Gaetz Hits Pelosi With an Ethics Complaint for Tearing up Trump’s SOTU Address: ‘She Must Be Held Accountable’

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) announced on Twitter that he filed an ethics complaint against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) after she ripped up a transcript of President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address.

Gaetz shared images of the complaint he sent to the House Ethics Committee on Twitter on Wednesday night.

“BREAKING: I’m filing an ethics complaint against for destroying 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.”

He went on to accuse Pelosi of a “flagrant violation of decorum” and said the move was “deeply offensive.”

The law Gaetz referenced states that it is illegal to destroy “any record, proceeding, map, book, paper, document, or other thing, filed or deposited with any clerk or officer of any court of the United States.”

At the end of Trump’s address, Pelosi dramatically ripped up the speech, which she called a “manifesto of mistruths.”

On Thursday, Pelosi said the State of the Union address was “beneath the dignity” of the office of the president.

“The whole State of the Union was beneath the dignity of the White House, an insult to the Congress of the United States and the American people,” she told reporters during her weekly press conference.

On her decision to rip up the speech, Pelosi said, “It was necessary to get the attention of the American people to say, this is not true. And this is how it affects you.”