WASHINGTON, DC – Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, a senior member of the House Committees on Judiciary and Homeland Security and Ranking Member of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security and Investigations released the following statement following news reports that the Deputy Attorney General suggested wearing a wire to record the President as a basis to support invocation of the 25th Amendment:

“Following news reports that the Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein suggested—seriously or not—to wear a wire to record the president as a basis to gather evidence to support invocation of the 25th Amendment, as a senior member of the House Judiciary Committee and the Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Subcommittee of Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security and Investigations, I strongly urge the President to resist the inclination to terminate the Rod Rosenstein.

“As an initial matter, Mr. Rosenstein has explicitly refuted the most sensational allegations of this story. But, as it relates to the President, Americans from all over the country appreciate that any attempt to terminate Mr. Rosenstein as Deputy Attorney General would be seen by Americans from all corners of the country as a thinly veiled attempt to wrestle control of the Special Counsel’s investigation. We know as much because for well over a year, the President has been berating his Attorney General for recusing himself from the Special Counsel’s investigation into Russian Interference in the 2016 election and whether and to what extent that effort was aided and abetted by the Trump Campaign. We also know that this president will do anything to protect those ensnared in this counterintelligence, criminal investigation, as evidenced by his musings from earlier this week, that he declassify certain intelligence information, thereby compromising sources and methods, proffered as a disinfectant against institutional corruption, but in actuality nothing more than an attempt to give his cohorts access to sensitive information likely to aid their criminal defense.

“Nonetheless, this is an opportunity for my colleagues in the United States Congress, especially my colleagues in the Republican Conference, to embrace this Article I moment, and pass legislation that will protect the special counsel. This is why, together with House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jerry Nadler, I introduced H.R. 5476, the Special Counsel Independence and Integrity Act. If enacted, this bill would permit any fired special counsel to challenge the termination in federal court, during the pendency of which the investigation would be stayed.”