By Dell Dumont
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Included in the congressional rules package passed by the GOP majority House is a resolution to create a “Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government.” The House plans to create a special committee that could serve to investigate perceived wrongdoing by the federal government against conservatives, including former president Donald Trump.
Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) is expected to chair the new panel, structured as a subcommittee of the Judiciary Committee. It will investigate law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, and the Justice Department. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) said he will serve on the new weaponization committee. The panel is also set to include five Democrats in consultation with Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), similar to the initial structure of the Jan. 6 House Select committee. After the resolution passes, the House will formally name the panel’s members.
Jordan said he intends to probe “big tech” companies, including Twitter, as well as the FBI and “the political nature of the Justice Department.” He has already sent more than 100 letters to the two agencies ahead of the expected committee plans — saying that the FBI has “ridiculed conservative Americans.”
Neither the Department of Justice nor the FBI responded to requests for comment about being the focus of the subcommittee. Jordan told Fox News Jan. 8, “We have a duty to get into these agencies and look at how they have been weaponized to go against the very people they’re supposed to represent.”
The panel has attracted interest from a host of Republicans and raised alarms for many House Democrats, who are already discussing how to respond at the highest levels of leadership. Democrats disapprove of the proposition and expressed concerns including credibility of the subcommittee. Judiciary ranking member Jerry Nadler (D-NY) called it a “reckless partisan exercise fueled by conspiracy theories.” Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I., a Judiciary Committee member, nicknamed the panel “The MAGA Grievance Subcommittee.” Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) criticized the panel, telling ABC News that it is “specifically designed to inject extremist politics into our justice system and shield the MAGA movement from the legal consequences of their actions.”
(Sources: All Sides, NBC, The Hill)