At Jim Jordan’s first ‘weaponization of government’ hearing, Democrats say that’s exactly what Republicans are doing

WASHINGTON, D. C. – U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, a Champaign County Republican, opened the first hearing of a new Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government by alleging a litany of improper political acts by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

According to Jordan, the FBI created a “threat tag” to describe parents who spoke out at school board meetings. It purged employees who attended conservative political events, took private user information on conservatives from Facebook without those users consent, and is deliberately manipulating the case files of Jan. 6 rioters “to make it appear that extremism is on the rise.”

“Protecting the First Amendment shouldn’t be partisan,” Jordan declared, as he urged Democrats to cooperate in his probe. “Protecting the Constitution shouldn’t be partisan, and protecting the fundamental principle of equal treatment under the law should not be partisan.”

Democrats on Jordan’s subcommittee described its activities as a partisan exercise that itself constituted government weaponization. It’s top Democrat, Del. Stacey Plaskett of the Virgin Islands, said she believes Republicans will try to use the subcommittee to “look into and potentially muck up” federal criminal investigations of ex-President Donald Trump and said Democrats will resist those efforts.

“I’m deeply concerned about the use of this select subcommittee as a place to settle scores, showcase conspiracy theories, and advance an extreme agenda that risks undermining Americans faith in our democracy,” Plaskett continued. “Some of today’s witnesses would have us believe that the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are part of a deep state cabal.”

The committee’s inquiry kicked off with testimony from a pair of Republican U.S. Senators – Iowa’s Chuck Grassley and Wisconsin’s Ron Johnson – who accused the FBI and Justice Department of undermining their investigation of financial relationships and ties to communist-connected Chinese nationals for Hunter Biden, the president’s son, and James Biden, the president’s brother. Grassley said their repeated efforts to classify the probe as Russian disinformation amounted to “government abuse and political treachery.”

Johnson contrasted the “fervor” with which Department of Justice pursued Jan. 6 rioters with its lack of interest in prosecuting Black Lives Matter rioters the previous summer. He also claimed there’s a cover up of how former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci tried “to hide his agency’s role in funding dangerous research that might have led to the creation of the deadly coronavirus.”

Former Democratic U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, of Hawaii, cited a long list of consequential government lies, such as the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq before the U.S. sent in troops, claims of success in Afghanistan despite failure after failure, and the Pentagon Papers revealing lies about illegal government surveillance of Americans.

She claimed that a “cozy relationship” between the White House, FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and big tech led to her Google ad account being mysteriously suspended after people began conducting online searches about her presidential candidacy following her participation in a 2019 Democratic primary debate.

She said that when those who dare to challenge the establishment are targeted by a powerful conglomerate of government, corporate media, and big tech, “we start looking less and less like a democratic republic, and more and more like a banana republic.”

Democratic U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin, of Maryland, declared the point of the committee was for Republicans to weaponize the government themselves, claiming its name “constitutes a case of pure psychological projection.” He said the Trump administration weaponized the government by trying to cover up its own wrongdoing by firing inspectors general at federal agencies.

“When former President Donald Trump and his followers accuse you of doing something, they’re usually telling you exactly what their own plans are,” said Raskin. “By establishing a select subcommittee on weaponization, they are telling us that Donald Trump’s followers, who obviously control the subcommittee, will continue weaponizing any part of the government they can get their hands on to attack their enemies, defined as anyone who stands in the way of their quest for power.”

He said that politicians’ denunciations of the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security triggered an increase in violent threats posted on social media against those agencies, linking them to an armed man’s attack on Cincinnati’s FBI field office last year.

“The public wonders whether members who refuse to comply with congressional subpoenas themselves should be issuing congressional subpoenas to other people,” Raskin added. He was referring to Jordan’s failure to comply with a subpoena issued last year by the the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol.

A White House memo issued before the hearing described the committee as a “Fox News reboot of the House Un-American Activities Committee” and categorized it as “a political stunt that weaponizes Congress to carry out the priorities of extreme MAGA Republicans in Congress.“

“These extreme MAGA Republicans in Congress are choosing to make it their top priority to go down the rabbit hole of debunked conspiracy theories about a ‘deep state’ instead of taking a deep breath and deciding to work with the President and Democrats in Congress to improve Americans’ everyday lives,” said the memo from White House spokesman Ian Sams.

Sabrina Eaton covers the federal government and politics in Washington, D.C., for Cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer. Read more of her work here.

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