Press Releases

Today, U.S. Department of Justice Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein testified before the House Judiciary Committee for the first time at an oversight hearing. Watch the hearing on House Judiciary Democrats’ Facebook page here.

Rosenstein Supports Mueller & FBI

When asked by several Members about his thoughts on Special Counsel Robert Mueller, Rosenstein reaffirmed his strong support for Mueller, stating that Mueller was the “ideal choice” and that “it would be very difficult … for anybody to find somebody better qualified for this job” than Robert Mueller. Rosenstein assured Members that he has not seen any good cause to fire the special counsel, “nobody has communicated” with him to fire Mueller, and if pressured to fire Mueller, Rosenstein would only do so if there was good cause. Rosenstein made clear to distinguish between political affiliation and political bias, and that Mueller, the DOJ, and FBI recognize employees may have political opinions, but takes steps to ensure it does not influence their actions and if “there is any evidence of inappropriate conduct” the DOJ would “take action on it.”  He also confirmed that Mueller has the “authority to investigate any obstruction related to his jurisdiction,” including the President. 

Watch Here (via CNN)

Judiciary Republicans Continue to Attempt to Undermine the Special Counsel 

Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee have repeatedly ignored Democratic efforts to provide oversight of the Trump Administration and instead have chosen to falsely undermine Special Counsel Mueller’s  investigation and change the subject to Hillary Clinton.

In his opening statement, acting Ranking Member Jerrold Nadler addressed these efforts:

“Now, with the year coming to a close, with the leadership of the Department of Justice finally before us, what do my Republican colleagues want to discuss?  Hillary Clinton’s emails.

“Let me repeat that:  With all of these unresolved issues left on our docket, a week before we adjourn for the calendar year, the Majority’s highest oversight priority is Hillary Clinton’s emails and a few related text messages.

“As we saw in our recent hearings with the Department of Justice and the FBI, my Republican colleagues seem singularly focused on their call for a second special counsel—and, failing that, on the need to investigate the investigators ourselves.

“The White House has now joined the call by House Republicans for a new special counsel to investigate the FBI.  The President’s private lawyers have done the same.  I understand the instinct to want to change the subject after the Flynn and Manafort indictments—but this request is grossly misguided, for a number of reasons.” 

Read Nadler’s full statement here.

During today’s hearing, Judiciary Republicans largely focused on text messages between FBI employees Peter Strzok and Lisa Page that were released by the Department of Justice to the Committee last night. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries questioned Rosenstein about a tweet which stated that Fox News had 10,000 text messages between Strzok and Page, noting that the Committee had only received 375 messages.

The Office of the Inspector General (IG) informed the Special Counsel of the existence of these texts messages on July 27, 2017.  Although federal regulations permit an FBI agent to “[e]xpress his or her opinion as an individual privately and publicly on political subjects and candidates,” Special Counsel Mueller immediately removed Strzok from the investigation. 

Rosenstein confirmed that the release of the text messages were done in consultation with the Inspector General and any determination on wrongdoing regarding Strzok or the Clinton investigation would be made after the IG’s report.

Judiciary Democrats Urge for Trump’s Sexual Harassment Claims to be Addressed

Yesterday, Judiciary Members Reps. Zoe Lofgren, Sheila Jackson Lee, Karen Bass and Pramila Jayapal wrote to Chairman Bob Goodlatte to call for an investigation into the sexual harassment claims against President Trump, made by 19 accusers, a request Ranking Member Nadler strongly endorsed at the outset of the hearing. During the hearing, several Judiciary Democrats asked Rosenstein to address these sexual harassment and assault allegations against President Trump, which he refused to do.

Watch part 1 of the hearing here.

Watch part 2 of the hearing here.