Adam Schiff rode the Russia hoax all the way to the United States Senate.
Thursday, he walked into a confirmation hearing and met a man who wasn't interested in playing along.
And Schiff had no idea what a former Attorney General was about to do to him.
At the Todd Blanche Confirmation Hearing, Schiff Set a Trap and Fell Into It
Former AG John Ashcroft was called as a witness for Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche's Senate confirmation proceedings.
Schiff made his move.
"Mr. Blanche has said he believes that the president has both the right and the duty to use the Justice Department to go after his enemies," Schiff said. "Do you subscribe to that view?"
It was a gotcha dressed up as a constitutional question — bait an 84-year-old Republican elder into handing Democrats a sound bite condemning Trump's DOJ.
Ashcroft didn't flinch.
"I believe that the Attorney General of the United States has the right and responsibility to enforce the law uniformly," he said, "and if the law has been broken by the President's 'enemies,' he has a duty."
"They do not become exempt from following the law merely by their enmity to the president of the United States. As a matter of fact, the people who break the law are in enmity with the people of the United States – we used to call people who break the law, 'public enemies.'"
Schiff Tried the DOJ Weaponization Argument Twice and Lost Both Times
Schiff pressed forward anyway.
"If you do have a problem with that, please say so," he demanded, hoping a second attempt would land where the first had failed.
Ashcroft obliged him.
"I believe the president needs to be an advocate of strong law enforcement, and that includes enemies of his," the former AG said. "If an enemy of the president goes out and conducts a violent crime, there's nothing wrong with the president calling the attorney general and saying, 'I hope you do something about this violent crime.'"
The concept – that lawbreakers don't get a legal hall pass because they hate Donald Trump – seemed genuinely new information to Adam Schiff.
It shouldn't be. He's a lawyer. He went to Harvard Law. But for Schiff, the law has always been a tool for the party that controls it, not a standard that applies to everyone.
https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/2077775146098532473
Schiff Called It Weaponization When Obama Used the IRS to Target Tea Party Groups Too
Schiff pushed further and made the morning's most audacious claim.
He told the committee that no Democrat president had ever called the attorney general to push prosecution of his enemies. "I don't remember any Democrat president calling the attorney general and saying you need to prosecute him, and you need to prosecute her," he said.
Barack Obama's IRS systematically targeted Tea Party organizations for extra scrutiny starting in 2010. Lois Lerner – the IRS official who ran the targeting operation – was in direct contact with Eric Holder's Justice Department about the possibility of criminally prosecuting those same conservative groups.
The IRS later apologized in federal court and paid settlements to more than 400 affected organizations.
Biden's DOJ then spent four years pursuing Trump through three separate criminal prosecutions. Biden's Justice Department jailed grandmothers for praying outside abortion clinics. The FBI showed up at school board meetings to monitor parents who objected to their children's curriculum.
That is what a weaponized federal law enforcement apparatus actually looks like.
John Ashcroft Just Reminded the Senate What Equal Justice Under the Law Means
The man who built the post-9/11 DOJ from the ground up – who led 122,000 employees through the worst domestic attack in American history without the Department cracking under political pressure – just handed Schiff a basic civics lecture on live television.
The law doesn't bend for the president's political enemies, and it doesn't shield them either. Enforcing it against lawbreakers is not retaliation – it's the job. That principle is carved in stone above the Supreme Court doors, three blocks from where Schiff tried and failed to score a political point Thursday morning.
Schiff spent years on the House Intelligence Committee peddling the Russia collusion fiction. He was censured by the House for his role in it. And then won a Senate seat in California, which appears to be the only place in America where that record is considered a credential.
It took an 84-year-old man from Missouri to remind him what the Justice Department is actually for.
Sources:
- Rusty Weiss, "Check Out Former AG Ashcroft Practically Get Winded Running Sprints Around Adam Schiff's Silly Arguments," RedState, July 16, 2026.
- Matt Margolis, "Former AG John Ashcroft Schools Adam Schiff in the Most Brutal Way," PJ Media, July 16, 2026.
- "Attorney General of the United States, John Ashcroft," George W. Bush White House Archives, U.S. Department of Justice.
- "DOJ Settles Lawsuits Over Obama-Era IRS' Tea Party Targeting," Fox News, January 16, 2018.
- "Adam Schiff Tries to Grill AG Nominee Todd Blanche and Gets Schooled on Live TV," LifeZette, July 16, 2026.