With Democrats in control of the House, Republicans have officially lost the ability to launch congressional investigations—a tool they once wielded to investigate the F.B.I. over things like its supposed mishandling of the probes into Hillary Clinton’s e-mail server and Donald Trump’s ties to Russia. And that’s exactly how Democrats like it, as they gear up to launch their own investigations into Trumpworld. “We are out of the business of investigating the investigators,” a Democratic aide told Politico on Monday. “If we uncover indications that something is amiss during the course of our work, we will not ignore it. But so far, we have seen only unfounded accusations and character assassination directed at patriotic, dedicated public servants.”
Yet Republicans have indicated they will stop at nothing to keep the conspiracy theories alive—despite having half the staffers of their Democratic counterparts, no subpoena power, and a minimal budget. “We’ve got to keep digging for the truth no matter what,” countered Rep. Jim Jordan, the soon-to-be ranking G.O.P. member on the Oversight Committee, who will reportedly keep the torches burning, along with Reps. Doug Collins and Devin Nunes. Per Politico, Collins has already instructed several of the Judiciary Committee’s Republican staff lawyers to “keep their focus on what he believes to be illegal surveillance tactics by the F.B.I.” “There’s always been a group of us focused on this,” Jordan added, “because it’s so egregious what took place.”
By most accounts, this sort of ragtag effort is laughable—“You’re effectively in the position where you’re fighting something with nothing,” former G.O.P. aide Kurt Bardella told Politico. But in this case, Jordan, Nunes, and Co. may have a hidden advantage. When Democrats were the underdogs, the Trump administration had zero motivation to cooperate with minority-led investigations. But now that House Republicans are outnumbered, some Democrats theorize that Trump allies in the Justice Department may be happy to hand over evidence pertaining to an F.B.I.-Fusion GPS-Clinton campaign collusion alliance. This, Democrats say, would be crossing a line, as the D.O.J. is meant to operate independently of the White House. But it wouldn’t be entirely out of character. “Typically in the minority, the administration is somewhat collaborative,” a senior Democratic aide told Politico. “[But] that wasn’t the case with us. Every request we made was basically ignored.”
Failing that, Republicans could always go the way of Nunes, who has a history of conducting his own unsanctioned investigations into the F.B.I. At one point last year, he traveled to London, seeking clandestine meetings with M.I.5 and M.I.6 to uncover potential falsehoods in the Steele dossier, the document that initially suggested ties between Trump and Russia. (This effort failed miserably, with London intelligence officials refusing to meet with Nunes out of a suspicion that he was “trying to stir up a controversy.”) And back in 2017, he was heavily scrutinized for secretly obtaining classified intel from the White House.
— Lessons from the “Trump and the Media” class at University of Toronto
— An unsparing look at The New York Times
— A wild mystery surrounding the world’s most expensive painting sold at auction
— “I come from generations of unfulfilled women” —Glenn Close
— Jared and Ivanka’s curious movie date
Looking for more? Sign up for our daily Hive newsletter and never miss a story.
