The weaponization of the government is taking center stage on Capitol Hill.
The newly-formed Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government is aimed at shedding light on concerns that American citizens are being targeted by various government agencies.
The Republican-led committee held its first house hearing Thursday to highlight violations of Americans’ civil liberties. It was a promise made by House Republicans during the midterms to amp up investigations and oversight into the Biden administration.
Thursday’s hearing was the first step in that process, focusing on what Republicans call the politicization of the FBI and the Department of Justice.
Witnesses included other senators and congressmen as well as some former FBI agents.
“Americans have concerns about the double standard at the Department of Justice. Americans have concerns about the Disinformation Governance Board that the Department of Homeland Security tried to form. Americans have concerns about the ATF and what they’re doing to the 2nd Amendment. And, of course, they have concerns about the IRS and the thousands of new agents coming to that organization,” U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) said.
“Finally there are concerns about what we learned in the Twitter Files,” he added.
Democrats are rejecting the committee’s premise.
The lead Trump impeachment manager U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) said, “It’s one thing to engage in systematic oversight driven by a commitment to facts and the truth. It’s something radically different to set up a platform for partisan attacks that are just vindictive and vendetta driven.”
According to one of Thursday’s witnesses, Georgetown Constitutional Law Professor Jonathan Turley, legislation to stop government overreach should certainly be an option.
“For the government to be in the business of silencing citizens, it’s wrong,” Turley testified. “We saw it during the McCarthy period when the government was behind the blacklisting of individuals. It was wrong. It was wrong then, it’s wrong now. We have to have that debate and it has to move.”
The subcommittee will be speaking with Mark Houck in about two weeks.
Houck’s home was raided last fall by more than a dozen FBI agents with guns drawn as his wife and little children felt terrorized. That raid drew sharp criticism from some members of Congress after he was targeted for his pro-life beliefs.
He was recently acquitted of the charges relating to a minor incident with a Planned Parenthood volunteer who was harassing Houck’s young child.
CBN News caught up with Houck at the State of the Union address Tuesday night where he was invited as a guest of U.S. Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA).
“We got to share our story,” Houck said. “They need to know the facts of how not only my children were treated, how reckless it was. It was an act of terror. They need to hear all that. They need to hear how I was treated like a complete animal, chained and shackled to a table for six hours. It’s a viewpoint discrimination that’s what we have to prove.”
Houck’s interview is scheduled to take place on Feb. 22. It could end up being formal testimony before the committee. Rep. Jordan, the committee’s chairman, told CBN News previously that could be a possibility.
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