Adam Schiff Reports Record $8.1 Million Fundraising Haul After Russiagate Censure

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) is seen in Washington on Sept. 21, 2021. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said his election campaign for the U.S. Senate has raised over $8.1 million during the second quarter in a record haul coming after his removal from the House Intelligence Community and subsequent Russiagate-related censure.

“Last quarter, we raised over $8.1 million—with an average contribution of just $34. We’re in this fight together,” Schiff said in a post on social media.

Schiff was censured on June 21 in a party-line vote in the Republican-controlled House on a resolution that accused him of attacking former President Donald Trump with false Russiagate claims. Specifically, the resolution condemned Schiff, who was once the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, for pushing the notion that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to sway the 2016 election.

Schiff’s campaign manager, Brad Elkins, said in a post on Twitter that the second-quarter haul came from more than 144,000 unique donors.

“When I say we are a grassroots campaign, I mean it!” said Schiff, who is in a race to succeed retiring Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s (D-Calif.) soon-to-be vacant seat.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein is flanked by aides as she returns to the Senate Judiciary Committee at the Capitol following a more than two-month absence as she was being treated for a case of shingles on May 11, 2023. J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo

All told, Schiff’s fundraising haul brings his campaign to $29.5 million cash on hand, Elkins told Politico, which noted that Schiff had broken Sen. Raphael Warnock’s (D-Ga.) record of $7.2 million raised in the second quarter of 2021.

“It’s still very early, and while the polls will shift, Adam continues to lead in every metric that is critical to running an effective campaign,” Elkins said in a memo to Politico. “Our campaign continues to build up significant advantages that will propel Adam forward.”

The race to replace Feinstein is a top-two primary, with candidates from all parties competing and the two with the highest number of votes advancing to the general election.

‘Trump is Threatening Me’

Schiff’s strong donation numbers suggest that portraying Trump as a boogeyman who threatens American democracy can be a successful fundraising strategy for Democrats as they look to trigger voters into reaching for their wallets.

Seemingly with an eye on this tactic, Schiff took to Twitter on July 3 to complain that Trump was attacking him on social media.

“Trump is threatening me on Truth Social again. For holding him accountable. In the House, I impeached him. In the Senate, I’ll keep fighting his assaults on our democracy,” Schiff said in a tweet.

Trump has long been a critic of Schiff, who he accused of pushing false Russia collusion narratives to hurt him politically.

“It is not nearly enough,” Trump said of Schiff’s censure in a recent post on Truth Social. “He is a treasonous SleazeBag who has hurt our Country greatly. He lied, leaked, and misrepresented everything at levels not seen before. He should pay a big price, and maybe someday he will!”

Former US President Donald Trump speaks to the crowd during a campaign event in Pickens, South Carolina on July 1, 2023. Sean Rayford/Getty Images

Schiff shared a screenshot of Trump’s post, saying the former president’s “obsession is the highest compliment” while asking for donations in a follow-up message.

“I'll always stand up to Donald Trump—or anyone who attacks our democracy,” Schiff wrote, while asking people to “chip in” and support his Senate campaign.

Schiff’s fundraising on the back of Trump’s scathing message was met with a flurry of critical reactions on Twitter.

“You literally lied over and over and over about having ‘evidence’ that you never had,” wrote Ashley Munoz, an air traffic controller and former writer for the conservative outlet Right Side Broadcasting Network (RSBN).

“That’s not holding [Trump] accountable. That’s misleading an entire nation by the use of your political office,” she continued, while calling on Schiff to resign.

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• Internal Twitter Documents Show Prominent Democrats Pushed Russiagate Lie

Schiff’s Still Convinced of Trump-Russia

A recent report (pdf) by special counsel John Durham, who spent nearly three years investigating the origins of the FBI’s investigation into the Trump campaign, concluded that the probe into Trump should never have been launched.

Durham faulted the FBI for various flaws in pursuing surveillance of the Trump campaign ahead of the 2016 election, including that the agency relied too much on unvetted investigative tips from Trump’s political opponents.

The special counsel concluded that “neither U.S. nor the Intelligence Community appears to have possessed any actual evidence of collusion in their holdings at the commencement of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation.”

The FBI responded to the Durham report hours after its release with a statement that acknowledged “missteps” in its investigation into alleged Trump–Russia ties.

Special counsel John Durham speaks before the House Judiciary Committee in Washington on June 21, 2023. Madalina Vasiliu/Epoch Times

However, despite the Durham report’s scathing conclusions, Schiff remains convinced that Trump’s campaign conspired with Russian intelligence operatives to steal the 2016 election.

“If you read Mr. Durham’s report, what he said is that there wasn’t evidence of collusion before they began the investigation. That’s obviously a very important distinction,” Schiff told The Epoch Times when asked about the report’s conclusion of no Trump-Russia collusion.

Schiff then pointed to what he described as “secret meetings” between Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and a Russian intelligence agent. The California Democrat accused Manafort of “providing that agent with internal polling data with their strategy for key battleground states, while that unit of Russian intelligence was engaged in trying to help Donald Trump win.”

For “most Americans, that looks like plain collusion,” Schiff added.

However, the FBI’s top expert on Russian intelligence found no such evidence, per Durham’s report.

“The FBI Intelligence Analyst who had perhaps the most in-depth knowledge of particularly sensitive Russian intelligence information in FBI holdings during the relevant time period disclosed that she never saw anything regarding any Trump election campaign conspiracy with the Russians, nor did she see anything in FBI holdings regarding Carter Page, Michael Flynn, George Papadopoulos, or Paul Manafort engaging in any type of conspiracy with the Russians regarding the election,” the report said.

Durham’s report called the FBI’s handling of key parts of the Trump-Russia probe “seriously deficient” while finding that the FBI used a different standard when considering investigating allegations of election interference by then-candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

Trump said in statements on social media following the release of the Durham report that the Crossfire Hurricane investigation was part of a criminal and treasonous plot to overthrow his presidency.

Besides acknowledging “missteps,” the FBI told The Epoch Times in a statement that the agency has since implemented dozens of corrective actions, including more rigorous requirements for applying for surveillance and expanding its internal oversight and auditing programs.

Mark Tapscott and Joseph Lord contributed to this report.