Reaction & Commentary
FIRST ON FOX: The House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government released a more than 17,000-page report detailing its work this Congress, touting their success in protecting Americans against censorship of speech and the weaponization of federal law enforcement agencies, Fox News Digital has learned.
Fox News Digital obtained the 17,019-page report compiled by the subcommittee, which falls under the House Judiciary Committee, led by Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio.
“The Weaponization Committee conducted rigorous oversight of the Biden-Harris administrations weaponized government and uncovered numerous examples of federal government abuses,” Jordan told Fox News Digital. “Through our oversight, we protected the First Amendment by investigating the censorship-industrial-complex, heard from numerous brave whistleblowers, stopped the targeting of Americans by the IRS and Department of Justice, and created serious legislative and policy changes that will benefit all Americans.”
Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio. (Caroline Brehman/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
The report, first obtained by Fox News Digital, states that the “founding documents of the United States articulate the ideals of the American republic and guarantee to all American citizens fundamental rights and liberties.
“For too long, however, the American people have faced a two-tiered system of government—one of favorable treatment for the politically-favored class, and one of intimidation and unfairness for the rest of American citizens,” it continues. “Under the Biden-Harris Administration, the contrast between these two tiers has become even more stark.”
The committee was created to “stand up for the American people,” the report says, highlighting its work to “bring abuses by the federal government into the light for the American people and ensure that Congress, as their elected representatives, can take action to remedy them.”
The mission of the subcommittee was to “protect and strengthen the fundamental rights of the American people,” the report said, noting that by investigating, uncovering and documenting executive branch misconduct, lawmakers on the panel have taken “important steps to ensure that the federal government no longer works against the American people.”
“This work is not complete, but it is a necessary first step to stop the weaponization of the federal government,” the report states.
The committee, from its inception, says it has been working to protect free speech and expand upon the constitutional protections of the First Amendment.
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“Throughout the Biden-Harris administration, multiple federal agencies, including the White House, have engaged in a vast censorship campaign against so-called mis-, dis-, or malinformation,” the report states, noting that the subcommittee revealed the extent of the “censorship-industrial complex,” and detailed how the federal government and law enforcement coordinated with academics, nonprofits, and other private entities to censor speech online.”
Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, leaves the Republican caucus meeting at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 12, 2023. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
The panel is touting its work, saying its oversight has “had a real effect in expanding the First Amendment.”
“In a Supreme Court dissent, three justices noted how the Select Subcommittee’s investigation revealed that ‘valuable speech was..suppressed,’” the report states.
And in a letter to the subcommittee, Facebook and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted that the Biden-Harris administration “pressured” Facebook to censor Americans.
“Facebook gave in to this pressure, demoting posts and content that was highly relevant to political discourse in the United States,” the report states.
And in another win for the subcommittee, in response to its work, universities and other groups shut down their “disinformation” research, and federal agencies “slowed their communications with Big Tech.”
The committee also celebrated a “big win” in October after it prevented the creation of a new “GARM,” an advertising association that engaged in censorship and boycotts of conservative media companies. The committee revealed, before it was disbanded, that GARM had been discussing ways to ensure conservative news outlets and platforms could not receive advertising dollars and were engaged in boycotts of conservative voices and Twitter once it became “X” under the ownership of Elon Musk.
Meanwhile, the subcommittee also investigated the alleged weaponization of federal law enforcement resources.
In speaking with a number of whistleblowers, the subcommittee learned of waste, fraud and abuse at the FBI.
“When these whistleblowers came forward, the bureau brutally retaliated against many of them for breaking ranks—suspending them without pay, preventing them from seeking outside employment, and even purging suspected disloyal employees,” the report states, noting that the subcommittee revealed that the FBI “abused its security clearance adjudication process to target whistleblowers.”
The report references the FBI’s response, in which the bureau admitted its “error” and reinstated the security clearance of one decorated FBI employee.
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The subcommittee also was tasked with investigating the executive branch’s actions in “intruding and interfering with Americans’ constitutionally protected activity.”
For example, the subcommittee revealed “and stopped” the FBI’s effort to target Catholic Americans because of their religious views; detailed the DOJ’s directives to target parents at school board meetings; stopped the Internal Revenue Service from making “unannounced visits to American taxpayers’ homes;” caused the DOJ to change its internal policies to “respect the separation of powers and limit subpoenas for Legislative Branch employees; and highlighted the “vast warrantless surveillance of Americans by federal law enforcement.”
The panel also investigated the federal government’s election interference, highlighting the FBI’s “fervent efforts to ‘prebunk’ a story about the Biden family’s influence peddling scheme in the lead-up to the 2020 presidential election.”
The panel also investigated and demonstrated how the 2020 Biden campaign “colluded with the intelligence community to falsely discredit this story as ‘Russian disinformation.’”
The report includes a list of hearings the subcommittee held, letters sent by the subcommittee and subpoenas issued by the panel.
It also includes depositions and transcribed interviews conducted by the subcommittee. The subcommittee conducted 99 depositions and transcribed interviews during this Congress.
Depositions and interviews included in the massive report are of former FBI officials and CIA officials, like former Director John Brennan, former prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office involved in the original hush money probe against President Trump, Mark Pomerantz, and interviews with Facebook, Meta and Google officials.
