Adam Schiff, head of the Democratic House of Representatives team that is prosecuting US President Donald Trump's trial before the Senate, said on Sunday that he believed the Republican leader had intentionally threatened him when he wrote on Twitter that he had "not paid the price" yet.
Trump launched a new attack earlier in the day on Democrats, led by Schiff, against the backdrop of the Senate trial, and he said on Twitter, "He has not yet paid the price for what he has done to our country."
Asked in an interview with NBC television if he considered this a threat, Schiff said: "I think he meant it."
Schiff, head of the House Intelligence Committee and head of the prosecution team at Trump's trial, played a pivotal role in the efforts of Democrats to view Trump's behavior as a threat to democracy in America and around the world, in defenses before the Republican-dominated Senate, where Trump is likely to be acquitted.
Schiff, a California lawmaker and former federal prosecutor, has been the target of frequent attacks by Trump and his Republican supporters in Congress.
Trump's attorneys began defending the president on Saturday, saying that Democrats' efforts to remove him from office would be a "very dangerous" precedent in the election year.