Jerry Nadler: “To close. I am not going to repeat what I said before. I will summarize. The request being made here is for information…”

“To close. I am not going to repeat what I said before. I will summarize. The request being made here is for information that the Department of Justice cannot provide because it relates to an ongoing criminal investigation and because some of it would identify informants. The motive is probably simply to politically embarrass the Department and provide a means of embarrassing and defaming the special prosecutor and the people associated with him in the Department. I will read from a letter that the Deputy Attorney General sent to Senator Grassley and the Speaker of the House yesterday. He quotes the following: ``Throughout American history, wise legislators have worked with Department officials to limit oversight requests in order to respect the Department's duty to protect national security, preserve personal privacy, and insulate investigations from the appearance of interference. For instance, the Department sent a letter to a House committee chair in 2000 describing the Department's policies on responding to congressional oversight requests. The letter explains:''--I am now quoting from the 2000 letter--``Such inquiries inescapably create the risk that the public and the courts will perceive political and congressional influence over law enforcement and litigation decisions.…”