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Congressional Republicans are vowing to ramp up oversight of the Biden White House and the Department of Justice after the FBI’s raid of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., was the first to make the pledge late Monday after news broke that Mar-a-Lago had been raided by federal agents over Trump’s purported failure to turn over classified documents to the National Archives.
“The Department of Justice has reached an intolerable state of weaponized politicization,” McCarthy said. “When Republicans take back the House, we will conduct immediate oversight of their department, follow the facts, and leave no stone unturned.”
TRUMP VS. NATIONAL ARCHIVES: A TIMELINE LEADING UP TO THE MAR-A-LAGO RAID
House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy was the first to pledge increased oversight of the Justice Department late Monday after news broke that Mar-a-Lago had been raided by federal agents.
(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who initially dodged the matter, called Tuesday for “a thorough and immediate explanation” of the raid.
“Attorney General Garland and the Department of Justice should already have provided answers to the American people and must do so immediately,” said McConnell.
GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, who has previously raised concerns about the politicization of the FBI and other law enforcement agencies, is expected to lead an oversight probe if Republicans retake the majority through his position atop the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Senate GOP leaders, however, have remained quiet about their plans, unlike House Republicans.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called Tuesday for “a thorough and immediate explanation” of the raid.
(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Sources say the House GOP leadership is weighing a number of tactics to expand DOJ accountability — provided they win the majority in November. One idea, which has been floated, is to create a special panel to investigate the Justice Department and other agencies for overreach or abuse of power.
Although the idea is favored by some lawmakers, the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees already have purview over such matters. The panels are also stacked with lawmakers that have waited years to exercise their authority over the federal government’s conduct on a bevy of topics, including immigration and the coronavirus pandemic.
Given that reality, GOP leaders are unlikely to try and pry away even a portion of that power from the committees. A number of GOP lawmakers told Fox News Digital that while it was way too early to tell, they did not favor skirting the existing committee process.
WHITE HOUSE, DOJ AND FBI SILENT ON REASON FOR RAIDING TRUMP’S MAR-A-LAGO HOME
Regardless of how the process shapes up, the majority of House Republicans appear united behind holding the DOJ and the rest of the Biden administration accountable.
“I am constantly talking about the infighting within the GOP and I always lean into it,” said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga. “But I’m actually really positive about this because of the conversations that I’ve had with members of the Republican conference.”
A number of moderate Republicans, in particular, have embraced calls for accountability and transparency within the DOJ in the wake of the FBI’s raid on Mar-a-Lago.
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., for instance, compared the FBI’s raid of Trump’s estate to the politicized justice system her mother fled in Cuba.
GOP Rep. Nicole Malliotakis compared the FBI’s raid of Trump’s estate to the politicized justice system her mother fled in Cuba.
(Susan Walsh/AP Photo/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“Justice is politicized and weaponized in countries like the oppressive one my mother fled — we cannot and will not accept it in the United States of America,” said Malliotakis, who represents a swing district in New York City. “The Department of Justice must be transparent and explain to the American people why they targeted President Trump in such a manner.”
Part of the reason for the GOP’s anger is the purported reason for the raid. The DOJ reportedly moved on Mar-a-Lago over classified documents Trump supposedly brought to the estate after leaving the White House in January 2021.
Federal laws bar the removal of classified documents from unauthorized locations. For months, the National Archives has sought to obtain documents pertaining to Trump’s White House tenure from Mar-a-Lago.
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Given Trump’s status as a former head of state, Attorney General Merrick Garland likely would have approved the search warrant.
