Five investigations House Republicans are plotting if they win majority

Posted on October 21, 2022 (Updated October 21, 2022) by Emily Brooks

From Hunter Biden to alleged politicization in the Department of Justice and beyond, House Republicans have been preparing for months to unleash a flood of investigatory actions and findings if they win a majority in the Nov. 8 midterm election.

Investigations would be a major tool for the House GOP, as many top policy priorities would be unlikely to make it past a filibuster in the Senate or be signed by President Biden.

With the majority also comes the ability to dictate the focus of hearings and compel testimony and documents, including some that they may have already requested but not received, through subpoenas. That could put pressure on the Biden administration.

The House GOP’s "Commitment to America" midterm policy and messaging plan boasts that House Republicans have already sent more than 500 requests for information and documents.

Hunter Biden and Biden family business activities

President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden leave Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Johns Island, S.C., after attending a Mass, Saturday, Aug. 13, 2022. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Rep. James Comer (Ky.), the top Republican on the House Oversight and Reform Committee in line to be chair of the panel, has promised hearings and probes into the Biden family’s overseas business activities.

Republicans on the committee have a copy of Hunter Biden’s laptop hard drive first revealed shortly before the 2020 election, but say that salacious video and photos in the files are not the focus.

“The reason we’re investigating Hunter Biden is because we believe he's compromised Joe Biden,” Comer told reporters in September.

A top priority for Republicans on the Oversight panel is gaining access to the Treasury Department’s suspicious activity reports from U.S. banks relating to foreign business deals from Hunter Biden and other Biden associates. Republicans have said that the Treasury Department has refused to provide the reports, and alleged that Biden family members have prompted at least 150 suspicious activity reports.

“I think that’ll go a long way towards helping us be able to uncover some questions that the American people have about the ethics, and whether or not the Biden administration is truly compromised by Hunter’s shady business dealings,” Comer said.

Alleged politicization in the Department of Justice

An aerial view of President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate Aug. 10, 2022, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Steve Helber, File)

Republican trust in federal law enforcement agencies plummeted alongside the rise of former President Trump and special counsel Robert Meuller’s investigation into him, and the sense among the GOP that the DOJ and FBI are biased against conservatives has only grown since that time.

One top topic for a GOP House will be the DOJ’s decision to search Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in August and seize classified materials.

Republicans have requested documents from the National Archives and the FBI related to the decision to refer the matter of missing documents to the FBI and to execute the search warrant. After the raid, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) warned Attorney General Merrick Garland to “preserve your documents and clear your calendar.”

GOP interest in the DOJ extends beyond Trump, though.

“The No. 1 thing is this weaponization of the DOJ against the American people,” House Judiciary Committee ranking member Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who is likely to chair the committee in a GOP majority, said at the House GOP’s platform rollout event in September.

Jordan has said that his office has received information from more than a dozen whistleblowers who came forward with allegations of FBI bias against conservatives, including the agency retaliating against employees with conservative views.

In a major win for the House GOP, former FBI official Jill Sanborn will sit for a transcribed interview with the House Judiciary Committee on Dec. 2. Jordan and Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) sought testimony from Sanborn in relation to whistleblower claims that the FBI pressured agents to improperly reclassify cases as “domestic violent extremism.”

COVID-19 origins and policies

A health care worker in Wuhan, China during the initial COVID-19 outbreak in 2020. (Getty)

The Democratic-controlled House created a select Oversight subcommittee on the coronavirus in 2020, and Republicans have complained that the committee did not hold hearings on the origin of the virus.

A report from Republicans on the select subcommittee released Wednesday pledged to keep investigating U.S. dollars that flowed to research on coronaviruses at a Wuhan, China, lab, officials who sought to squash the lab leak hypothesis, and state policies that pushed COVID-positive patients into nursing homes.

Republicans from the subcommittee hosted an expert forum, during which panelists said they thought evidence pointed to the virus originating in the Wuhan lab.

Studies released this year point to natural origins of the virus. The U.S. intelligence community has said the virus was not created as a bioweapon.

Anthony Fauci, the chief medical adviser to President Biden who has spent decades as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, plans to step down from his government positions in December. But Republicans say that will not stop them from calling Fauci to appear before Congress to talk about the origins of the virus.

Afghanistan withdrawal

In this Aug. 21, 2021, file photo provided by the U.S. Marines, U.S. Marines with Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force provide assistance at an evacuation checkpoint during at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan. (Staff Sgt. Victor Mancilla/U.S. Marine Corps via AP)

GOP leaders have pledged to hold more hearings on the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan in August 2021 that led to the deaths of 13 service members in a bombing and the Taliban taking control of the country, saying that unanswered questions remain.

House Foreign Affairs Committee Republicans released an “interim report” on the withdrawal in August, finding that the State Department “took very few substantive steps” to prepare for the consequences in the months ahead of the August withdrawal.

The report said that the State Department failed to provide numerous materials relating to the withdrawal and forecasted the intention to use subpoena power to retrieve those documents as well as have officials sit for transcribed interviews.

Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.) on Tuesday also sent a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin requesting information on how the Department of Defense has “secured, archived, and standardized operational data and intelligence” from Afghanistan. In an interview with The Hill, Waltz said that data is necessary in case the U.S. has to go back into Afghanistan to counter terror threats.

Handling of U.S.-Mexico border

Multiple Republican members of Congress have already introduced articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas as as result of the Biden administration's border policies. (Getty)

The surge of migrants at the southern border and the Biden administration’s policies that allow the migrants into the country are top campaign issues for Republicans in the midterms and would be a sharp focus in a GOP House.

“We will give [Homeland Security] Secretary [Alejandro] Mayorkas a reserved parking spot, he will be testifying so much about this,” House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) said at Republicans’ "Commitment to America" rollout event in September.

Deaths of migrants at the border, the flow of illegal drugs like fentanyl into the U.S., and the Department of Homeland Security's ending of the “Remain in Mexico” policy for asylum-seekers are other likely topics of inquiry. A letter from Republicans in April accused Mayorkas of having “disregard for the enforcement of U.S. immigration laws.”

Multiple Republicans members have introduced articles of impeachment against Mayorkas in the current Congress. McCarthy has declined to commit to impeachment of any Biden Cabinet member, saying he will not support a political impeachment, but opened the door to impeaching Mayorkas in an April stop near the U.S.-Mexico border.

“This is his moment in time to do his job. But at any time if someone is derelict in their job, there is always the option of impeaching somebody,” McCarthy said at the time.

Updated 12:47 p.m.

Pelosi Fires Back After Top Republicans Demand Answers About Capitol Security Before Riot – Deflects Blame

Posted on February 15, 2021 by LifeZette

Earlier today, we reported that top Republicans from various committees in the House had sent a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) demanding answers on some of the decisions she made about security before the Capitol riot last month.

Now, Pelosi is firing back by saying that Republicans are “clearly” trying to “deflect responsibility for the Capitol attack from Donald Trump.”

Pelosi Fires Back At Republicans

On Monday, House Administration Committee Ranking Member Rodney Davis, House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jim Jordan, House Oversight Committee Ranking Member James Comer and House Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Devin Nunes sent Pelosi a letter in which they said that they have “many important questions” about her “responsibility for the security” of the Capitol on Jan. 6 “remain unanswered.”

Drew Hammill, Pelosi’s deputy chief of staff, told Fox News in response that the speaker “has and will continue to take action to ensure accountability and enhance the security of the Capitol.”

“Two of the four House Republican Ranking Members voted to overturn the results of a fair election, just hours after the Capitol was sacked by an insurrectionist, right-wing mob – a mob incited by Trump,” Hammill said.

“A full 65 percent of House Republicans joined them in voting to undermine our democracy. All four Ranking Members also voted against holding Donald Trump accountable for inciting the mob,” he continued. “Clearly, the security of our Capitol and democracy are not the priorities of these Ranking Members.”

Republicans Lash Out At Pelosi

In their letter, the Republicans had asked, “When then-Chief Sund made a request for national guard support on January 4th, why was that request denied? Did Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving get permission or instruction from your staff on January 4th prior to denying Chief Sund’s request for the national guard?”

They went on to cite claims made by former Capitol Police Chief Steve Sund, who alleged that two days before the riot, he approached the sergeants at arms to request the assistance of the National Guard.

In a letter of his own that he sent to Pelosi last month, Sund alleged that the former Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving said he was concerned about “the optics” and didn’t feel the “intelligence supported it.”

“As you are aware, the Speaker of the House is not only the leader of the majority party, but also has enormous institutional responsibilities,” the Republicans wrote. “The Speaker is responsible for all operational decisions made within the House.”

After the riot, both the House Sergeant at Arms and the Senate Sergeant at Arms were removed from their positions, and the chief of the Capitol Police resigned.

Hammill Doubles Down

“It is the job of the Capitol Police Board, on which these three individuals sat, to properly plan and prepare for security threats facing the U.S. Capitol,” Hammill said. “It has been reported that the House Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving has said that he did not present to House Leadership any request for the National Guard before January 6th.”

Hammill added that the Committees of Jurisdiction were briefed “in advance of January 6 about security preparedness.”

“During a briefing of the Appropriations Committee Majority on January 5th by the House Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving and U.S. Capitol Police Chief Sund both Chief Sund and Mr. Irving provided assurances that the Capitol Complex had comprehensive security and there was no intelligence that groups would become violent at the Capitol during the certification of electoral votes,” he explained.

“It is our understanding that Ranking Member Davis was also briefed, but took no action to address any security concerns that he might have had,” he said.

“Following the insurrection, the Speaker immediately tasked General Honore with leading an immediate security review of the U.S. Capitol Complex and has called for a 9/11-style Commission to investigate, with legislation creating such a panel to be introduced in the coming days,” Hammill continued. “The USCP is also conducting an internal security review.”

Hamill concluded by saying that Pelosi “knows all too well the importance of security at the Capitol and is focused on getting to the bottom of all issues facing the Capitol Complex and the events that led up to the insurrection. Clearly, these Republican Ranking Members do not share this priority.”

This piece was written by James Samson on February 15, 2021. It originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

The post Pelosi Fires Back After Top Republicans Demand Answers About Capitol Security Before Riot – Deflects Blame appeared first on The Political Insider.

House Republicans Send Brutal Message To Pelosi – Demand Answers From Her On Security Decisions Before Capitol Riot

Posted on February 15, 2021 by LifeZette

Top Republicans from various House committees teamed up on Monday to send Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) a letter demanding answers from her on security decisions she made before the Capitol riot last month.

Republicans Send Letter To Pelosi

House Administration Committee Ranking Member Rodney Davis, House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jim Jordan, House Oversight Committee Ranking Member James Comer and House Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Devin Nunes sent a letter to Pelosi saying that “many important questions” about her “responsibility for the security” of the Capitol on Jan. 6 “remain unanswered,” according to Fox News.

The Republican lawmakers brought up the fact that former Capitol Police Chief Steve Sund claimed that two days before the riot, he went to the sergeants at arms to request the assistance of the National Guard.

Sund Sent Letter To Pelosi

In a letter to Pelosi last month, Sund alleged that the former Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving said he was concerned about “the optics” and didn’t feel the “intelligence supported it.”

They added that over the past two years, they have observed a “very heavy-handed and tightly controlled approach to House operations that has been exerted by yourself, your staff, and an army of appointed House officials.”

“When then-Chief Sund made a request for national guard support on January 4th, why was that request denied?” the Republicans continued. “Did Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving get permission or instruction from your staff on January 4th prior to denying Chief Sund’s request for the national guard?”

They went on to point out that when Sund notified the Sergeant at Arms of his request for national guard support, it “took over an hour for his request to be approved because the SAA had to run the request up the chain of command,” saying that chain “undoubtedly included” Pelosi and her “designees.”

Republicans Double Down

The Republicans then blasted Pelosi for her decision to “unilaterally” fire Irving and demand the resignation of Sund.

“These decisions were made in a partisan manner without any consultation of House Republicans and therefore raise questions about the political motivations of your decisions,” they wrote.

Though Pelosi claimed the day after the riot that she had demanded Sund’s resignation because he “hasn’t called us since this happened,” the Republicans said this claim was easily “refuted” by Sund, who “detailed two occasions that he briefed you on the situation on the Capitol campus—the first occurring at 5:36 p.m. and the second at 6:25 p.m., both on January 6th.”

Republicans Express Concerns

Later in the letter, the Republicans expressed concerns over the “obstruction and inability to procure and preserve information” from House officers when they have requested it.

“Such information is necessary to properly conduct oversight on the January 6th events,” they wrote.

“Preservation and production requests were sent to the SAA and the House Chief Administrative Officer, among other legislative agencies, requesting that such relevant information concerning the attack on the Capitol, including correspondence, video footage, audio recordings, and other records, be preserved and produced to the relevant committees,” they continued.

“In multiple cases, your appointees, acting on your behalf, have denied requests to produce this information,” they added. “The response we received was: ‘We regret to inform you that given the scope of the information requested and the concerns implicated by the nature of the request… we are unable to comply with the request at this time.’”

They argued that despite the officers’ “refusal to comply with the request,” they learned that “some of the same material we requested was provided to the House Judiciary Committee on a partisan basis.”

‘This Is Unacceptable’

“This is unacceptable. Madam Speaker, that direction could only have come from you,” the Republicans wrote.

“Lastly, your hyperbolic focus on fabricated internal security concerns has taken critical resources away from the real threat, which is from outside the U.S. Capitol,” they wrote.

“Your decision to install magnetometers around the House Chamber is yet another example of this misdirection and misappropriation of House resources, which could be better used to protect members, staff, and official visitors from real, confirmed threats,” the Republicans said.

“Tellingly, Madam Speaker, you have failed to comply with this requirement yourself,” they concluded. “End this political charade, and work with us to protect the Capitol and those who work here every day.”

Pelosi has yet to respond, and her office declined to comment when contacted.

This piece was written by James Samson on February 15, 2021. It originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

The post House Republicans Send Brutal Message To Pelosi – Demand Answers From Her On Security Decisions Before Capitol Riot appeared first on The Political Insider.