Pelosi OK with investigating Trump children: ‘They are advisers to the president’

Speaker Nancy Pelosi signed off Thursday on Democrats pursuing information from President Donald Trump’s children in the course of their oversight investigations. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)

Some House Democrats have expressed reservations about going after President Donald Trump’s children in their oversight investigations into his administration, 2016 campaign and business empire.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi is not one of them.

“They are investigating certain subjects. Whoever falls into that net, falls into the net,” the California Democrat told reporters Thursday.

The House Intelligence, Judiciary, Oversight and Financial Services committees have all opened investigations touching on Trump’s personal finances and how they may have influenced his campaign and administration. The Intelligence panel has also reopened its probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election, and possible ties to Trump’s campaign.

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Pelosi said any investigation that involvesTrump’s children, such as daughter Ivanka Trump or her husband Jared Kushner, would be prompted by allegations from other witnesses and in media reports that they have violated the law or ethical norms — not by their familial relationship to the president.

“They are advisers to the president. They have security clearance,” Pelosi said. “This is not [Trump’s] children at home.”

The president indicated this week that he plans to cooperate — at least to some extent — with some of the Democrats’ investigations.

“I cooperate all the time with everybody,” Trump said during a reception Monday for championship football players from North Dakota State. But he also referred to the federal and state probes into his political and financial world as a “political hoax.”

Trump has mostly spoken negatively about the sweeping investigations.

The list of federal, state and congressional investigations into his 2016 campaign and business dealings are all “bullshit,” he proclaimed before a crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference over the weekend.

Earlier this week, the White House wrote in a letter to House Oversight and Reform Chairman Elijah E. Cummings that it will not cooperate with his panel’s probe into the administration’s security clearance policy.

Multiple news outlets have reported that the president played a major role in paving the way for his daughter Ivanka and son-in-law, Kushner, to receive permanent top clearance — despite previously issuing public statements to the contrary.

House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler on Monday sent letters and document requests to 81 people and groups involved in Trump’s 2016 campaign, inauguration committee, administration and personal business dealings. The committee is investigating possible obstruction of justice and corruption by Trump and his associates.

Trump and his Republican allies in the House have dubbed such efforts a “fishing expedition” intended to smear the president.

“81 [letters] sent to innocent people to harass them,” the president tweeted earlier this week of Nadler’s document requests. He then repeated a version of his assertion that Democratic efforts to investigate allegations of corruption against people in his orbit would prevent them from working on meaningful legislation.

“They won’t get ANYTHING done for our Country!” he added.

Democrats have said they can simultaneously work on policy solutions and conduct their constitutionally sanctioned oversight responsibilities.