The California Democrat also believes former Attorneys General Jeff Sessions and William Barr, as well as former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, should testify before Congress.
“What the administration did, the Justice Department, the leadership of the former President goes even beyond Richard Nixon. Richard Nixon had an enemies list. This is about undermining the rule of law,” Pelosi told CNN’s Dana Bash Sunday on “State of the Union.”
Prosecutors in the Trump administration’s Justice Department in 2018 subpoenaed Apple for data from the accounts of House Intelligence Committee Democrats along with their staff and family members as part of a leak investigation. Prosecutors were reportedly hunting for the sources behind news stories about contacts between Russia and Trump associates. Reps. Adam Schiff, who chairs the committee, and Eric Swalwell of California have revealed they were targeted.
Pelosi on Sunday expressed disbelief at the idea that Sessions, Barr and Rosenstein were unaware of this activity within the Justice Department.
“How could it be that there could be an investigation of members of the other branch of government and the press and the rest, too, and the attorneys general did not know? So who are these people? And are they still in the Justice Department?” she said. “This is just out of the question — no matter who’s president, whatever party, this cannot be the way it goes.”
Asked by Bash on Sunday about potentially subpoenaing the three former Trump Justice Department officials to testify, Pelosi said she hoped “they will want to honor the rule of law” before the House would need to consider that step.
Biden DOJ faces criticism
Appearing later on “State of the Union,” Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York took aim at the Justice Department under President Joe Biden, saying a number of recent actions by the department have prevented it from being as “transformational” as some people hoped for.
Ocasio-Cortez continued: “While I believe that the (department’s) emphasis on voting rights is appreciated, we aren’t seeing a transformational DOJ that I think people had been looking forward to. And that is something that deserves a lot more questions.”
This story has been updated with additional comments from Pelosi and Ocasio-Cortez, and background information.
CNN’s Katelyn Polantz, Pamela Brown, Devan Cole and Erica Orden contributed to this report.
Source : Nbcnewyork