(FiveNation.com)- Last Tuesday, the Republican-led House voted to establish the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government.
The subcommittee, which passed along partisan lines, 221-211, was a product of the negotiations between Speaker Kevin McCarthy and the Republican hold-outs and is modeled after the 1975 Church Committee chaired by former Senator Frank Church.
The subcommittee will have 13 members, including 5 selected by House Minority Leader, Democrat Hakeem Jeffries. It is expected to probe multiple government agencies, including the Department of Justice, the FBI, and intelligence communities, and will have access to classified documents ordinarily reserved for the House Intelligence Committee.
It is expected that the subcommittee will also seek access to information related to the Biden administration’s ongoing criminal investigations, however, some pushback from the White House is anticipated.
Ohio Republican Jim Jordan will chair the subcommittee, which will be housed within the Judiciary Committee.
In his floor speech last week, Jordan cited the recent revelations from the “Twitter Files,” as well as the FBI raiding and arresting pro-life activists using the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrance (FACE) Act, as well as the DOJ’s memo directing the FBI to investigate parents protesting at school boards as the reasons such an investigation was necessary.
While subcommittee members have yet to be appointed by Speaker McCarthy, some Republicans who have been suggested include Dan Bishop of North Carolina and Thomas Massie of Kentucky.
The Washington Post’s Leigh Ann Caldwell reported last week that Judiciary Committee ranking member, Democrat Jerry Nadler, said he will serve as the ranking member of the subcommittee.
Other possible Republican appointees include House Intelligence Committee chair Mike Turner of Ohio and Freedom Caucus member Chip Roy of Texas, who was central in the deal reached with McCarthy.
In a column at the Western Journal last Tuesday, former Trump National Security Advisor Mike Flynn, himself a target of government weaponization, said the establishment of the subcommittee “could give us one more opportunity to restore much of our constitutional republic.”
