JIM JORDAN CAN NOW INVESTIGATE THE INVESTIGATORS - UPDATE

With the adoption of the McCarthyite House Rules for the 118th Congress having been accepted by the House Republicans 220-213 Monday evening, the stage was set for Congressman JungleGym Jordan, one of four House Republicans who defied a subpeona from the House Select January 6 Committee, to take the gloves off and go after the J6 Special Committee, the Department of Justice, the Special Prosecutor’s Office, the FBI, and any other governmental body on Trump’s “enemies list.”

The resolution entitled “Establishing a Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government” became “law” with that vote so far as the House of Representatives is concerned. This special investigative subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee will be controlled by Jordan.

Today, in line with the rules resolution, the House Republicans voted to create this committee.

Essentially, this subcommittee is a combinations of Republican revenge and Seditionist interference. It plays directly to the base, which has been conditioned over the past two years by the propagandists of the Seditionist Entertainment Complex to believe that the government is deliberately persecuting conservatives, something that has been so long believed by these people that possession of a persecution complex is necessary to gain admittance to the Party of Kooks and Krazies.

According to the resolution, there will be 15 members, led by a Republican Chair and a Democratic Ranking Member. The resolution says that the Speaker is to appoint the committee members, and “not more than five shall be appointed in consultation with the Minority Leader.” What this means is a committee with six Democrats - the Ranking member and five other Democrats, and nine Republican members - the Chairman (there is no doubt it will be a man) and eight Republicans.

Joyce Vance correctly pointed out in her Substack post Monday night that Hakeem Jeffries will not make the same mistake McCarthy made with the January 6 committee and refuse to participate. As she put it, “Democrats will send their best and brightest, and likely a number of old DOJ hands who will be able to call out Republican members if they exceed the bounds of legitimate oversight, as they inevitably will, given their rhetoric in the run-up to this.” She’s also on solid ground to say that “Of course, that’s likely to fall on deaf ears.” As of this afternoon following the vote to create the committee, Jeffries has not announced appointment of any Democrats.

Already, Seditionist representative Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, who is under active investigation by the Special Prosecutor’s Office for his role in the fake electors conspiracy, has announced his desire to be appointed to the committee, and said Sunday in an interview at Faux Snooze that he would not recuse himself even if indicted because ““Why should I be limited? Why should anybody be limited just because someone has made an accusation? Everybody in America is innocent until proven otherwise.”

We can safely bet the other Republicans on this committee will also not have to wear a mask to show up as foxes at any masked balls held in any DC chicken coops.

There’s no indication at this point that Republicans will exclude any of their members out of concern over potential conflicts of interest.

Somehow it seems likely that at least two or three of the Republicans McCarthy will appoint will be names familiar from the list of those who conspired with Mark Meadows to interfered with the certification of the vote. After all, there’s a total of 120 of those who voted the night of the insurrection to oppose the approval of the electoral account, who are active members of the House Republican caucus in this congress.

Jordan comes into the new Congress as a kingmaker unaccountable to anyone or anything, having backed McCarthy to the hilt; as a result, he’s won newfound powers as chairman of the Judiciary Committee. However, if he overreaches in who he takes on board, he will be handing Democrats an argument regarding committee bias that will be easy for even the DC Press Corpse to understand.

The resolution explicitly authorizes the this subcommittee to review “ongoing criminal investigations.” It also authorizes access to any classified/national security information that would go to the House Intelligence Committee from any of the intelligence community agencies.

And the resolution places the power to authorize subpoenas for the investigations the panel will be conducting in Jordan. How a former assistant wrestling coach who knows nothing about the operation of the judicial system - the only non-lawyer ever made chairman of this committee - is in this position is a tribute to the strong Republican belief in having a thug in position to attack the rule of law whenever necessary.

There is indeed “something happening here,” and “what it is” needs to be “exactly clear” about what the purpose of this committee is and what it will be doing.

The resolution that establishes this committee goes far beyond the legitimate scope of traditional congressional oversight.

There has never been a committee charged with reviewing criminal cases while they’re in progress, which would overstep Congress’s bounds and violate the constitutional separation of powers.

That doesn’t matter. The Republicans know this. They are aggressively trying to confuse the public’s opinion of the Department of Justice, as Trump did in the Mueller investigation of his collusion with Vladimir Putin in 2016, as he did this weekend with his rants on Truth Social continuing the already-refuted claims that the FBI search of Mar-A-Lardo was illegal and the documents found there were “planted.”

This is all an effort to blunt the impact of any indictments against Trump that may ultimately be issued.

This is how House Republicans plan to interfere with any investigations or indictments of Trump, or George Santos or Matt Gaetz, or Scott Perry, or any onther congressional Republican whose participation in the insurrection becomes subject of any further investigation.

The committee will be used to create a distraction to those events, with Jordan issuing subpoenas regarding the Hunter Biden investigation, currently in the hands of a Trump-holdover U.S. Attorney in Delaware. Representative James Comer (KY), chair of the House Oversight Committee, already admitted to Chuck Todd on Press the Meat Sunday that it is their plan to try to embarrass President Joe Biden and argue that his Justice Department is giving favorable treatment to his son, which clearly isn’t happening.

As a matter of policy, the Department of Justice doesn’t turn over material that is part of an ongoing investigation. This long-standing policy ensures the integrity of criminal investigations.

The department will not say “aye, aye sir” and comply with the subcommittee if it makes improper requests. They will go to court to defend their investigations. As Rachel said Monday evening, imagine the Trump Supreme Court getting that case.

What the committee will likely attempt at that point is to subject the subpoenaed witnesses to contempt proceedings, with the department’s entirely proper refusal to turn over case material used as a pretext to impeach Attorney General Merrick Garland.

Should DOJ obtain indictments that include Republican members of the committee (like Perry), those defendants will attempt to throw sand in the gears by portraying the indictment as revenge for the committee’s work.

Oversight Committee ranking member Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), quipped to a colleague that the panel is "insurrection protection." He told Axios: "It's an anti-law enforcement committee. It's meant to be obstructing law enforcement."

UPDATE: Demonstrating that Democrats are finally “getting it” on messaging and the use of languge, the House Democrats are now calling this committee The Special Subcommittee for the Obstruction of Justice.

I shall be using that from now on here at TAFM.

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