As the Republican Party prepares to take the new majority in the House of Representatives, one of the party’s planned moves involves a subcommittee dedicated to investigating abuses of power by federal agencies in recent years, particularly those that targeted conservatives for censorship and suppression.
According to Axios, the investigation will be led by a new subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee, which will be called the “Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government.”
A major motivation for the new subcommittee is the widespread backlash after the release of the “Twitter Files,” a series of threads that have been posted since the company was bought by Elon Musk. Musk, who has vowed to make Twitter more transparent and friendlier to free speech, has exposed many details of Twitter’s collusion with the federal government, including the FBI, to systematically censor conservatives.
The new subcommittee is set to have a particular focus on the FBI, the Department of Justice (DOJ), and the intelligence community, all of which have since been confirmed to have had direct lines of communication with Twitter employees. One focus in the investigation of the DOJ will be the department’s failed attempt to create its own “Disinformation Governance Board,” a move that was announced almost immediately after Musk first announced his intention to buy Twitter. The Orwellian name of the project, along with the blatant partisan leanings of its would-be chair Nina Jankowicz, ultimately led to the DOJ scrapping the plan before it ever got started.
Congressman Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who is hoping to become the next Speaker of the House, has already met with two incoming committee chairmen, Congressman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Congressman James Comer (R-Ky.), to discuss the planned investigation. Jordan is expected to become the next chair of the House Judiciary Committee, while Comer will lead the House Oversight Committee.
The Republican majority will officially take power when the entirety of the new Congress is sworn in on Tuesday, January 3rd.