Nancy Pelosi Questions Trump Attacks on DoJ in Wake of Cohen Plea
Minority leader wants Judiciary Committee to investigate Trump‘s ’relentless assaults’ on the FBI, special counsel

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is questioning the motivations behind President Donald Trump’s “relentless assaults” on the Department of Justice and the special counsel investigation after his former attorney Michael Cohen implicated him in a crime.
“Michael Cohen’s admission to making illegal campaign contributions ‘at the direction of the candidate’ to influence the 2016 election, implicates President Trump in a federal crime and raises serious questions regarding the motive behind his continued attacks against the Department of Justice,” the California Democrat said.
Pelosi’s comments came in a Dear Colleague letter covering a wide array of topics related to the current political climate.
In commenting on Cohen’s guilty plea, Pelosi urged House Democrats to join Judiciary Committee ranking member Jerrold Nadler in calling on the panel’s Chairman Robert W. Goodlatte to immediately investigate Trump’s “relentless assaults on the FBI and the special counsel.”
Nadler said in a statement that Cohen’s guilty pleas and the conviction of Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort on tax evasion and bank fraud charges prove that Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller’s investigation is no witch hunt — the term Trump frequently ascribes to it.
“I call on Chairman Goodlatte to hold immediate hearings on President Trump’s persistent, venomous attacks on the Department of Justice and the FBI,” Nadler said. “It is clear that the president hopes to hedge against the investigation by undermining the investigators. Yesterday’s guilty plea by the president’s longtime personal attorney adds further concerns regarding ongoing efforts by President Trump to undermine or impede the investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.”
House Republicans are unlikely to listen to Democrats’ calls. They’ve been leading investigations into alleged DOJ and FBI misconduct in their investigations into whether Trump and his campaign colluded with Russia in interfering with the 2016 election.
Nadler called on Republicans to indefinitely suspend that investigation, which he said has largely been a cover to undermine Mueller’s work.
“The Congress stands at a crossroads,” he said. “Democrats are poised to take action to respond to this culture of corruption that has taken hold under Mr. Trump and Republican Congressional Majorities. It is not too late for my Republican colleagues to put our country ahead of their politics and join us in our work.”
Pelosi agreed with that goal but in her letter she advised Democrats not to let that effort overshadow their primary goal of taking back the House in the upcoming midterm elections.
“As November rapidly approaches, we must also stay focused on delivering our strong economic message to hard-working families across America that we are fighting For The People: working to lower health care costs and prescription drug prices, increasing workers’ pay through strong economic growth by rebuilding America, and cleaning up corruption to make Washington work,” she said.