Ladies and gentlemen, game on. Let’s hope so, at least.
The anticipated launch of the critical Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government is part of newly elected Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s negotiations with the “conservative faction” in the Republican Caucus in his four-day, 15-vote battle to wind the gavel.
As reported by Axios earlier Monday, Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who supported McCarthy’s bid, will lead the subcommittee that will investigate communications between the Biden administration and Big Tech companies, facilitated in part by revelations from the release of the Twitter Files.
The probe into texts and emails, along with other correspondence between the tech giants and the administration will look for government pressure that could have resulted in censorship or harassment of conservatives — or censoring of debate on polarizing policies, including the CDC on COVID.
Here’s more, via Axios.
The new panel, the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, is partly a response to revelations from Elon Musk in the internal documents he branded the Twitter Files.
The request for documents will be followed by “compulsory processes,” including subpoenas if needed.The subcommittee’s top target is “the politicization of the FBI,” including scrutiny of the investigations of Russian interference in the 2016 election.
The subcommittee also will look into Anthony Fauci and his approach to COVID misinformation and disinformation … the Justice Department’s interaction with local school boards on masking and other COVID policies … and the Department of Homeland Security’s failed effort to create a Disinformation Governance Board.
Jordan hinted at his plans last month in a series of letters to the CEOs of Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, and Microsoft, demanding information on what he called “the nature and extent of your companies’ collusion with the Biden Administration.” Jordan told the companies they should preserve any existing or future records related to his request for communications with the executive branch about “moderation, deletion, suppression, restricting or reduced circulation of content.”
Facebook parent Meta and Microsoft previously declined to comment on Jordan’s letters. The three other companies did not respond to previous requests for comment.
Incidentally, as I reported earlier on Monday, Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Scott Perry, a fierce Trump ally and head of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, told ABC News “This Week” host George Stephanopoulos on Sunday that he might seek to participate on the committee, which would be ironic, given that FBI agents seized his personal cellphone the day after the raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home.
As I rhetorically asked in the article, is a bit of karma at play, here? In Jordan’s case, we’re talking karma on steroids.
Funny how winning elections changes things, huh? Let’s not screw up 2024.