Speaker Pelosi rips up the President’s State of the Union address on Capitol Hill on Feb. 4, 2020, as Vice President Pence applauds.
Judicial Watch, a conservative group, has filed a lawsuit demanding that the Defense Department release more information about an exchange between House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley following the Jan. 6 break-in at the Capitol. Information.
Judicial Watch said in a news release that Pelosi acknowledged in a Jan. 8 letter to Democratic colleagues on its website that she had spoken with Milley by phone that day. The group has filed a lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., over the issue.
The congressional spokeswoman said at the Time that she spoke with Milley to discuss “The prevention of a (mentally) unstable president” and his control over nuclear weapons codes. She was referring to then-President Donald Trump (Trump).
Pelosi said, “The situation with this mentally unstable president is very dangerous, and we must do everything we can to protect the American people from his mentally unstable attacks on our country and our democracy.”
Judicial Watch said the Defense Department did not respond to a related request they made Jan. 11 under the Freedom of Information Act.
The purpose of their lawsuit, according to the watchdog group, is to find “all records of the phone call between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and General Mark Milley two months ago,” including transcripts, recordings, summaries of the call, and any other records related to the phone call.
Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, said the call from Pelosi to Milley would “set a dangerous precedent that could undermine the president’s role as commander in chief and separation of powers” because Trump is the only person who legally controls U.S. nuclear weapons.
Fitton added, “Our new lawsuit aims to uncover the truth about this call.”
Around the same time, Pelosi also mentioned activating the 25th Amendment. The amendment would allow Vice President Mike Pence and a majority of Trump’s Cabinet to remove Trump from the presidency.
It is unclear whether Trump was denied access to the nuclear weapons launch codes, the so-called “nuclear button,” at the time. about a week after the Jan. 13 break-in at the Capitol, the Pelosi-led House impeached Trump for allegedly inciting violence at the Capitol; about a month later, he was acquitted in the Senate. About a month later, he was acquitted in the Senate.
Several House Democrats also called on President Joe Biden to relinquish sole authority over the “nuclear button” for launching nuclear weapons and to “consider revising” the command and control of U.S. nuclear forces. In the days that followed, the proposal was opposed by Republican members of the House of Representatives.
Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, Republican Rep. Mike Rogers of Alabama and Republican Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio said in response, “The Democrats’ dangerous proposal to reorganize our nuclear command and control procedures would undermine U.S. Security and would be a dangerous efforts would undermine the security of the United States and the security of our allies.”
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