Adam Schiff spent years promising America he had Russia collusion evidence in his hands.
The California Senator tried to grill Kash Patel during a Senate hearing.
What Patel pulled out next wasn't a policy argument – it was ten years of receipts.
Patel Confronts the Senator Behind the Russia Collusion Hoax
FBI Director Kash Patel was before the Senate Judiciary Committee for the bureau's annual oversight hearing – his first appearance before this committee since last September's explosive session.
Democrats had one goal: make him look unfit to lead the agency they claim he's destroying.
Senator Adam Schiff came in ready for a street fight. He tried to bait Patel with his own words: Patel had said the mainstream media was "the most powerful enemy that the United States has ever seen," and Schiff wanted an on-the-record answer.
Patel obliged. He told Schiff that his Democrat colleagues had proved that point themselves, spending the morning recycling personal attacks and baseless smears.
"Did you ever find that Russia Collusion? Is it in that envelope that you held up? You got that?" Patel asked Schiff directly.
Schiff refused to say whether he had found any evidence of Trump-Russia collusion.
Patel kept going. "Or what about those illegal FISA warrants when you were on the House Select Committee?"
No answer.
Patel capped it off with a jab that had nothing to do with policy and everything to do with accountability. "That's a great picture. You should post it," he told Schiff – trolling him in real time while the committee looked on.
On CBS News, Schiff claimed there was "plenty of evidence of collusion or conspiracy in plain sight." The House censured him for the lies in 2023. California handed him a Senate seat anyway. Now he sits on the committee overseeing the man cleaning up the bureau he helped corrupt.
Patel Asked Peter Welch How His Senate Wealth Grew 4000 Percent
Schiff wasn't the only Democrat who left the hearing wishing he'd stayed home.
Sen. Peter Welch of Vermont spent his opening minutes trying to get Patel on record supporting Democrat claims that Trump's FBI planned to rig the November elections. When Patel tried to respond, Welch talked over him.
"Why are you being such a panderer to President Trump, who's still claiming that he won the 2020 election, and who has said the only way Democrats can win in 2026 is if they cheat? Do you believe that?" Welch demanded.
"Are you done with your campaign ad, by the way?" Patel shot back.
Then Patel went personal. "I want to know how your wealth increased 4,000% since you became a United States senator, that's a magic act all Americans should be aware of," he told Welch.
By some estimates, Welch's net worth has climbed to $13 million. A trade by Welch's wife in ExxonMobil stock previously triggered a STOCK Act violation.
Welch then tried to get Patel to admit he had used the FBI to go after The Atlantic after the magazine published a piece portraying him as a drunk. Patel denied both charges and made clear what the hearing was really about.
"I am allowed to participate in my own defense, especially when there's a smear campaign. One which you are participating in and continuing the falsehoods and lies that have been directed at me," Patel told Welch.
"You cannot stand the fact that President Trump and this FBI have made America more secure than it has ever been. You didn't do it in your 20 years in the Senate. No other administration has done it. We've done it."
"Your time's up."
Senate Democrats Who Ran the Russia Collusion Hoax Now Demand FBI Director Accountability
Democrats arrive at these oversight hearings playing offense. They come loaded with accusatory questions, prepared statements about threats to democracy, and carefully worded warnings about Patel's job security.
What they never do is answer for the collusion operation they ran from 2016 through 2020.
From Schiff to Welch, the pattern is the same every time: make a speech for the cameras, interrupt the witness, then act outraged when the witness fights back.
Last September, Patel called Schiff "the biggest fraud to ever sit in the United States Senate" and "an utter coward."
He told Schiff he was going before the country to raise money for a "charade" and called him "a political buffoon at best."
Democrats said that was conduct unbecoming of an FBI director. What they mean is that it was conduct unbecoming of a man who was supposed to sit quietly and absorb their attacks.
Tuesday, he didn't.
Sources:
- Cristina Laila, "Kash Patel Humiliates Adam Schiff During Annual FBI Oversight Hearing," The Gateway Pundit, September 15, 2026.
- Bob Hoge, "'You Done With Your Campaign Ad?' Routine Oversight Hearing Turns Into Patel vs. Welch Cage Match," RedState, September 15, 2026.
- "Adam Schiff's Long Trail of Falsehoods, Fabrications, Lies Follows Him Into California Senate Race," Washington Times, January 31, 2023.
- H.Res.521, 118th Congress, Censuring Adam Schiff, Congress.gov, June 21, 2023.