Republicans Launch House Committee To Investigate FBI—Including Agency’s Handling Of Trump

Topline

Republicans on Tuesday voted to create a House committee to investigate federal investigations, which could include reviewing the probes involving former President Donald Trump, setting up a likely battle with the Biden Administration over details of ongoing investigations.

Then-President Donald Trump claps during the State of the Union address in the chamber of the House … [+] of Representatives on January 30, 2018 in Washington. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

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Key Facts

The House approved the resolution 221-211 along party lines, with all Republicans present voting for it and all Democrats voting against.

The measure creates a select subcommittee to investigate what Republicans call the “Weaponization of the Federal Government,” with newly minted House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) in charge of appointing the 13 members, eight of whom will be Republicans.

The panel will fall under the purview of Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who is set to lead the House Judiciary Committee.

The resolution grants the subcommittee access to the highest levels of FBI and CIA records available to Congress, matching the information available to the Intelligence Committee.

Surprising Fact

Hard-right Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) told Fox News on Friday that McCarthy promised to at least match the resources former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) devoted to the January 6 select committee. Roy was one of the leaders of a faction of hardliners who held up McCarthy’s speakership election for days before the anti-McCarthy side struck a deal enhancing the power of hard-right groups like the House Freedom Caucus in the new Congress.

Key Background

Republicans vowed heading into the midterms that investigations would be a top priority if they won control of the House, but Democrats have decried the efforts as wasteful, claiming they largely serve to enhance conspiracy theories. Republicans on Monday greenlit an investigative panel to look into the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic—such as the widely contested possibility the disease was developed inside a Wuhan, China, research lab—and they’ve vowed to review the business dealings of the president’s son, Hunter Biden, who is the subject of a federal tax investigation. Trump is under investigation by a Justice Department special counsel for his role in inciting the January 6 attack on the Capitol and his alleged mishandling of classified government documents recovered in an FBI raid at Mar-A-Lago in August.

What To Watch For

The panel is likely to run into resistance from the Biden Administration, since the DOJ typically does not share information on active investigations with Congress. The DOJ probe into January 6 and the House January 6 committee’s investigation were separate, for example.

Contra

The House approved the creation of a panel to investigate the “strategic competition” between the U.S. and China in the global economy with strong bipartisan support immediately before the vote on the investigative subcommittee. The China panel measure passed 365-65, with 146 Democrats voting in support.