The Inside Story: The Case against Donald J. Trump at the House Select Committee on Investigating the Cybercrime in the 21st Century
The House committee is going to give a final presentation on the case against Donald J. Trump at a public hearing in the next few days.
Armed with new witness interviews and unreleased footage of the violence of Jan. 6, 2021, the panel is planning to argue that Mr. Trump’s lies about widespread voter fraud inspired far-right extremists and election deniers who present a continuing threat to American democracy.
Ever since Donald Trump descended the Trump Tower escalator to Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World,” he’s remained the center of America’s political universe. There is a former congressman who feels that the fixation on the 45th president is now a distraction. He is only part of the story since Trumpism has grown larger than him.
The select committee devoted most of its time and resources to looking backwards. He is worried they missed something and still to come. “We’re trying to solve today’s problems tomorrow with yesterday’s technology. We’re in an information warfare battlespace,” Riggleman contends. “They’ve already changed their tactics. Deplatforming did not work. They go to other platforms.
The conservative who left the Republican Party after his same-sex wedding was thrown out of office, had asked for a $3.2 million budget for his digital sleuthing, but he was only allocated a fraction of that.
The coordination was overseen by members of Congress, the wife of a Supreme Court justice, numerous lawyers, little-known advisers and of course, Trumps most ardent supporters. Riggleman also revealed a mysterious nine-second phone call placed from the White House switchboard at 4:34 pm on January 6 to 26-year-old Anton Lunyk, who has since pleaded guilty to entering the Capitol. Despite these findings, the former intel officer bemoans not being able to go all the way down the meme- and hashtag-laden rabbit hole.
Jordan has a long list of inquiries, including border security, education policies during the Pandemic and alleged bias by the FBI. He’ll also lead a new subcommittee that will look into what the Ohio Republican calls “the weaponization” of the federal government.
When he arrived on Capitol Hill in 2007, Jordan began to focus on reducing the federal government as a member of the House Budget Committee. In one of his early floor speeches he stressed he was new to Washington, but said, “I’ve already learned the game is called spend at every opportunity.”
His zeal to rein in federal spending led to his election as the chair of the Republican Study Committee, a group of fiscal conservatives. He made it clear that he saw himself as a check on his party.
“I like to tell folks we’re the conservative conscience for Republicans here in the nation’s Capitol. And our job is to make Republicans act like Republicans,” Jordan said in an interview on C-SPAN in 2010.
He was able to confront his own leaders. The GOP lawmaker helped found the House Freedom Caucus in 2015. That group targeted then-Speaker John Boehner — from his own home state — and their battles contributed to him stepping down later that year.
Boehner labeled Jordan a “political terrorist,” criticizing him in an interview with CBS in 2021, saying, “I just never saw a guy who spent more time tearing things apart, never building anything, never putting anything together.”
McCarthy was the speaker after 15 ballots and four days. He gave Jordan a platform to be an architect of the GOP probes of the Biden administration.
Kevin McCarthy is the right guy to lead, said Jordan while speaking on the House floor. I do. I wouldn’t be standing up here giving this speech. I came in with Kevin. We came in the same time 16 years ago. We haven’t always agreed on everything. But I like his fight. I like his tenacity.”
Jordan said that Trump was being treated unfairly during the trial. “Democrats have never got over the fact that this new guy has never been in this town, never been in politics, this new guy came in here and is shaking this place up and that drives them crazy.”
Mick Mulvaney, a member of the Freedom Caucus and now a White House Chief of Staff for President Donald Trump, said Jordan was a key ally when he worked with him in the House.
“You never know when the light is going to shine on you and you have to be ready and I think Jim was. And Jim did a great job, I thought, on the impeachment. “He was always on the ball, and I talked to him frequently during that period,” Mulvaney said.
I would classify Jim as an investigator rather than a legislator, because he’s interested in transparency and accountability. I think Jim wouldn’t be very happy on the committee. I don’t think he’d be happy on appropriations. But the man is made to run the Judiciary Committee.”
Texas Republican Chip Roy is a member of that panel and says Jordan is the best person to lead that effort. “I don’t know anybody in town who is better prepared than Jim Jordan to go after the bureaucrats over in the executive branch and to bring a light to the weaponization of government against the American people. He’ll do a great job of it,” Roy told NPR recently.
The Republican-controlled House Judiciary and Oversight committees have held hearings on Biden’s policies, federal COVID spending, and the handling of allegations surrounding Hunter Biden’s laptop. GOP lawmakers, led by Jordan and Oversight Chairman Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., also intend to investigate the military withdrawal from Afghanistan, and whether Biden engaged in what they have called “influence peddling” while serving as vice president.
Mulvaney says impeachment should be preserved when there is strong evidence of high crimes and misdemeanors. I hope the Republicans go back to the standards they had before if they try to impeach Biden. It damn well better be for a really, really good reason.”
California Democrat Ted Lieu sits on the Judiciary Committee and told NPR recently about the panel’s new chairman, “I believe he has very extreme views. I also believe that he believes in those views so I respect that. Unlike Kevin McCarthy who I believe doesn’t actually believe in the things he says.”
“It’s going to be a challenge, there’s no question, because lawmakers have learned that being on the right committee can make them famous and they like that.”
The First Hearings of the Judiciary Panel: The Biden Border Crisis and the Case with the U.S.-Mexico Border
The chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee remarked that he and his counterpart on the House Judiciary panel, Jim Jordan, are spending a lot of time together.
The Kentucky congressman toldNPR that they had breakfast together this morning and worked together. He understands what we’re doing. We know what he’s doing. Our committee rooms are next to our staffs. So we work well together.
With the White House and Senate in Democratic hands, the hearings are part of a long laundry list the House GOP hopes to tackle this congressional session — a list that could also entail issuing subpoenas as part of their probes.
The Judiciary Committee’s first meeting will cover what Republicans have dubbed “The Biden Border Crisis,” part of the GOP’s look into concerns surrounding immigration and security at the U.S.-Mexico border.
The first hearing of the Oversight panel will be on spending tied to the relief bills, which he said isn’t given enough attention when Democrats controlled the House.
“There have been reports of lots of waste, fraud and abuse when it comes to the federal funds,” Comer said. “So we’re just going to work hard and get started there.”
At the same time, the panel led by Comer is conducting a probe into the Biden family and its business dealings. Republicans have not found new evidence to support their claims of improper behavior.
“The Democratic position is that legislative oversight is the critical instrument for making sure that we’re actually implementing our public laws and programs. The top Democrat on the committee believes that this is what we should be doing.
Republicans in the House made a campaign promise to investigate Democrats after they won a majority. And House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has repeatedly emphasized his conference will take on oversight of the Bidens and various federal agencies.
McCarthy said that Congress has a constitutional responsibility to oversee the Justice Department. “And that also means these … individuals investigating. We have the constitutional power to do that, and we will.”
“We’ll issue the subpoenas and try to get the information, documents that we need,” Jordan recently told reporters. If they give us the runaround, that’s how it will be. I suppose I expect that.
The recent discoveries tied to former president Trump and former vice president Biden, as well as the fact that the White House mishandled classified documents in the past, made everyone agree there could be legislative fixes to prevent this in the future.
“You know, I think that we all agree and Raskin has said this, too … that there needs to be reform,” Comer said. We’re going to try to figure out the severity of the problem by speaking with the National Archives.
On the use of the White House subcommittee to probe the obstruction of justice to the government: A new hearing on “weaponization of the federal government”
“Oversight is not about scandal mongering and sticking it to the other guys. The public should be aware of the government working for the people.
The new larger battle will play out publically and pit House Republicans against Democrats who are expected to conduct many probes and hearings.
A new House panel investigating the “weaponization of the federal government” held its first hearing on Thursday, as part of the Republican majority’s push to ramp up scrutiny of the Biden administration.
The roster of witnesses, whose interviews and statements are detailed in a 316-page report compiled by Democrats that was obtained by The New York Times, suggests that Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, the chairman of the panel, has so far relied on people who do not meet the definition of a whistle-blower and who have engaged in partisan conduct that calls into question their credibility. And it raises questions about whether Republicans, who have said that investigating the Biden administration is a top goal, will be able to deliver on their ambitious plans to uncover misdeeds at the highest levels.
The panel’s ranking Democrat, Del. Stacey Plaskett, said the panel’s Republicans are fueling dangerous rhetoric for law enforcement through its efforts. Plaskett represents the U.S. Virgin Islands and served as a House manager during former President Trump’s second impeachment trial.
She said that the use of the subcommittee as a place to settle scores, showcase conspiracy theories and advance extreme agenda threatens Americans’ faith in our democracy.
The promise was made and the new hearing is the latest effort to make good on it. Hardline conservatives had pushed for the panel’s formation in negotiations with now-Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
The subcommittee is expected to probe claims that the Department of Justice, FBI and other federal agencies are biased against conservatives. Republicans have voiced a long list of concerns, alleging the department mishandled allegations against former President Donald Trump, abused its surveillance powers and retaliated against parents who spoke out at school board meetings.
One of those surveys suggests a larger perception problem for the subcommittee: 56 percent of Americans said the panel is “just an attempt to score political points” in a Washington Post-ABC News poll.
WASHINGTON — House Republicans have spent months promising to use their majority to uncover an insidious bias against conservatives on the part of the federal government, vowing to produce a roster of brave whistle-blowers who would come forward to provide damning evidence of abuses aimed at the right.
The first three witnesses to testify before the committee investigating the misuse of the federal government have given no firsthand knowledge of wrongdoing or violation of the law according to Democrats on the panel. A group of disgruntled F.B.I. officials who took in right-wing conspiracy theories also received financial support from former President Donald J. Trump.