WASHINGTON -- The newly enhanced House Republicans are planning an extensive probe into the work of law enforcement and security agencies of the national level, bringing up the possibility of politically charged battles between the Biden administration regarding access to sensitive information such as highly classified intelligence, as well as the details of ongoing Justice Department criminal investigations.

The House is expected to vote this week over a motion that will create a new House Judiciary subcommittee on what it calls the "weaponization of the federal government," which is a subject Republicans have suggested could involve investigating the former president Donald J. Trump.

The panel will be supervised by Rep. Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio who is likely to be the Judiciary Committee's chair. It is unclear what other Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who made many concessions to the far-right segment of his party in order to be elected speaker to become speaker, will choose to chair it.

In an interview with Fox News interview on Friday evening, Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, an advocate for right-wing lawmakers who pressured McCarthy. McCarthy's team to make concessions, described the panel as a part of the deal they signed in exchange for their acceptance. He claimed that the Mr. McCarthy had committed to providing the subcommittee with at least the same amount of funding and personnel in the same way as that of the House special committee from the previous Congress that was investigating an attack on the Capitol in January. 6 attack at the Capitol.

"So we got more resources, more specificity, more power to go after this recalcitrant Biden administration," Mr. Roy said. "That's really important."

A spokesperson of Ms. Jordan did not reply to a request to comment however, the man as well as the other candidate for president. McCarthy have spoken for months about their need for an investigation. They also pledged voters in the 2022 election to pursue one.

"We will hold the swamp accountable, from the withdrawal of Afghanistan, to the origins of Covid and to the weaponization of the F.B.I.," Mr. McCarthy said in his first remarks as a speaker early Saturday. "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 resolution that establishes the subcommittee will provide the panel with essentially unlimited authority to examine any issue that concerns civil liberties, or to investigate how any federal agency has collected, evaluated and utilized information on Americans including "ongoing criminal investigations."

It is known that the Justice Department has traditionally resisted providing information to Congress about criminal investigations that are open to the public this suggests that legal and political battles over executive privilege and subpoenas are likely to be on the horizon.

Electing a New Speaker of the House

Rep. Kevin McCarthy won the speakership following a rebellion in his own Republican Party triggered a long period of unsuccessful votes.

Republicans are pushing the idea of. Jordan's group as the brand new "Church Committee," referring to a probe conducted led by senator Frank Church, Democrat of Idaho which revealed years of violations of civil liberties by both presidents.

In a world where Trump is. Trump has been the victim of numerous criminal investigations over the years -and ongoing inquiries about his attempts to rescind the results of the 2020 election and the storing of documents that are sensitive --- Democrats have predicted that the new subcommittee on investigation would have a more partisan outlook.

The Representative Jerrold Nadler from New York, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, said the Church Committee had been "a serious and bipartisan attempt to reform the conduct of the intelligence community, based on hard and verifiable evidence."

In contrast, he stated the "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 a lot like the famous House Un-American Activities Committee of the latter half of the 20th century.

The late Mr. Jordan is a staunch all-weather ally and ally of President. Trump. In the last year, when he was the most powerful Republican in the Judiciary Committee when his party was still in minority, he was in charge of the production of a report by his staff which claimed that the F.B.I. was a spy agency that "spied on President Trump's campaign and ridiculed conservative Americans" and that "rot inside the F.B.I. is a constant threat to Washington."

The resolution seems to grant Trump the power to ask authorities at the Justice Department for information about the special counsel's investigation regarding Mr. Trump's efforts to thwart the 2020 election, and his handling of classified documents, in addition to other political-sensitive issues like an open tax probe on the son of President Biden, Hunter Biden.

The resolution will also give Ms. Jordan's panel with the ability to obtain the sensitive information the intelligence organizations release to their oversight committees that is, which is the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

Intelligence Committee members have access to secret information that is most sensitive within the government, including details regarding covert activities that aren't disclosed to other lawmakers. In general, House leaders tend to assign to the members of the intelligence committee of their own party who they believe are particularly trustworthy to not divulge classified information.

As Mr. Jordan's investigation unit will be housed in the Judiciary Committee, its 13 members which includes eight who will be Republicans will not be restricted to the lawmakers of that committee.

It's unclear the case, for example, if Republican leadership would choose hard-right candidates, such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Georgia Republican who was stripped of duties on the committee in 2021 due to posting a string of threatening and violent social media posts prior to when the election. It is believed that Mr. McCarthy has already promised her a place as a member of the House Oversight Committee, and she resisted other ultra-right-wing members to vote for his run for the speakership on the very beginning, like the other candidate, Mr. Jordan.

This could result in lawmakers attempting to investigate the findings of a Justice Department investigation as that investigation might examine the lawmakers' behavior regarding the events of Jan. 6.

In an interview with the ABC show "The Week" on Sunday the representative Scott Perry, a Pennsylvania Republican who played a key part during Mr. Trump's efforts to overturn the outcomes of the election in 2020, denied a suggestion that he should not be a member as a member of the. Jordan's subcommittee since it might examine his investigation of Jan. 6 investigation, and also being a testifying witness to the investigation -- in which the F.B.I. has taken his cell phone -and he was in an unrelated conflict of interest.

"Why should I be limited -- why should anybody be limited just because someone has made an accusation?" Mr. Perry said, adding: "I get accused of various things every day, as do all members who work in the public in the public's eye. However, that shouldn't hinder you from performing your duties. It's our job and mine."

Certain Republicans may also consider the panel an opportunity to discuss culture war concerns and spread conspiracy theories. In an interview with Fox Roy. Roy described the subcommittee's purpose as being "after the weaponization of the government, the F.B.I., the intel agencies, D.H.S., all of them that have been, you know, labeling Scott Smith a domestic terrorist."

Actually, no government agency ever classified him as as a terrorist in the United States. He. Smith, whose daughter was sexually assaulted in a toilet in a school located in Virginia was detained after the victim yelled at him during an assembly of the school board during a chaotic and tense debate about bathroom policies on transgender children. He was found guilty of unruly behavior.

In September 2021 in September 2021, The National School Boards Association sent Mr. Biden a letter pointing to a growing trend of violence and threats to school officials. The letter also made a brief mention of Smith's arrest. Smith's arrest, which was among an exhaustive list of incidents and a footnote to an report of the meeting which briefly mentioned the arrest but not providing details of the incident that his daughter was allegedly assaulted. The letter also noted that the acts of violence and threats towards school personnel could qualify as "equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes," and requested federal assistance.

The next day the attorney general Merrick Garland. Garland released a memorandum instructing U.S. attorneys and the F.B.I. to organize meetings throughout the United States together with officials from local authorities to talk about "strategies for addressing threats" against teachers and school officials. The memo didn't call anyone a domestic terrorist and it specifically distinguished the spirited debate, which is constitutionally protected from violence and threats.

However, voices from the right have created Smith. Smith a cause celebre by falsely telling their followers and readers that Biden's Justice Department and the F.B.I. find parents who don't agree with liberal school policies as domestic terrorists.

The subcommittee inquiry suggested by the chairman. Jordan is just one of many investigations House Republicans are planning to consider this week.

In a separate rules package that is scheduled to go to a vote on Monday is an extensive investigation into the coronavirus epidemic which includes the source of the disease, what's known as gain-of function research, the creation of vaccines as well as the conduct by the doctor. Anthony S. Fauci,. Biden's former chief medical adviser who Republicans have promised to bring before the committee for questioning.

Republicans plan to create an investigation committee that will investigate Chinese government. Chinese administration's "economic, technological and security progress, and its competition with the United States."

Each of the China investigation as well as the investigation into law enforcement will come up for an election on Tuesday.

Catie Edmondson contributed reporting.
http://www.dream11today.com/house-republicans-preparing-broad-inquiry-into-f-b-i-and-security-agencies/