EXCLUSIVE — The top Republican congressman on the House Judiciary Committee could go so far as to issue subpoenas next Congress in connection to the FBI using secret powers to strip people of their gun rights.
The FBI has used internal forms to waive away the gun rights of at least 23 people without congressional approval, the Washington Examiner reported. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), who is poised to become chairman of the Judiciary Committee when the House GOP takes a majority in January, said in an interview with the Washington Examiner that “there is nothing off the table” in terms of holding the bureau accountable for becoming “political.”
“We’ve said all along we’re going to do investigations in a way that’s consistent with the Constitution,” said Jordan. “We’re going to do them aggressively. And there is nothing off the table when it comes to getting the facts and the truth for the American people on all these issues that fall under the broad category of politics at the DOJ.”
In order to obtain testimony or records pertaining to investigations, congressional committees have the authority to issue subpoenas, which are mandates for people to attend court.
“We may need to figure out who OK’d this program,” Jordan told the Washington Examiner. “Who in fact were the agents going out actually implementing this program? Because we may need to talk to them to figure out how this all got started.”
The congressman’s remarks come days after a Washington Examiner report revealed that more people have signed the forms than previously known. Between 2016 and 2019, FBI agents presented the forms to people in undisclosed locations as well as in their homes in Michigan, Massachusetts, and Maine, the Daily Caller reported in September.
FBI USED SECRET POWERS TO STRIP MORE AMERICANS OF THEIR GUN RIGHTS, DOCUMENTS REVEAL
Signatories of the form were asked to declare themselves a “danger” to others or themselves or lacking the “mental capacity adequately to contract” their lives and were registered with the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System. Internal documents show that signatories included those who allegedly made violent threats on social media and in person.
The FBI has claimed usage of the NICS form was discontinued in 2019. Still, Second Amendment lawyers have said the existence of the signed forms leave unanswered legal questions. The form did not move through a process required under federal law for government agencies to receive approval from the Office of Management and Budget before obtaining information from the public.
There is also uncertainty surrounding how the forms interact with the Gun Control Act of 1968, which holds that a person could be prohibited from owning firearms if he or she is “adjudicated as a mental defective or has been committed to a mental institution.”
Jordan said “it appears” the FBI was “coercing” people into signing the forms. It is unclear whether this was the case. However, signatories were under investigation by the FBI for their prior actions, including alleged threats, documents show.
“How did they decide which people to go after?” Jordan asked. “Does it tie in with this Twitter files stuff where they are monitoring people’s social media? I’d like to know the facts behind all this.”
Journalists have been coordinating with Twitter CEO Elon Musk to provide information to the public on how the company operated in the past. The second installment released on Thursday by former New York Times columnist Bari Weiss showed that Twitter created a secret “blacklist” of conservative accounts.
Several House Republicans have told the Washington Examiner they intend to investigate the FBI over the NICS forms as well as other matters they say demonstrate the politicization of the DOJ. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and over a dozen lawmakers in October demanded the FBI and the DOJ provide evidence that the forms are no longer being used.
Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA) in November sponsored a resolution Democrats rejected that would request Attorney General Merrick Garland hand over records in connection to the FBI forms. The resolution was heard during a Wednesday hearing on a bill sponsored by Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) that would provide a pathway for people to add themselves to the NICS database, thereby forfeiting their rights to own, use, or buy firearms.
Jordan and other Judiciary Committee members, such as Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Dan Bishop of North Carolina, have said the fact that lawmakers are seeking to green-light what the FBI did on its own shows the agency needed congressional approval for its actions.
“This is very timely,” said Massie in the Wednesday hearing. “What we’re looking at is evidence that the FBI went off on their own and wrote the bill and implemented the bill that you are trying to pass here today, or did pass, and will try to pass on the floor.”
@Rep_Clyde sponsored a resolution that would request AG Garland provide records on the forms.
However, Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee rejected that measure on Wednesday.https://t.co/9vMEOJCYD5
— Gabe Kaminsky (@gekaminsky) December 8, 2022
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The FBI did not respond to a request for comment.
“It looks like you couldn’t do this unless Congress passed a law,” Jordan also said in the interview.
