Gaetz files ethics complaint against Pelosi echoing her words “no one is above the law”

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) announced that he is filing an ethics complaint against Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) for “destroying” a copy of President Trump’s speech after his State of the Union address.

“BREAKING: I’m filing an ethics complaint against @SpeakerPelosi for destroying @realDonaldTrump’s State of the Union speech,” Gaetz tweeted late Wednesday. “Her conduct was beneath the dignity of the House, and a potential violation of law (18 USC 2071).”

“Nobody is above the law. She must be held accountable,” he added.

BREAKING: I'm filing an ethics complaint against @SpeakerPelosi for destroying @realDonaldTrump's State of the Union speech.

Her conduct was beneath the dignity of the House, and a potential violation of law (18 USC 2071).

Nobody is above the law. She must be held accountable. pic.twitter.com/dXPPWQNtI8

— Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) February 6, 2020

Gaetz also included two screenshots of the complaint he sent to House Ethics Committee Chairman Theodore Deutch (R-Fla.) and Rep. Kenny Marchant (R-Texas), the ranking member on the committee.

In the complaint, Gaetz calls on the committee to open an investigation into what he described as “flagrant violation of decorum” committed by Pelosi when she ripped up a copy of the president’s prepared speech at the end of his third State of the Union address Tuesday night.

“It is hard to overlook the symbolism of such a gesture — the sense that Speaker Pelosi was utterly dismissive of the President’s achievements, and, more importantly, the achievements of the American people,” Gaetz wrote.

Gaetz said Pelosi’s gesture was “deeply” offensive and appeared to violate the House’s Code of Official Conduct. In the complaint, Gaetz requested a criminal referral for the “potential violation” and said the Speaker’s “unseemly behavior certainly warrants censure.”

“The Speaker should not let her personal feelings about the President color her behavior as a leader in the United States Congress,” he also wrote, “but last night, her actions have brought discredit on the entire House.”

“This is a frivolous stunt from a Congressman desperate to get back in the President’s good graces after he voted with Democrats and against the President on Iran,” Pelosi’s deputy chief of staff, Drew Hammill, said in a statement to The Hill. “We appreciate the irony of this particular Member making judgments about the ‘dignity of the House.’”

Gaetz was among a handful of House lawmakers who crossed party lines last month on legislation designed to rein in Trump’s ability to take military action against Iran.

Pelosi captured widespread attention earlier this week after she ripped up Trump’s prepared remarks at the end of his State of the Union address.

When explaining the gesture during a closed-door caucus meeting on Wednesday, sources said Pelosi told lawmakers, “He shredded the truth, so I shredded his speech.”

“You are supposed to talk about the State of the Union, not the state of your alleged mind,” she also said then, after calling Trump’s speech “a manifesto of mistruths.”

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