SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – California Rep. Adam Schiff says South Carolina Sen. Lindsay Graham's dire prediction of "riots in the streets" if former President Donald Trump is prosecuted for his mishandling of sensitive government documents was a deliberate effort to "turn up the heat" in a tense political moment.
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Schiff, a Los Angeles Democrat, told KCBS Radio's Patti Reising and Bret Burkhart during a Monday afternoon interview that the Republican senator issued a "kind of a threat" to the U.S. Department of Justice with his comments.
Graham "knows exactly what he's doing, and he's following a pattern set by the former president," in Schiff's estimation.
"I think it's dangerous and just irresponsible," Schiff said. " ... And comments like Graham's as well are kind of a threat to the Justice Department, and I don't think the Justice Department can allow itself to be intimidated by Donald Trump, or Lindsay Graham or anyone else."
The Federal Bureau of Investigation searched Trump's Florida home earlier this month for classified records and other sensitive material, according to an unsealed search warrant and heavily redacted affidavit.
Graham told Fox News host Trey Gowdy – a former Republican congressman from Graham's home state – on Sunday night that there would be "riots in the streets" were Trump to be prosecuted, invoking the FBI’s investigation of 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hilary Clinton's use of a private email server.
In light of the agency's probe into Clinton, Trump in 2018 signed into law a bill that made the unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents a felony, rather than a misdemeanor.
Schiff, who also serves on the House committee investigating Trump's role in the Jan. 6, 2021 U.S. Capitol insurrection, said the FBI's execution of the search warrant earlier this month was fairly "low key," arguing that the agency "tried everything else" to get Trump to hand over the documents before eventually searching his Mar-a-Lago estate.
"They've done everything they can, except decide that Donald Trump is somehow immune, somehow above the law and, therefore, untouchable," Schiff said of the FBI. "They cannot adopt that point of view. The day that they do, the day they decide anyone is beyond the reach of law is the day our democracy comes to an end."
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