Tenure
Nadler is a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
Despite earlier efforts to impeach George W. Bush and more recent requests from fellow representatives, he did not schedule hearings on impeachments for Bush or Dick Cheney, saying in 2007 that doing so would be pointless and would distract from the presidential election. In an interview in Washington Journal on July 15, 2008, Nadler reiterated the timing argument and endorsed Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election, saying that electing an honest candidate would create a greater chance of prosecuting those in the Bush administration who had committed war crimes.
Nadler chaired the House Judiciary Committee from 2019 to 2023, and was its ranking member from 2023 to 2025. At the end of 2024, he intended to run for another two-year term in the role, but pulled out of the race after Jamie Raskin challenged him for the seat.
On a similar note, referring to hypothetical impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump that would begin in the newly elected Democrat-controlled House, he suggested a "three-pronged test" that "would make for a legitimate impeachment proceeding". Such a test would include "the offenses in question must be so grave", and "the evidence so clear", that "even some supporters of the president concede that impeachment is necessary". If it was determined that the president committed an impeachable offense, lawmakers must consider if such an offense would "rise to the gravity where it's worth putting the country through the trauma of an impeachment proceeding," Nadler said.
On September 24, 2019, Representative Lance Gooden proposed a resolution to remove Nadler from his position as chair of the House Judiciary committee, accusing him of unlawfully beginning impeachment proceedings before the House had given the committee authorization.
Nadler served as an impeachment manager (prosecutor) during the first impeachment trial of President Trump.
For his tenure as chair of the House Judiciary Committee in the 116th Congress, Nadler earned an "A" grade from the non-partisan Lugar Center's Congressional Oversight Hearing Index.
PolitiFact criticized Nadler for incorrectly claiming following the Kenosha unrest shooting that Kyle Rittenhouse had taken a gun across state lines and might thus be subject to a federal Department of Justice review, when in fact he had not.
Nadler is the dean of New York's congressional delegation.
On May 28, 2025 an aide at Nadler's district office in New York City was detained and handcuffed by Department of Homeland Security officers. The officers accused Nadler's staffers of "harboring rioters" and demanded access to his office, claiming that they didn't need a warrant, which Nadler says is incorrect. After the officers conducted a security check of the office, the aide was later released with no charges filed and Nadler is demanding that there be a congressional investigation into the incident and that Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem testify.
