The rules package to be voted upon Monday for the New House of Representatives, which was sworn in last night after the low comedy of McCarthy’s bungled final vote of approval, will, if passed, allow for the creation of a new House subcommittee – under the aegis of Jim Jordan’s House Judiciary Committee – that would permit oversight and review of ongoing criminal investigations being conducted by the Executive Branch, i.e. the Justice Department, as well as allow members to access classified information that has heretofore been distributed only to the House Intelligence Committee.
“A proposed subcommittee to investigate “weaponization” of the federal government — a key demand of House conservatives who delivered Speaker Kevin McCarthy the gavel — would be given sweeping investigatory powers that include explicit authority to review “ongoing criminal investigations.”
The language of the proposed “select subcommittee,” which would operate under the Judiciary Committee expected to be chaired by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), also gives the panel power to access any information shared with the House Intelligence Committee. That panel typically receives the highest-level classified intelligence and briefings of any committee in Congress.
Both provisions appear to have been added during final negotiations between McCarthy and a band of hardline detractors that briefly denied him the speakership. An earlier version of the proposal made no mention of ongoing criminal investigations or the Intelligence Committee and limited the probe to the FBI, Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice.
The panel’s expected formation comes as the Justice Department continues to arrest and prosecute hundreds of rioters charged with breaching the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and amid two ongoing criminal investigations connected to former President Donald Trump. Those include the probe of his effort to overturn the 2020 election and his decision to warehouse highly sensitive national security documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate after leaving office.“
Kyle Cheney, who wrote the quoted article for Politico took to Twitter to further explain how the rule how this provision found its way into the rules package.
Another gives the panel authority to access any classified/national security information that would go to the House Intelligence Committee. https://t.co/sPiLh9agJw pic.twitter.com/1calThtgli
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) January 7, 2023
It appears some of these changes may have been part of the ongoing negotiation that occurred to get Speaker McCarthy the gavel. The metadata on the updated document shows it was last modified at 5:40pm yesterday, in the midst of final intense negotiations. pic.twitter.com/60IP9q8fO4
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) January 7, 2023
The earlier version was dated 1/2. pic.twitter.com/b5yxsP6Hu5
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) January 7, 2023
Several GOP House members, including Jordan himself – who is still under investigation for his Ohio State troubles – as well as Scott Perry, who actively participated in drumpf’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election, and perhaps MTG, Barry Loudermilk and Lauren Boebert who all gave “tours” of the Capitol building in the days before the Jan. 6th insurrection, might just be interested in peeking into open investigations being conducted by the Justice Department.
And of course all the Republican Congress critters are committed to protecting drumpf.
But one of the most tenacious hold outs standing between McCarthy and his heart’s desire, Matt Gaetz, has legal troubles that do not relate to Trump’s election skullduggery.
Might it be that Gaetz was the reason that alterations to the rules package as late as 5:40 PM last evening?
Maybe the investigators need to investigate the investigators who wish to investigate the investigators.
This is just another way for G🤡P seditionist to find out what charges they may face.
First of all, I think someone with the means should organize a campaign to flood Jordans DC and District offices with eight-by-tens of that cartoon. And tape it to trees and lamp posts in his DC area neighborhood, hometown and for those visiting Congress (not necessarily him quickly stick them up on the wall in the corridor where his office is. Even on his door. A billboard or two back in his district would be good too. Make magnetic versions that can be put on the side of a van/SUV and drive back and forth in front of his house, and around the Capitol and try to get near any TV crews filming. Feel free to contribuite your own ideas.
As for his committee’s scope, they are going to run into a Separation of Powers issue when it comes to accessing ongoing criminal investigations. And letters literally threatening to cut off funding for ongoing work provides literal evidence of Obstruction of Justice which would open up a whole new can of worms. Also, when Joran carries through on his “we’ve got the power of the subpoena” schtick I hope every single journalist asks him on camera why he (and his cronies) didn’t recognize Congressional Committee subpoena authority last year? Flat-out REFUSED to honor it in fact!
What’s really scary is the intelligence thing however. As the Leader of the minority in the House McCarthy was a member of the “Gang of Eight”, that group that gets damned near every bit of the most sensitive intelligence and read in on active operations. So he KNOWS how fucking irresponsible and even deadly it would be to let so many asshats have access to that stuff. There’s a saying in intelligence that the ability to keep a secret is the SQUARE of the number of people in on it. So many irresponsible dumbasses as there are in the GOP would change it from squared to a much higher power. We’d have no more national security.
Being elected by voters isn’t good enough. I don’t care who it is, if they can’t pass a thorough background investigation like any regular person to qualify for the highest level clearance I don’t give a fuck what their elected (or appointed) position is – they shouldn’t have access to classified and especially highly classified information.
But I think you’re on to the real reason Gaetz let McCarthy get to the Speakership. He wanted access and access for his friends (and anyone else) to our nation’s most sensitive information. That’s one helluva trade-off McCarthy made. I’m both angered and sickened at the level of his desire to get that gavel. He’d hand over a teenage daughter to Gaetz (I have no idea whether he has one) pre-rufied to have gotten Gaetz to allow him to be Speaker. And Jordan’s lust for Chair of Judiciary is just as bad.
We now have a former coach complicit in allowing sexual abuse of young men, a high school drop out with an arrest record who’s married to a pervert who exposes himself to teenage girls, a child abuser who harasses a mass shooting survivor and believes Jewish space lazers can start fires in CA, and a horn dog who takes teenagers across state lines and pays them for sex, now playing at running our country. All so that a weak, pathetic loser named McCarthy could sit on a dais and wave his gavel while his nuts are in a vice.
I’m pissed.
They’re going t learn that DOJ doesn’t answer to them.
I disagree PJ. They are incapable of learning anything. They will fuck with any funding that supports anything they don’t like. That you can count on.
Well they might get to look at classified material, maybe. To go after the DOJ to me looks like something for a full body of congress and the president which they don’t have or it wouldn’t have taken 15 votes to put the moron into a completely moronic speakership.
So, if the House subpoenas information from the DOJ and the DOJ tells them to kick rocks, they refer them to… The DOJ for prosecution?