Political Quotes

“Let me tell a quick story. Some years ago, we subpoenaed information from the Department of Justice. The Attorney General himself, then Eric Holder, came before me both in committee and personally up to and including the moment in which he was held in contempt, met with us in the Speaker's office, and assured us that if we would just take the 279 pages that was fully meeting all of our requests and accept that as a complete record and be done with it, that he would give them to us. Otherwise, he would withhold them. We held him in contempt. We went to court, and many months later, Amy Berman Jackson, a Federal judge, said: Let me see the documents you are withholding, and all of them that you are claiming the executive privilege. All of them that, in fact, are responsive to his request. We received thousands of pages that never went to Amy Berman Jackson because they had no merit. Then we received more than 10,000 more pages that did go through a review process; 279, 2,000, 10,000. The fact is, it is not new for administrations to give you some documents and not look thoroughly until there is a compelling law. I do not want to go back through the process of going to a Federal judge or holding someone in contempt. This is a way to ensure that they either comply or honestly tell us they have already complied. I cannot take the word this lightly of any administration. I have been down that road before. Mr.…”