House Republicans are preparing a wide-ranging investigation into law enforcement and national security agencies, raising the prospect of politically charged fights with the Biden administration over access to sensitive information like highly classified intelligence and details of continuing criminal inquiries by the Justice Department. The House plans to vote this week on a resolution to create a special Judiciary subcommittee on what it calls the “weaponization of the federal government,” a topic that Republicans have signaled could include reviewing investigations into former President Trump, the New York Times reports. The panel would be overseen by Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH), who is also poised to become the Judiciary Committee’s chairman. Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, a lead negotiator for hard-right lawmakers who pushed House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s team for concessions, portrayed the panel as part of the agreement they struck for their support. He said McCarthy had committed to giving the subcommittee at least as much funding and staffing as the special committee in the last Congress that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
“So we got more resources, more specificity, more power to go after this recalcitrant Biden administration,” Roy said. “That’s really important.” McCarthy said Saturday, “We will hold the swamp accountable, from the withdrawal of Afghanistan, to the origins of COVID and to the weaponization of the FBI ... Let me be very clear: We will use the power of the purse and the power of the subpoena to get the job done.” The text of the resolution establishing the subcommittee would give the panel essentially open-ended jurisdiction to scrutinize any issue related to civil liberties or to examine how any agency of the federal government has collected, analyzed and used information about Americans — including “ongoing criminal investigations.” Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, said, “this new thing, fueled by conspiracy theories and slated to be run by the most extreme members of the MAGA caucus,” was likely to be similar to the notorious House Un-American Activities Committee of the mid-20th century.
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