100 days into their majority, the House GOP’s top two investigative panels have issued nearly three dozen subpoenas — plowing forward in a range of aggressive probes even as Democrats and federal agencies claim foul play.
Why it matters: Republicans vowed on the campaign trail to hold the Biden administration accountable and investigate the alleged “weaponization” of government — a conservative cause that has taken on new urgency in the wake of former President Trump’s indictment.
- Within the right-wing media ecosystem, probes of the FBI, Twitter and now Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg have dominated the front pages — juicing fundraising and firing up the GOP base.
State of play: Republican aides point to their swift movement on subpoenas, document production and written reports as signs of clear and early success.
Yes, but: Democrats — and even some of the committees’ top outside supporters — believe Republicans have spread themselves too thin with their sprawling investigations, some of which have been hastily launched in response to breaking news.
- “It’s not like they have 50 attorneys over there,” one Democratic aide familiar with the investigations told Axios.
- Officials at the Center for Renewing America (CRA), a Trump-aligned think tank, want more resources dedicated to the weaponization issue — and for Republicans to introduce tangible policy changes or legislation.
- Bragg and several federal agencies, including the FTC and Department of Education, say Republicans have ignored offers to cooperate and rushed to issue subpoenas for political purposes.
By the numbers: The Judiciary Committee has issued 22 subpoenas, sent 163 letters and conducted nine transcribed interviews thus far, according to committee data provided to Axios.
- They’ve also obtained more than 114,000 pages of documents — an indication of cooperation from at least some of the agencies being investigated.
- The Oversight Committee has issued 10 subpoenas, according to a source familiar: four to former Twitter employees, five for bank records and one to former Hunter Biden business associate Mervyn Yan.
- A GOP aide described them as “friendly” subpoenas requested by the recipients.
Zoom in: Republican claims of bombshell interviews with witnesses and “whistleblowers” have prompted some of the most heated partisan clashes, with Democrats issuing scathing criticisms of the sources’ reliability.
- GOP aides have pushed back, accusing Democrats of mischaracterizing witness testimony and intimidating law enforcement willing to come forward, rather than address the content of the issues raised.
- In a statement to Axios, Comer accused Raskin of “launching desperate attacks to distract from the bank records we’ve obtained revealing the Biden family receiving money from foreign adversaries.”
What’s next: The GOP’s efforts to undermine Bragg — which have at times been coordinated with Trump himself — are now facing a significant legal challenge.
- The Manhattan DA sued Jordan this week to block a subpoena, triggering what is likely to be an extended court battle that could delay any testimony past the 2024 election.
The bottom line: The committees’ work thus far — though fast and far-reaching — has yet to reveal the explosive findings to match conservative claims of government weaponization, Big Tech censorship and foreign influence peddling by Biden.
- But it’s still early — and worth remembering that investigations into Trump dragged on for years when House Democrats were in power.
- “No committee has ever moved faster, uncovered more, and produced more results in such a short time than Chairman Jordan’s committee, and anyone saying otherwise either doesn’t know what they’re talking about or is pushing liberal talking points to fulfill a bogus narrative,” Russell Dye, a spokesman for Jordan, told Axios in a statement.
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