This GOP Utah congressman was named to the House 'weaponization' committee

WASHINGTON — A Utah congressman will serve on a House subcommittee Republicans created to investigate the Biden administration.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., on Tuesday announced members of the Select Subcommittee on Weaponization of the Federal Government, including Utah GOP Rep. Chris Stewart.

Earlier this month, the House voted along party lines to establish the panel to look into ongoing Justice Department investigations. The subcommittee was among a list of demands hard-line Republican House members had for McCarthy to gain their support to become speaker.

Stewart, who also serves on the House Intelligence Committee, said the subcommittee would work "tirelessly" to ensure government accountability.

"Government agencies, including the Department of Justice, have overstepped in recent years, abusing their power to silence or intimidate certain citizens," he said in a statement. "We will evaluate those powers granted by Congress and establish safeguards that protect all Americans, regardless of their race, religion or ideological beliefs."

Among the issues the panel could probe is the use of federal law enforcement in local school board meetings.

Stewart and other Republicans have accused the FBI of harassing parents after Attorney General Merrick Garland directed the agency in 2021 to work with local leaders nationwide to help address a "disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence" against educators and school board members over highly politicized issues relating to COVID-19, critical race theory and sexually explicit books in schools.

"The FBI is not meant to be a political weapon," Stewart said at the time.

The panel will be empowered to try to examine everything from investigations related to Jan. 6 to the search last year of former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence. Republicans have also signaled they could expand their investigative scope to include agencies and issues like the Department of Education and Big Tech, according to Politico.

McCarthy and Republicans have described the new subcommittee as "Church style," referring to a Senate select committee led by former Sen. Frank Church, D-Idaho, that looked into intelligence agencies in the mid-1970s. The bipartisan panel uncovered wrongdoing at the CIA, FBI and NSA, among other entities.

"Government should be here to help you, not go after you," McCarthy told reporters earlier this month.

In his statement, Stewart said this is not the first time government has exploited its power at the expense of the people it serves. The new subcommittee, he said, is again on a bipartisan basis coming together to rebuild those guardrails and regain Americans' trust.

Democrats and historians liken the Republicans' pursuit of nebulous allegations of deep-state conspiracies to the "red scare" days of Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy in the 1950s, according to The New York Times.

"The Republicans are the party of law and order, and now they are out to destroy law and order as long as they think the agencies of law and order are conspiring against them and not working for them," said Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., according to the Times.

Democratic skepticism has been fueled by the fact that the new panel and its authority to probe continuing criminal investigations was among the demands far-right Republicans made of McCarthy in exchange for their votes in the speaker's race, per the Times.

In addition to Stewart, Republican members of the weaponization subcommittee are Reps. Jim Jordan, of Ohio; Darrell Issa, of California; Thomas Massie, of Kentucky; Elise Stefanik, of New York; Mike Johnson, of Louisiana, Chip Roy, of Texas; Kelly Armstrong, of North Dakota; Greg Steube, of Florida; Dan Bishop, of North Carolina; Kat Cammack, of Florida; and Harriet Hageman, of Wyoming.

Democrats still must recommend their own representatives to the panel.

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