The 118th Congress voted on Tuesday along party-lines to establish the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government.

Championed by Rep. Tomas Massie (R-KY) and chaired by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), the committee is tasked with investigating federal abuse and efforts by the government to silence conservatives. Thirteen Republicans and five Democrats will have seats.

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) discussed the committee with Tucker Carlson last week:

A lot of this is going to play out in the SCIF [Secure Compartmented Information Facility]. You are going to have to trust the people that are put on this committee.

 

I’ll tell you what, if there’s something fishy going on, I’ll come out of the SCIF and tell you. But a lot of it will be behind closed doors, it will be classified information. If we find anything illegal or unconstitutional, we will bring it forward.

 

…We wanted to make sure we have full jurisdiction. If we stumble on something at another three-letter agency that they don’t say, ‘Whoa, that’s out of your jurisdiction,’ or if we find out there’s more than a violation of the First Amendment — if there are other civil rights being violated, we have secured a guarantee that we can go wherever the evidence leads us.

The subcommittee has been dubbed a “Church Committee” in reference to a 1975 committee chaired by Idaho Senator Frank Church (D) which investigated government abuses by the FBI, CIA, IRS, and NSA. Now, there will be another investigation of the same agencies.

Massie's “Church Committee” is a response to numerous allegations of abuse and corruption at the hand of the FBI, CIA, and other government entities.

The Twitter Files, released last month, showed that the federal government was deeply involved in censoring the American public on social media, by meeting with Twitter executives and flagging posts and accounts. The censorship was at its height during the 2020 Presidential Election.

The FBI paid Twitter at least $3.4 million to abide by its censorship requests, resulting in the suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story, according to internal documents released by Elon Musk.

Rep. Jim Jordan stated after the release of the Twitter Files:

Newly released information shows the FBI has coordinated extensively with Twitter to censor or otherwise affect content on Twitter’s platform. These documents show that the FBI maintained this relationship with Twitter apart from any particularized need for a specific investigation, but as a permanent and ongoing surveillance operation.

 

These revelations sadly reinforce our deep concerns about the FBI’s misconduct and its hostility to the First Amendment..

Leftist politicians and media have quickly accused conservatives of extremism.

The New York Times wrote that “in true Trump fashion, [Republicans] accuse anyone looking into the possibility of their corruption of being corrupt. They spin conspiracy theories into actual contempt.”

Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) claimed that the subcommittee was based on conspiracy theories:

This committee is nothing more than a deranged ploy by the MAGA extremists who have hijacked the Republican Party and now want to use taxpayer money to push their far-right conspiracy nonsense.

 

...I think we need to call this the tinfoil hat committee.

Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) said:

The Republicans are the party of law and order, and now they are out to destroy law and order as long as they think the agencies of law and order are conspiring against them and not working for them.

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) said during a floor speech:

We don’t want to go after anyone, we just want it to stop. And we want to respect the First Amendment to the Constitution that the greatest country in the world has. That’s what this committee is all about, and that’s what we’re gonna focus on, that’s what we are going to do.

Now that the GOP has a majority in the House of Representatives, conservatives have a chance to uncover the layers of collusion between the federal government and private corporations. The subcommittee will have access to sensitive information from the House Intelligence Committee and will have the ability to issue subpoenas.

Said Massie:

Those who argue against transparency may have something to hide.

 

So I listened when I heard the former chair of the Intelligence Committee give the reason that maybe we shouldn’t ask for this information from the intelligence community. He said the intelligence community after this committee may be reluctant to share information with Congress…

 

I would suggest that if they are reluctant, they are disqualified from holding these positions. If they have grown so big that they are no longer accountable to the branch of government that created them, that funds them, and is responsible for their oversight, then they need to be hemmed in.