Schiff was born in Framingham, Massachusetts to Edward and Sherrill Ann (Glovsky) Schiff. His father was in the "rag business," selling different lines of clothing across the country, which caused the family to move first to Scottsdale, Arizona and then Alamo, California.
Schiff graduated from Danville's Monte Vista High School in the Bay Area, and went on to both Stanford University and Harvard Law School.
After Schiff graduated from Harvard, he moved to Los Angeles to serve as a law clerk for Judge William Matthew Byrne, Jr. Schiff then joined the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles as a federal prosecutor, where he served for almost six years, most notably prosecuting, Richard Miller, the first FBI agent ever to be indicted for spying for Russia.
“An independent, free press is critical to democracy both at home and around the world, and as journalists have increasingly come under assault by autocrats and fledgling democracies alike, we must redouble our efforts to protect and promote the freedom of the press.”
– Rep. Adam Schiff
In 2006, Rep. Adam Schiff co-founded the Congressional Caucus for Freedom of the Press to highlight the importance of a free and open press to democracy, as well as draw attention to censorship by repressive regimes and the persecution of journalists. Since then, Adam has stood up for journalists around the world that have been threatened, persecuted, and jailed for reporting the truth or telling the stories that the powerful or violent would rather keep in the shadows.
Today, there remain far too many nations in which the safety, well-being, and freedoms of journalists are under daily threat. In 2010, Adam along with then-Rep. Mike Pence passed the Daniel Pearl Freedom of the Press Act, a first of its kind bill to require the State Department to report on the status of press freedom in every country around the world and provide funding aimed at broadening and strengthening the independence of journalists and independent media organizations. Sadly, since then, attacks on journalists have been on the rise.
After the horrific murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, who was targeted by powerful forces who wished to silence dissenting voices with impunity, Adam introduced the Jamal Khashoggi Press Freedom Accountability Act in October 2020 to ensure that the United States and its State Department hold accountable those who commit extrajudicial killings and other gross violations of human rights against journalists.
This legislation would prohibit U.S. foreign assistance to government entities and levy targeted sanctions against individuals that perpetrate gross human rights violations against journalists and would require the Department of State to document incidents of online harassment and electronic surveillance of journalists in its annual Human Rights Reports. Adam is continuing to work to build support for this legislation.