1st Subcommittee Hearing Today on The Weaponization of The Federal Government

Today was the first Subcommittee Hearing on the weaponization of the Federal Government. I haven’t been able to listen to much of it today because I’ve been busy. I didn’t see a thread made and wanted to put this here for those interested and to add to discussion.

Full Hearing:

Jim Jordan opening remarks; going over the numerous amounts of FBI whistle blowers and why they were let go from FBI:


Matt Gaetz: Grills Lobbyist: We're Not Here To Trash The FBI, We're Here To Rescue The FBI From Political Capture

www.realclearpolitics.com... ture.html

a reply to: Onlyyouknow

Former FBI special agent Nicole Parker says bureau became 'politically weaponized,' trickled down from HQ 😎🚬

A former FBI special agent on Thursday delivered an emotional testimony before the House Subcommittee on Weaponization, telling lawmakers that she had resigned from the bureau after it had become "politically weaponized."

Nicole Parker, a former FBI special agent who served in the bureau from 2011-22, reflected on her career, saying that she had felt she had been making an "impactful difference."

"Every day, I woke up and embraced being an FBI special agent. Until things changed," she said, adding that the FBI’s "trajectory transformed."

a reply to: Onlyyouknow

Was yesterday's thread about the executive criminals at Twitter, a separate hearing?

originally posted by: carewemust
a reply to: Onlyyouknow

Was yesterday's thread about the executive criminals at Twitter, a separate hearing?

Yes, it's 2 different hearings.

originally posted by: v1rtu0s0

originally posted by: carewemust
a reply to: Onlyyouknow

Was yesterday's thread about the executive criminals at Twitter, a separate hearing?

Yes, it's 2 different hearings.

Thanks. Then the two committees need to merge, because Twitter executives committed crimes at the behest of criminals working inside the FBI/DOJ/StateDept.

originally posted by: carewemust

originally posted by: v1rtu0s0

originally posted by: carewemust
a reply to: Onlyyouknow

Was yesterday's thread about the executive criminals at Twitter, a separate hearing?

Yes, it's 2 different hearings.

Thanks. Then the two committees need to merge, because Twitter executives committed crimes at the behest of criminals working inside the FBI/DOJ/StateDept.

Yeah, I watched the one today which is about the weaponization of government, basically meaning Rouge FBI deep state element, and dozens of FBI whistle blowers called it out.

originally posted by: v1rtu0s0

originally posted by: carewemust

originally posted by: v1rtu0s0

originally posted by: carewemust
a reply to: Onlyyouknow

Was yesterday's thread about the executive criminals at Twitter, a separate hearing?

Yes, it's 2 different hearings.

Thanks. Then the two committees need to merge, because Twitter executives committed crimes at the behest of criminals working inside the FBI/DOJ/StateDept.

Yeah, I watched the one today which is about the weaponization of government, basically meaning Rouge FBI deep state element, and dozens of FBI whistle blowers called it out.

A big problem is every Attorney General since Barack Obama was President, appears to have been corrupt and lacking in integrity in some way.

Congresswoman Stefanik during her time questioning the witnesses:
“Are you aware, as the American people are aware that according to polling, of the people that were made aware of the Hunter Biden laptop story, 53 percent would have changed their vote, including 61 percent of Democrats. This is the definition of election meddling, and it's the definition of election meddling by the FBI on behalf of Democrats paid for by the U.S. taxpayers. It's collusion. It's corruption, and it's unconstitutional.

a reply to: xuenchen

She did get emotional; I got a little teary eyed with her.

SAME COMMITTEE CONDUCTING THIS INVESTIGATION???

Washington — Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, the Republican chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, has made the panel's first official requests for documents from President Biden's son, Hunter Biden, and his brother, James Biden, over foreign business pursuits.

In letters first obtained by CBS News, Comer informed Hunter and James Biden, as well as their then-business manager, that he is seeking documents and communications from the Bidens as part of his committee's probe into to any possible involvement by the president in their financial conduct, in particular in foreign business deals "with individuals who were connected to the Chinese Communist Party."

Comer accused them in his letter of receiving "significant amounts of money from foreign companies without providing any known legitimate services."

Comer has asked the president's son and brother for any record "designated classified" the two may possess, plus communications between the president or James Biden and his wife, Sara Jones Biden, and Hunter Biden over an 11-year period from Jan. 20, 2009, regarding travel and financial activity.

Now that the Republicans are in the majority in the House, they have subpoena power.

Comer has given the Bidens until Feb. 22 to respond before he considers issuing a subpoena for documents and testimony. Speaking to CBS News, Comer did not rule out subpoenas as early as April.

Source:
www.cbsnews.com...

The first panel of 3 to testify were:
Senator Chuck Grassley; here is the text of his opening remark/testimony:
judiciary.house.gov...

Thank you, Chairman Jordan and Ranking Member Plaskett. I appreciate the opportunity to speak today before this select subcommittee. What I’m about to tell you sounds like it’s out of some fiction spy thriller, but it actually happened. And it happened in our own government. Congressional oversight is a constitutional demand. I’ve dedicated my career to it. And during the course of my career, I’ve run countless investigations. In the past few years, I’ve never seen so much effort from the FBI, partisan media and some of my Democratic colleagues to interfere with and undermine very legitimate congressional inquiries. It’s become a triad of disinformation and outright falsehoods….

Senator Ron Johnson; text of his opening remarks:

judiciary.house.gov...

Chairman Jordan, Ranking Member Plaskett, Members of the Select Subcommittee. Thank you for inviting me to testify about my personal knowledge of, and experience with, federal agencies being weaponized against U.S. citizens. Senator Grassley has just described the most egregious examples undertaken by multiple actors and agencies to undermine and sabotage our joint investigations. At the outset, it is important to recognize corrupt individuals within federal agencies are not acting alone. They operate as vital partners of the leftwing political movement that includes most members of the mainstream media, big tech social media giants, global institutions and foundations, Democrat Party operatives, and elected officials. As the Twitter files reveal, these actors work in concert to defeat their political opponents and promote leftwing ideology and government control over our lives. My eyes began opening to this reality with the disclosure of how the Obama administration weaponized the IRS to harass Tea Party groups by denying them tax-exempt status. My personal knowledge and experience with agency corruption began in 2015 when I became Chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs….

Representative Jamie Raskin, Maryland; no text found

Former U.S. Representative Tulsi Gabbard; text of her opening remarks:

judiciary.house.gov...

“Without Freedom of Thought, there can be no such thing as Wisdom; and no such thing as public liberty, without Freedom of Speech.” - Benjamin Franklin I love our country. I cherish our God-given freedoms enshrined in the Constitution. Like you, I swore an oath, both as a soldier and as a Member of Congress, to support and defend the Constitution of the United States, against all enemies foreign and domestic. I had the privilege of serving alongside many of you in Congress for eight years representing the people of Hawaii’s 2nd District on the Armed Services and Foreign Affairs committees. I’m honored to continue to serve as a Lieutenant Colonel in the US Army Reserves for almost 20 years. Through that time, I’ve deployed to three warzones and participated in multiple overseas training exercises where I’ve seen firsthand what life is like in countries where there is no First Amendment, no free press; where government deems itself to be the moral arbiter, dictating to the people what is right and wrong, what can and cannot be said, who can speak, who cannot, who is free to worship and who is not. Our founders understood the importance of enshrining our God-given freedoms in the Constitution and Bill of Rights, so that no matter which party or person happens to be in power at any given time, our founding documents serve as a reminder of the freedoms guaranteed to every American. Thomas Paine, said: “He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from opposition; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.”— Dissertations on First Principles of Government, Thomas Paine……

a reply to: carewemust
Sorry Care, I tried to edit my OP to clarify the committee but I waited too long and can’t now.

Here is page for this House Judiciary Select Subcommittee holding the hearing today:

judiciary.house.gov...

And here are the members:

judiciary.house.gov...

Yesterday’s hearing about Twitter was in the Committee for Oversite and Accountability:

oversight.house.gov...

Here is the page that lists all of the different House Committees:

www.house.gov...

The second panel to testify were:

Mr. Thomas Baker, Former FBI Agent ( not the same attorney Baker that was in Twitter hearing yesterday) text of opening remarks here:

judiciary.house.gov...

Americans have lost faith in the Federal Bureau of Investigation, an institution they once regarded as the world’s greatest law enforcement agency. I spent many years with the FBI, and am deeply troubled by this loss of faith. Specific lapses have come to light, many of which will be focused on by this panel. But why did they happen? What changed? The answer begins days after the 9/11 attacks with a cultural change at the Bureau. –not Culture is where it starts.

The Department of Justice Inspector General’s reports a pattern of deliberate omissions, misstatements, and outright falsifications by different investigative teams. This widespread behavior describes a culture just the work of a “few bad apples.” In what is certainly an understatement, the Inspector General (IG) concluded the Bureau’s actions “fell short of what is rightfully expected from a premier law enforcement agency.” That may be because they were acting and thinking as an intelligence agency, rather than a law enforcement agency.

To understand how far the Bureau has fallen, I ask you to look at the good role played by the FBI and FBI agents in past decades. I hope I can impress upon you - from my firsthand experience - the reverence the Bureau had for the Constitution and the concern agents held for the rights of Americans. It was once the norm.

A Change in Culture Robert S. Mueller III was at Camp David the Saturday morning after the September 11, 2001 attacks. Just days into his tenure as FBI director, he was humiliated when President George W. Bush dismissed his reporting and said he wanted him to prevent another attack. After his experience at Camp David, Mueller resolved and resolutely set about to change the FBI “culture.” That’s the word he used. He was going to make it into an intelligence agency, or in his….

Professor Jonathan Turley, George Washington University Law Center: text of opening remarks:

judiciary.house.gov...

Chairman Jordan, ranking member Nadler, members of the Select Subcommittee, my name is Jonathan Turley, and I am a law professor at George Washington University, where I hold the J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Chair of Public Interest Law.

1 It is an honor to appear before you today to discuss the weaponization of the federal government. For the purposes of background, I come to this subject as someone who has written,2 litigated,3 and testified4 in the areas of congressional oversight and the First Amendment for decades.

I have also represented the United States House of Representatives in litigation.5 I am admittedly someone who has been called a free speech absolutist. While I do accept some limits on free speech, it is certainly true that I tend to oppose most criminalization, censorship, and regulation of speech.

My testimony today obviously reflects that past work, but I hope to offer a fair understanding of the governing constitutional provisions, case law, and standards that bear on this question. It is my sincere hope that there is room for bipartisan agreement on exposing the past government involvement in censorship systems implemented by social media companies.

There are legitimate disagreements on how Congress should address the role of the government in such censorship. The first step, however, is to fully understand the role played in prior years and to address the deep-seated doubts of many Americans concerning the actions of the FBI and other agencies….

Mr. Elliot Williams, Principal, the Raben Group; opening remarks here:

judiciary.house.gov...

Ms. Nicole Parker, Former FBI Agent; opening remarks here:

judiciary.house.gov...

Chairman Jordan, Ranking Member Plaskett and Members of the Subcommittee, I would like to thank you for inviting me to come and respectfully speak with you today. The people of this country deserve the right to have faith in those sworn to protect. Faith is the foundation of hope; hope can be restored through honest reflection of who we have become, and who we could and should be.

On September 11, 2001, I was working for Merrill Lynch in the World Financial Center in New York City. I witnessed up-close the horrific deadly terrorist attacks on the adjacent World Trade Center. My colleagues and I evacuated our building and were led to safety thanks to the heroic efforts of NYPD officers. 2,977 souls were not as fortunate that day. As I watched the mayhem unfold to include people jumping to their deaths, I was shocked. Heartbroken. I vowed to God that I would give back and serve this great nation.

This vow led me to leave a multi-billion-dollar hedge fund in 2009 and apply to become an FBI Special Agent. According to the Wall Street Journal, around 45-thousand people applied to be special agents that fiscal year. About 900 made the cut. I was one of them. After five months of arduous training at the Academy in Quantico, I was a sworn- in Special Agent, assigned to the Miami Division. I considered it a sacred responsibility and was honored to be entrusted to protect and serve the American people…..

a reply to: carewemust
This is the vote and debate on January 10, 2023 establishing the Select SubCommittee:

www.congress.gov...

This is the scope of the Select Subcommittee:

(b) Investigative Functions and Authority.--
(1) Investigative functions.--The select subcommittee is authorized and directed to conduct a full and complete investigation and study and, not later than January 2, 2025, issue a final report to the House of its findings (and such interim reports as it may deem necessary) regarding--

(A) the expansive role of article II authority vested in the executive branch to collect information on or otherwise investigate citizens of the United States, including ongoing criminal investigations;

(B) how executive branch agencies work with, obtain information from, and provide information to the private sector, non-profit entities, or other government agencies to facilitate action against American citizens, including the extent, if any, to which illegal or improper, unconstitutional, or unethical activities were engaged in by the executive branch or private sector against citizens of the United States;
(C) how executive branch agencies collect, compile, analyze, use, or disseminate information about citizens of the United States, including any unconstitutional, illegal, or unethical activities committed against citizens of the United States;
(D) the laws, programs, and activities of the executive branch as they relate to the collection of information on citizens of the United States and the sources and methods used for the collection of information on citizens of the United States;
(E) any other issues related to the violation of the civil liberties of citizens of the United States; and
(F) any other matter relating to information collected pursuant to the investigation conducted under this paragraph at any time during the One Hundred Eighteenth Congress.

Here is Comer saying he will work closely with the Select SubCommittee:

Mr. Speaker, we cannot delay accountability any longer. We need to get to work now. We must expose the abuses committed by the unelected, unaccountable Federal bureaucracy and enact solutions to prevent similar abuses from happening in the future. I look forward, as chairman of the House Oversight Committee, to work closely with this new select committee.

There is a Twitter account for the “Weaponization Committee” 😂

twitter.com...

Official account for the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government.

This is a good line of questioning of Professor Turley by Rep Dan Bishop

At today's House Weaponization of the Federal Government Committee hearing, Rep. Dan Bishop (R-NC) spoke about the Twitter Files.

Rep.Mike Johnson speaking about Weaponization of FBI and DOJ against parents regarding school board issues. Questions retired FBI agent Baker about how the structure and processes were changed which has allowed this current state of affairs. This is a really good listen as well:

Rep. Kat Cammack time; she gets at Democrat witness lobbyist Williams. She also has a Don’t Tread On Me flag sticker on the back of her tablet in front of her- That made me smile.

I guess I’m going to leave it at that for now. Obviously there were more Reps. Questioning the panel than I have posted that are just as important. I am going to be busy again today. Thank you for reading and watching. Please add if you desire and I hope you all have a great Friday!