STRONG WORDS

Nadler: Power Abuse Probe Necessary as Trump Still a ‘Threat to the Rule of Law’

House Judiciary chair says probe is “needed more urgently than ever” after the White House rejected his documents request.

In a letter to White House counsel Pat Cipollone, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) blasted the White House for rejecting his documents request in a wide-ranging abuse-of-powers probe. Cipollone, in his rejection letter sent Wednesday, said the committee had no right to rehash special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation and should drop the probe. Nadler argued the investigation was necessary to gain “more detailed information” in the wake of the Mueller report. “As a threshold matter, your failure to comprehend the gravity of the Special Counsel’s findings is astounding and dangerous,” Nadler wrote, adding that the committee’s document requests to 81 individuals and entities in President Trump’s orbit were necessary in “understanding” Russian influence capabilities ahead of the 2020 election. “Both the Russian threat to our elections and the President’s threat to the rule of law continue,” he wrote. “Without this information, the Committee is unable to fully perform its responsibility to protect the impending 2020 elections[.]”