Staff Report –

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The House Judiciary Committee opened a formal investigation into the Trump Justice Department’s unconstitutional surveillance of Members of Congress, journalists, and others who were perceived enemies of Donald Trump when he was president in a move reminiscent of Nixon’s “enemies list” from the Watergate era.

New York Democrat Jerrold Nadler, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, issued the statement announcing the investigation on Monday afternoon.

“Recent reports suggest that, during the Trump Administration, the Department of Justice used criminal investigations as a pretext to spy on President Trump’s perceived political enemies,” Nadler said.

“It remains possible that these cases — which now include Members of Congress, members of the press, and President Trump’s own White House Counsel — are isolated incidents,” he continued. “Even if these reports are completely unrelated, they raise serious constitutional and separation of power concerns. Congress must make it extraordinarily difficult, if not impossible, for the Department to spy on the Congress or the news media. We should make it hard for prosecutors to hide behind secret gag orders for years at a time. We cannot rely on the Department alone to make these changes.

“It is also possible that these cases are merely our first glimpse into a coordinated effort by the Trump Administration to target President Trump’s political opposition. If so, we must learn the full extent of this gross abuse of power, root out the individuals responsible, and hold those individuals accountable for their actions,” he added.

“Like many Americans, I desperately want to see Attorney General Garland succeed in his goal of repairing the damage done by his predecessors and return a sense of ‘normal’ to the Department of Justice. It is an important and worthy undertaking,” he said of Garland’s recent moves that have the Democrats on the left concerned.

“It is not, however, something we can accomplish by simply turning the page on the Trump era,” he insisted. “I am encouraged by the steps the Attorney General announced this morning (Monday), but we cannot wait for the Inspector General to share even his preliminary findings with DOJ, some months or years from now, before Congress contemplates a response.

“Accordingly, the House Judiciary Committee will investigate the Trump Administration’s surveillance of Members of Congress, the news media, and others. I have instructed my staff to begin that work without delay.”