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Pelosi Remarks at Press Conference Reacting to Release of DOJ Inspector General Report on Actions in Advance of 2016 Presidential Election

June 14, 2018

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

Washington, D.C. – House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi joined Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer for a press conference to discuss the DOJ Inspector General Report on activities leading up to the 2016 presidential election. Below are the Leader's remarks:

Leader Pelosi. Thank you very much Leader Schumer for bringing us together. I appreciate the comments made by you – as I was coming over I heard you and by Senator Feinstein and Ranking Member on Intelligence, Senator Warner, and Ranking Member on Judiciary, Senator Feinstein. I am honored to be here with my colleague, Ranking Member Jerry Nadler on the House Judiciary Committee and others may be joining us. Oh Adam's here. I was just about to say Adam may be joining us and now we are joined by our Ranking Member on Intelligence, Adam Schiff.

In addition to what was presented, I want to make two points that may be additional, but I want to emphasize them. One is that the IG informed us that leaks to Rudy Giuliani were part of the investigation. We will see what that takes us to. The report does not answer how he got those leaks, and Democrats are demanding answers.

Secondly, the report says that the FBI was under constant pressure – from Congressional Republicans. That pressure has now been directed to the Mueller investigation. The report provides no basis for the GOP to challenge the legitimacy of the Mueller investigation. It must continue unhindered.

It is deeply disturbing that the Republicans remain obsessed with undermining our intelligence and law enforcement agencies. Republicans need to end this and focus on what matters: protecting our democracy.

Just this week, Special Counsel Mueller said that the election meddling operations are still occurring. Yesterday, the House GOP failed to appropriate a single dollar to protect our elections. They have refused to hold a full committee hearing on election security in Homeland or House Administration committees.

Congress takes an oath of office to support and defend the Constitution and to protect the American people. Democrats are honoring that oath with real actions to secure our elections and I repeat ‘we found no evidence,' says the Inspector General, ‘we found no evidence that the conclusions by department prosecutors were affected by bias or other improper considerations; rather we determined that they were based on the prosecutors' assessment of the facts, the law, and past department practice.'

I yield now to the distinguished Ranking Member of the Judiciary Committee in the House, Jerry Nadler.

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