Rep. Adam Schiff Adam Bennett SchiffTop Democrats call for DOJ watchdog to probe Barr over possible 2020 election influence Overnight Defense: Top admiral says 'no condition' where US should conduct nuclear test 'at this time' | Intelligence chief says Congress will get some in-person election security briefings Overnight Defense: House to vote on military justice bill spurred by Vanessa Guillén death | Biden courts veterans after Trump's military controversies MORE (D-Calif.), the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, on Monday suggested that Donald Trump Donald John TrumpUS reimposes UN sanctions on Iran amid increasing tensions Jeff Flake: Republicans 'should hold the same position' on SCOTUS vacancy as 2016 Trump supporters chant 'Fill that seat' at North Carolina rally MORE Jr. may have been the first individual to become aware of the Russians’ intention to help his father in the 2016 presidential election.

Schiff spoke to MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” following a new report in The New York Times that said Trump Jr. had been told in an email that harmful information about Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonJeff Flake: Republicans 'should hold the same position' on SCOTUS vacancy as 2016 Momentum growing among Republicans for Supreme Court vote before Election Day Warning signs flash for Lindsey Graham in South Carolina MORE was coming from the Kremlin as part of an effort to help his father’s campaign.

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“So if this is correct, the first person who may have found out that the Russians had decided not just to gather information about what the candidates’ positions might be or what they might do in office,” was Trump's eldest son, Schiff told Maddow.

“But they had made a decision to intervene to try to help a candidate, the first person who may have learned that was the president’s son, through this email because at that time, we couldn’t be sure whether this was going to go beyond the intelligence gathering operation.”

Schiff noted that the reported email to Trump Jr. came before WikiLeaks published hacked emails from the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign.

“And at this point, we wouldn’t have known that the Russians intended to escalate that way,” Schiff said.