House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) hit the Trump administration for its “lawless” actions on Wednesday evening, just hours after his committee voted to hold the attorney general in contempt of Congress.

Nadler told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow his efforts on Wednesday were part of his duty to “defend our constitutional form of government.”

“This is a lawless administration. It is denying the American people the information they need by defying all subpoenas,” he said. “It’s the first administration you’ve ever seen where they say we’ll deny all subpoenas from Congress, whether it’s on the Mueller investigation or on security clearances or in anything else. They defy the law. …They’re stonewalling and hoping they can get away with it. We cannot have a situation where the president becomes a king or a dictator. I mean, the American people understand that nobody, not the president, nobody may be above the law.”

Nadler slams "lawless administration" for denying information to the American people pic.twitter.com/yOEg3EZpl5 — TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) May 9, 2019

Nadler declared earlier on Wednesday after the contempt vote that the U.S. was in a “constitutional crisis” over the White House’s efforts to completely stonewall Congress’ oversight efforts.