Pelosi Floor Remarks in Opposition to Resolution Forcing DOJ to Disclose Sensitive Information Related to Special Counsel Investigation

Contact: Ashley Etienne/Henry Connelly, 202-226-7616

Washington, D.C. – House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi delivered remarks on the Floor of the House of Representatives to voice her opposition to Republicans' Floor vote on H.Res. 970, which would force the Department of Justice to disclose sensitive, classified information and material related to Special Counsel Mueller's ongoing investigation into the Trump-Russia scandal. Below are the Leader's remarks:

Leader Pelosi. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I thank the gentleman for yielding. I thank him for his extraordinary leadership and articulating what is right, what honors our oath of office to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, the separation of power contained therein, and the integrity of our judicial system.

I thank our distinguished Ranking Member of the Intelligence Committee, Mr. [Adam] Schiff, for his leadership, his courage, and his beautiful and inspirational statement this morning. Full of fact but also full of values.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today not only as Leader, but also as one who has served on the Intelligence Committee as a Member, as a Ranking Member, and as ex-officio since the early nineties.

While I can say I have seen a lot in that time, I have never seen anything that has stooped so low on the part of the Republicans as what they are doing today. It is just as if they said, ‘You take an oath of office to the Constitution, we took an oath of office to Donald Trump.' It's shocking and many of them are lawyers, I don't know how they justify or reconcile that.

So it is with great dismay that I see this – them doing violence to this body, to this Constitution, to this Judiciary system and this country. They are so curious about prying into a legal case, but they don't have the faintest interest in looking into what Russians did to disrupt our elections.

Not one hearing, nothing. No oversight, nothing. Why is that? Why is that?

And now they are saying they must – they have a right to know this, that, and the other thing. They have no right to do that.

So I'm going to not take up any more time. I said my piece on this. But I do want to acknowledge that Mr. [Chuck] Schumer and I, as well as Mr. [Adam] Schiff and Senator [Mark] Warner, the Ranking Member on the Senate side, sent a letter to the honorable [Rod] Rosenstein, the Deputy Attorney General, and Christopher Wray, the Director of the F.B.I., saying to them, please, please do not yield on any of this.

‘Your role in preserving the integrity and most importantly our Justice system has become ever more vital.' I yield back my time – first of all, I urge a no vote.

I hope that some Republicans will to what is right and urge a no vote on this. This is taking us into very dangerous territory. If the Democrats were in power I would say the same thing. We wouldn't want to have this access, you shouldn't have this access. This is wrong.

Again, If you're honoring your oath of office to Donald Trump, vote yes. If you're honoring your oath of office to the Constitution of the United States, vote no.

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