Trump said Schiff "made up the conversation. He lied. If he didn't do that in the halls of Congress, he'd be thrown in jail. He did it in the halls of Congress, he's given immunity."
It’s an exaggeration to say Schiff "made up" a conversation. But even setting aside the merits of Trump’s claim, it’s extremely unlikely for prosecutors to pursue criminal cases of libel or slander — far less likely than the certainty of imprisonment that Trump indicated.
To fall victim, an ordinary person would have to make the comments in one of the shrinking number of states with such laws, then attract the notice of a prosecutor willing to take the case, be convicted, be sentenced to prison rather than fined, and then have their conviction and sentence upheld as constitutional in a likely post-conviction challenge.
But the chance that this could happen to Schiff is essentially zero. In the jurisdiction where Schiff spoke — the District Columbia — such law doesn’t exist. Nor does it exist in federal law or in the law of his home state of California.
We rate the statement False.
