On Capitol Hill, Schiff is known as a slightly goofy nerd who recites endless lines from the movie “The Big Lebowski” and gamely tries his hand once a year at stand-up comedy. He’s also renowned for his wife’s name, Eve; Adam and Eve are teased for their failure to name their kids Cain and Abel.

Charles Glovsky, Schiff’s cousin, told me that friends are always advising Schiff to buy nicer suits or less decrepit shoes, but that he isn’t interested. “Not motivated by money at all,” Glovsky said.

These days, Schiff said, he’s trying to proceed as fast as possible with the impeachment investigation, but he resisted my attempts to pin him to a timeline. “When you consider how much we have learned in the last three weeks, it’s breathtaking,” he said. “It’s terrifying.”

He said that his committee is investigating whether there is a recording of the call between Trump and Ukraine’s president, either in the U.S. or in Ukraine. “We are determined to find out,” he said.

Schiff was particularly scathing about Attorney General William Barr. “He’s the second most dangerous person in the country,” Schiff said. “In his own way, he’s as much of a threat to the rule of law as the president.”

I asked if the House might, in a bid to compel testimony, exercise its “inherent contempt” authority and send the sergeant-at-arms out to arrest people and lock them up in the Capitol. Schiff said he had ruled this out but was considering fining those who refuse to cooperate.

He acknowledged some missteps, including misleading comments about his committee’s contact with the whistle-blower. I argued that we might be better off if hearings were public; he responded that initial hearings need to be closed to keep witnesses from knowing what others have said, but he added that “all these transcripts are going to be made public.”