Watch: Former Attorney General Teaches Adam Schiff a Lesson About How the Law Works During Hearing
I didn’t know there was a particular carve-out in the U.S. Constitution or in federal law where, if you’ve very publicly made yourself an enemy of the president, your past or present behavior is non-prosecutable.
Apparently, Sen. Adam Schiff knows of something like this.
On Thursday, the California Democrat — and notable Russiagate hoaxer — pressed former Attorney General John Ashcroft on this interesting theory of his.
Ashcroft, who was testifying in support of attorney general nominee Todd Blanche, was asked specifically about two cases in which Trump’s former or current adversaries acted in ways that could be prosecutable. Naturally, Schiff believes there should be a carveout for these fine individuals.
Ashcroft’s response? “They do not become exempt from following the law merely by their enmity to the president of the United States.”
Which I thought was common knowledge, but apparently not.
Schiff began by asking whether it was “appropriate for the president to call on the attorney general to prosecute one of his enemies,” which Ashcroft knew clearly wasn’t the appropriate question for how federal law enforcement works.
“I believe his job is to have an administration which calls for the enforcement of the laws of the United States without regard to the political preferences of the people who are perpetrators or accused individuals in the system,” Ashcroft said in his response.
“I’m not sure that I understand your answer, except you seem to accept the premise that it is now okay for a president to call the attorney general and ask him to prosecute his enemies,” Schiff replied. “You don’t seem to have a problem with that.”
“I believe the president needs to be an advocate of strong law enforcement,” Ashcroft said. “That includes his enemies… if an enemy of the president goes out and conducts a violent crime, it’s nothing wrong with the president calling the attorney general and saying, ‘I hope you do something about this violent crime.’”
The two incidents Schiff then brought up were “if the president’s enemy takes a photo of seashells” and if members of the Senate “make a video stating the plain law and Constitution that you can disobey an illegal order” in the military.
We know, of course, what he is referring to: Former FBI Director James Comey posted a picture of seashells reading “86 47” — effectively, get rid of Trump, which in the current political climate can only realistically be done through violence, something a former FBI director would be intimately aware of — and the infamous “Seditious Six” video in which six sitting Democratic lawmakers with past service in intelligence and the military urged service members to disobey orders if they sounded too Trumpy.
We want to speak directly to members of the Military and the Intelligence Community.
The American people need you to stand up for our laws and our Constitution.
Don’t give up the ship. pic.twitter.com/N8lW0EpQ7r
— Sen. Elissa Slotkin (@SenatorSlotkin) November 18, 2025
Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, one of the men behind this video, effectively admitted that this was a call for disobedience of orders that may not seem illegal due to the fact that the Democrats might get back into power, telling “Meet the Press” that “they may find out, you know, down the road, that they did something that is illegal.”
This is to say that you shouldn’t carry out orders you believe to be legal, because you might find out otherwise once the current president’s enemies get back into power:
And here’s Kelly essentially admitting exactly this. pic.twitter.com/fQzIqZ3W3S https://t.co/BhGZ9j4evm
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) November 30, 2025
But the legal intimidation and the targeting of one’s enemies, Schiff is saying, is on the side of President Trump, not the people issuing de facto threats. Okay, that tracks.
.@SenAdamSchiff (D-CA) asks former AG Ashcroft if presidents can ask the AG to prosecute enemies:
Schiff: “If you do have a problem with that, please say so.”
Ashcroft: “I believe the president needs to be an advocate of strong law enforcement and that includes enemies of his.” pic.twitter.com/RlIZxyyfBo— CSPAN (@cspan) July 16, 2026
Ashcroft, however, had the appropriate response to all this right off the bat: “I believe that the Attorney General of the United States has the right and responsibility to enforce the law uniformly, 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,” he added. “We used to call people who break the law ‘public enemies.’”
Former Attorney General John Ashcroft runs circles around @SenAdamSchiff: “I believe that the Attorney General of the United States has the right and responsibility to enforce the law uniformly, and if the law has been broken by the President’s ‘enemies,’ he has a duty. They do… pic.twitter.com/l9acE5P2qH
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) July 16, 2026
This should be too obvious to mention. In fact, the last administration made a point of going after everyone, up to and including Donald Trump, who they felt — not wrongly — electorally threatened by.
These aren’t merely individuals posting opinions or facts, but statements that are incitement masquerading as trolling, or possibly the other way around. The attorney general’s job is to find that out.
It’s not too obvious to mention when it comes to Schiff, however. The reasons for that, alas, are again too obvious to mention.
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