Today, House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) released the following statement after Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) issued one letter calling for Attorney General Jeff Sessions to investigate allegations that the Justice Department pressured the FBI to shut down its probe of the Clinton Foundation during the 2016 presidential election, and a second letter demanding information from the Department about Daniel Richman, an associate of former FBI Director James Comey:

“I could argue with Chairman Goodlatte on the merits of his first letter.  The Republicans want the Department of Justice to re-investigate a thoroughly debunked conspiracy theory about the Clinton Foundation.  There is no evidence of any wrongdoing here—just snippets from a public report and fact-free speculation about a Benghazi-style ‘stand down’ order at DOJ. 

“I could also argue with the Chairman on the merits of his second letter.  Chairman Goodlatte and Chairman Gowdy have refused to investigate the actual facts contained in the Comey memos—which point to obstruction of justice by President Trump.  They would rather spend taxpayer dollars trying to convince the public not to believe Mr. Comey and that President Trump is blameless.

“I could argue with both Chairmen to take some responsibility for the baseless articles of impeachment now aimed at Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.  Our Republican colleagues would not be quite so brazen in their work to disable the Special Counsel’s investigation if their leadership stood up to them—even once—on behalf of the men and women of the Department of Justice.

“But instead of arguing I will simply point out that it is May of 2018 and House Republicans are still chasing Hillary Clinton.  They are doing everything in their power to distract from President Trump’s legal troubles and discredit the Department of Justice as a hedge against the next round of indictments.  Think about all of the good our Committee might be doing instead.”

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