{"id":188985,"date":"2026-02-22T16:36:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T16:36:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/188985\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T16:36:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T16:36:07","slug":"adam-schiffs-legal-fund-raises-1-2-million-in-defense-against-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/188985\/","title":{"rendered":"Adam Schiff\u2019s legal fund raises $1.2 million in defense against Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"

Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff\u2019s nascent legal defense fund \u2014\u00a0created<\/a>\u00a0to parry legal threats from President Donald Trump \u2014 is already a million-dollar operation, according to\u00a0new financial documents<\/a>\u00a0filed with the U.S. Senate and reviewed by NOTUS.<\/p>\n

About 400 political committees, individual donors and even an Indian tribe have collectively pumped $1.2 million into the fund from late August through Dec. 31, 2025, the document indicates.<\/p>\n

The influx of cash arrived as Trump publicly\u00a0accused<\/a>\u00a0Schiff of corruption and illegal behavior and the Department of Justice\u00a0investigated<\/a>\u00a0the California lawmaker for mortgage fraud. Schiff denies wrongdoing and hasn\u2019t been indicted.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis fund ensures Senator Schiff can fight back against any false attacks that are leveled against him by Trump and his MAGA allies,\u201d Schiff spokesperson Ian Mariani said in a statement to NOTUS. \u201cThe senator deeply appreciates the outpouring of support he has received from grassroots supporters and friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following publication of this article, the White House slammed Schiff.<\/p>\n

\u201cPencil Neck Shifty Schiff clearly suffers from a severe case of Trump Derangement Syndrome that clouds his every thought. It\u2019s too bad for Californians that Pencil Neck is more focused on his hatred of the President than he is on the issues that matter to them,\u201d said White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson, adding that Trump \u201chas repeatedly delivered for Californians,\u201d including in the aftermath of wildfires that scorched portions of the state<\/a> last year.<\/p>\n

Schiff\u2019s fund supporters include almost two dozen leadership political action committees, including those led by Sens. Mark Kelly of Arizona, Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, Alex Padilla of California, Jack Reed of Rhode Island, Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin and Reps. Nancy Pelosi of California, Eric Swalwell of California and Tim Kennedy of New York.<\/p>\n

Other contributors include the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians ($10,000),\u00a0Pulitzer Prize-winning<\/a>\u00a0presidential biographer Ron Chernow ($2,500) and the late movie director Rob Reiner, who donated $1,000 in November, the month before he and his\u00a0wife were killed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

California-based attorney Drew Pomerance said he gave Schiff\u2019s legal fund $5,000 in November to push back \u201cagainst crazy charges our president was trumping up against Adam.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope Trump gets distracted,\u201d Pomerance told NOTUS. \u201cBut the president and his government have resources, and it\u2019s amazing how quickly $1.2 million will leave your bank account faced with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

As of Dec. 31, Schiff\u2019s legal fund had already spent more than $743,000, according to its disclosure.<\/p>\n

Of that money, the vast majority went to New York-based law firm WilmerHale. Preet Bharara, a WilmerHale partner who previously served as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and led high-profile federal prosecutions, is working as Schiff\u2019s attorney.<\/p>\n

Bharara is also well-acquainted with Trump, who\u00a0fired him<\/a>\u00a0from his U.S. attorney post in 2017, two months into Trump\u2019s first presidential term.<\/p>\n

Other Schiff legal fund expenses from late last year include about $38,000 in \u201ccredit card processing\u201d fees with ActBlue, the Democrat-supporting fundraising platform company, and $30,000 with Capital Strategies for \u201cfundraising consulting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mariani, Schiff\u2019s spokesperson, did not respond to emailed questions about the legal fund\u2019s fundraising strategy or what specific kinds of services Schiff received from WilmerHale and ActBlue.<\/p>\n

Schiff isn\u2019t alone among Democratic lawmakers who have also recently formed legal defense funds amid Trump\u2019s threats \u2014\u00a0Slotkin and Kelly have<\/a>, too, although their legal funds\u2019 financial disclosures were not yet available through the secretary of the Senate\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

Senators\u2019 legal defense funds are subject to strict fundraising and disclosure\u00a0rules<\/a>, with individual donations capped at $10,000. The funds must themselves file quarterly reports with the Senate Ethics Committee identifying donors who have given more than $25.<\/p>\n

Several classes of people and entities \u2014 corporations, unions, lobbyists, foreign agents and Senate employees among them \u2014 are prohibited from contributing at all. Schiff\u2019s legal fund reported returning four-figure contributions made last year from the political campaign committees of Swalwell and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont.<\/p>\n

This story was produced as part of a partnership between NOTUS <\/a>\u2014 a publication from the nonpartisan Allbritton Journalism Institute \u2014 and NEWSWELL<\/a>, home of Times of San Diego<\/a>, Santa Barbara News-Press<\/a> and Stocktonia<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff\u2019s nascent legal defense fund \u2014\u00a0created\u00a0to parry legal threats from President Donald Trump \u2014 is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":188986,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[9984,1752,536,8406,13,74,76,75,6888],"class_list":{"0":"post-188985","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-adam-schiff","9":"tag-congress","10":"tag-donald-trump","11":"tag-notus","12":"tag-politics","13":"tag-san-diego","14":"tag-san-diego-headlines","15":"tag-san-diego-news","16":"tag-u-s-senate"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188985\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}