Press Releases

Today, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, the Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Rep. Jerrold Nadler, the Ranking Member of the Committee on the Judiciary, released a joint statement after former FBI Deputy Assistant Director Peter Strzok testified during a joint Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing for more than 9 hours:

“With today’s marathon hearing, House Republicans sent a giant love letter to President Trump.  They have shown that they will do whatever they can to defend President Trump and interfere with the ongoing criminal investigation being conducted by Special Counsel Mueller—despite their numerous promises not to do so.  They abandoned their pretense of just investigating Hillary Clinton’s emails and instead trained the majority of their fire squarely on the Mueller investigation.  The American people want a Congress that is truly independent from President Trump and will do credible oversight of his actions and those of his Administration—not a Congress that will do his bidding while degrading our democratic institutions in the process.”

Democratic Members Have Right to Hearing with Bannon

Today, Democratic Members of both the Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform Committees wrote to Chairmen Bob Goodlatte and Trey Gowdy to enforce their right to a hearing with Steve Bannon. Under House Rule XI clause 2(j)(1),  Minority Members have the right to demand a day of hearings to allow witnesses to testify on the subject of a current hearing. During today’s hearing, Republicans from both committees opposed Rep. Eric Swalwell’s motion to subpoena Steve Bannon for testimony related to his involvement with law enforcement actions before, during, and after the 2016 election.

Full text of the letter is available here and below.

July 12, 2018

The Honorable Bob Goodlatte

Chairman

Committee on the Judiciary

2138 Rayburn House Office Building

Washington, D.C. 20515

The Honorable Trey Gowdy

Chairman

Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

2157 Rayburn House Office Building

Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Chairman Goodlatte and Chairman Gowdy:

As you are aware, under House Rule XI clause 2(j)(1), Minority Members have the right to demand a day of hearings to allow witnesses to testify on the subject of today’s hearing.

As you also know, during the course of today’s hearing, the Majority opposed Rep. Swalwell’s motion to subpoena Steve Bannon for testimony pursuant to House Rule XI clause 2(k)(6). 

We therefore invoke our right to call a Minority day of hearings so that Steve Bannon may testify.  As the chief executive of the Trump Campaign, his testimony concerning his knowledge and interactions with law enforcement actions before, during, and after the 2016 election would be highly relevant to the subject matter of the hearing and the Committees’ investigation. 

As you know, the intent of House Rules is that the Minority day of hearings be scheduled reasonably contemporaneous with today’s hearing, and in any event, we believe it is necessary that this Minority hearing occur before you consider any further action with respect to any questions that Mr. Strzok was unable to answer at the direction of FBI counsel.

Thank you for your attention to this matter, and we look forward to working with you on the hearing requested by this matter.

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