Two Republican lawmakers are calling on Attorney General Bill Barr to investigate whether Nancy Pelosi committed a criminal act when she tore up President Trump’s State of the Union speech.
According to Fox News:
Two House GOP leaders have officially called on Attorney General William Barr to determine whether House Speaker Nancy Pelosi broke federal law when she ripped up President Trump’s State of the Union speech earlier this year.
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Republican Policy Committee Chairman Gary Palmer, R-Ala., and Republican Study Committee Chairman Mike Johnson, R-La., wrote a letter to Barr on Tuesday asking he deliver a definitive answer on whether “Pelosi committed a criminal act by destroying an official copy of the State of the Union speech delivered to her” by Trump.
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“Nancy Pelosi’s famous tantrum on the House floor was more than disgraceful; she violated her responsibility to preserve official documents delivered to the House of Representatives,” Palmer said in a statement. “We ask the Attorney General to review this scandalous outburst, not simply because it offended every American, but because it set a precedent for radical politicians to hijack state events for partisan performance art and possibly break the law with, thus far, no consequence.”
The GOP lawmakers believe Pelosi could have violated 18 U.S.C. § 2071 which deals with the mutilation of official federal records and sets a criminal penalty of destroying documents of up to three years in prison.
A fact-checker looked at the claim and found that because it was a printout of the speech and not an official record, Pelosi could do what she pleased with the speech.
