By Staff, Agencies

Adam Schiff, the lawmaker walking US senators methodically through the case for removing President Donald Trump from office is also becoming Exhibit A in efforts by the president's allies to defend him.

Over the first three days of Trump's impeachment trial, the head of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, Schiff, has led a team of Democratic lawmakers serving as prosecutors as they lay out their evidence that Trump abused his power by pressuring Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, a leading 2020 Democratic presidential contender.

Even a few of Trump’s fellow Republicans have said Schiff has made an effective case.

At the same time, Trump’s lawyers and political allies have made Schiff a central focus of their efforts to defend the president during his trial. When they laid out their written case for why Trump should be acquitted, the president’s lawyers mentioned Schiff’s name almost 100 times.

They accused the congressman of running an "unheard of procedure that denied the president any semblance of fair process," accused him of lying and of personally orchestrating the whistleblower complaint that led to the impeachment probe.

Congressional Republicans have intensified those critiques since the start of Trump’s trial this week, accusing him of misstating the evidence against the president and running a hasty and unfair investigation.

Trump, who denies wrongdoing and denounces the impeachment process as a sham, joined that criticism on Thursday, calling the congressman "Shifty Schiff" and saying his presentation to the Senate was "loaded with lies and misrepresentations." Then he retweeted a series of attacks from other Republicans.

A spokesman for Schiff had no immediate comment on the Republican attacks. Schiff has said in response to past salvos from Trump that the president "would much rather attack others than answer for his own conduct."