“Hopefully” the GOP will be able to “produce some evidence” on allegations that the federal government is being “weaponized” against conservatives, CNN host Jake Tapper said Thursday.
“A new House panel investigating the alleged weaponization of the federal government against conservatives held its first public hearing today,” Tapper said. “It aims to probe claims that the Justice Department, the FBI and other agencies are biased against the Republican Party.” (RELATED: ‘It’s Hilarious That You Won’t Say No’: GOP Rep Grills Witness Who Can’t Condemn Lying On FISA Application)
Among the witnesses during the Thursday hearing held by the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government was former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, who claimed that censorship by Google derailed her 2020 presidential campaign. Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin also were among those testified before the subcommittee about FBI surveillance of Donald Trump’s successful 2016 campaign and information from whistleblowers in the agency.
Former FBI agent Nicole Parker also testified before the committee, outlining her belief that the agency was “politically weaponized from the top in Washington.”
WATCH:
“What we heard were a lot of their personal grievances. Hillary Clinton’s e-mails came up. The Hunter Biden laptop story came up. More Coronavirus disinformation came up,” CNN reporter Sara Murray told Tapper. “And essentially their complaints that they believe that they were essentially described as misinformation agents and that the government worked with the media in order to make that possible. We also heard from a former – a couple former FBI agents who raised a few concerns, but again, a lot of what we heard were personal opinions, not so much evidence to back up Jordan’s claim.”
“Hopefully, he’ll produce some evidence,” Tapper said.
Republican Attorney General Jeff Landry of Louisiana released emails showing the White House pressured Facebook to censor Fox News host Tucker Carlson in 2021 as part of legal action carried out in conjunction with Republican Attorneys General Eric Schmitt and Andrew Bailey of Missouri.
Journalist Michael Schellenberger reported based on documents released by Elon Musk that the FBI paid Twitter almost $3.5 million to reimburse the company for time spent responding to requests from the agency. The documents also revealed that the FBI contacted Twitter about potential leaks involving Hunter Biden prior to the New York Post reporting on the contents of a laptop Biden abandoned at a computer repair shop.
Other documents from Twitter showed how the social media site laid the groundwork to ban then-President Trump in the aftermath of the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the Capitol building. Twitter’s safety team initially did not believe that Trump’s last tweets violated rules, but Trump was banned anyhow, other documents revealed.
The FBI and Justice Department came under fire during the hearing over warrants obtained via the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) that authorized surveillance of Carter Page. The warrants relied on information from the now-discredited Steele Dossier.
The House of Representatives voted to establish the select subcommittee in a party-line vote Jan. 10.
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