiff for additional comment on the matter but did not immediately receive a reply.
Fox News Digital’s Andrea Margolis contributed to this report.
