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Rep. Adam Schiff, a Democrat and ranking member of the House intelligence committee whose district includes many LA Unified schools, said today a “preliminary assessment” of the emailed threat prompting the closure of all district schools today was a hoax.

In a statement, he said, “While we continue to gather information about the threat made against the Los Angeles and New York School Departments, the preliminary assessment is that it was a hoax or something designed to disrupt school districts in large cities. The investigation is ongoing as to where the threat originated from and who was responsible.”

Even so, he suggested that district officials made the right decision in closing the schools out of an abundance of caution.

“The safety of our communities and particularly our young people is paramount,” he said in his statement. “At the same time, in an environment in which it is very easy to transmit threats, real and otherwise, and when fear and disruption may be the goal as well as the effect, communities and law enforcement will need to make a difficult judgment as to how to respond in a variety of circumstances. The goal of the intelligence and federal law enforcement community should be to assist local authorities with as timely information as possible to help inform those judgments.  I will continue to urge the intelligence and federal law enforcement community to share as much information as it can, as quickly as it is able.”

Rep. Brad Sherman, a Democrat representing the Valley, agreed with his colleague, to a point. Speaking on KTLA this afternoon, he said, “certain parts of the Los Angeles email were not credible.”