Today, House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) released the following statement after Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) noticed his intent to issue a unilateral subpoena to the Department of Justice to obtain memos written by former FBI Director James Comey:

“Today, Chairman Goodlatte informed me that he intends to issue a subpoena to the Department of Justice—in this case, to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein—for former FBI Director James Comey’s memoranda.  Although the Majority has shown little or no interest in conducting meaningful oversight of the Trump Administration so far, no matter what the Chairman’s motivations are today, I hope that we will now have an opportunity to review some of the evidence surrounding President Trump’s dismissal of Mr. Comey.

“I also hope that the public will see this bit of theater for what it is.  The Comey memos are key to the Special Counsel’s work.  Pursuant to long-standing Department policy and absent any satisfactory accommodation, the Department of Justice cannot simply hand over evidence that is part of an ongoing criminal investigation. 

“If House Republicans refuse any accommodation short of the Department of Justice handing over custody of these documents—which it cannot do—I fear the Majority will have manufactured an excuse to hold the Deputy Attorney General in contempt of Congress.  If they succeed in tarnishing the Deputy Attorney General, perhaps they will have given President Trump the pretext he has sought to replace Mr. Rosenstein with someone willing to do his bidding and end the Special Counsel’s investigation.

“I will do everything I can to ensure that these ongoing investigations continue unimpeded even as the Committee gets access to the documents to which it is entitled.”

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