As the newly Republican-controlled House of Representatives readies to push back against recent federal investigations, one GOP lawmaker says he won’t sit things out in spite of a potential conflict of interest.
The House is set to vote Monday on new rules including the formation of a special committee to probe the “weaponization of the federal government.” It’s expected to focus on prosecutions stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021 siege of the U.S. Capitol, among other issues.
The new panel would mark a major shift in direction from the recently dissolved special House committee that probed former President Donald Trump’s role in the siege.
Lawmakers including Rep. Scott Perry (R-Penn.) have reportedly been under investigation for their part in the plot to overturn the 2020 presidential election. The Jan. 6 committee referred him for review by the House Ethics Committee, Politico noted.
But he insisted Sunday that he wouldn’t recuse himself from the forthcoming probe.
“Well, why should I be limited — why should anybody be limited just because someone has made an accusation?” Perry said on ABC’s “This Week.”
“Everybody in America is innocent until proven otherwise,” he continued. “The American people are really, really tired of the persecution and the instruments of federal power being used against them.”
The special committee is set to work under the Judiciary Committee, now chaired by Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, a diehard Trump supporter.
It will be able to look into “ongoing criminal investigations,” according to Politico.
Adopting the rules is usually a humdrum affair for Congress. But to become speaker last week, Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., promised a number of concessions to hardcore conservatives.
Along with creation of the investigative committee, McCarthy agreed to lower the number of votes needed to hold a motion to give the speaker the boot, to just one.
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