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Hi, everyone. Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Wednesday, January 11, 2023. It's about 1145 in the morning here on the East Coast of the United States.
Yesterday, the House of Representatives, pursuant to a party-line vote, all Republicans except for Republican voting no, agreed to appoint and empower a select committee,
select meaning the Speaker of the House gets to decide who's on the committee,
to investigate the weaponization of the federal government. I have strongly supported this for a long time. I would go even further and do away with things like the Drug Enforcement Administration, the FBI, and the NSA.
I don't think Congress is ready to do that. On WKRC Cincinnati, on right before me this morning, about 8.15 or 8.30 Eastern, he'll be a member of the committee.
It is clear that this committee can investigate any aspect of the executive branch of the federal government.
This is going to go back to the Bush administration now, and many of the misdeeds they're looking for occurred under the Trump administration.
Any aspect of the federal government, which the Congress and its investigators believe, has systematically violated the constitutional liberties of Americans. And that basically means spying, violating the Fourth Amendment right to privacy,
encouraging, cajoling, coercing, bribing big tech to silence people. That would be a violation of
the First Amendment when big tech does the government's bidding and punishes speech
because of its content on behalf of the government, which can't do that because of
the First Amendment. All these things are going to be looked at. Here's an interesting aspect that
hasn't been resolved. Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, who's the leader of the Democrats in the House,
he succeeded Mrs. Pelosi, has not yet decided whether or not he will permit any Democrats to be on the committee. Congressman
Jeffries does not need advice from me. I know him. I like him. I respect him, even though we disagree
on almost all political issues. We do agree on a lot of civil liberties issues. I encourage
Congressman Jeffries to put Democrats on the committee. Congressman Kevin McCarthy,
when the January 6th Select Committee was being formed, made the mistake of not putting Republicans
on it. There were Republican members of it, but they were not considered minority members because
they were appointed by the Speaker. When there are minority members, when there is a Republican staff,
Republican members on a majority Democrat members, then the Republicans get a staff. They get lawyers who are ex-prosecutors. They get investigators who are ex-FBI agents.
One of the reasons that people have difficulty accepting the January 6th committee's conclusion
that Donald Trump should be prosecuted for what he did and failed to do on and the days leading up to January 6th
is that Trump's side was never presented to the committee.
Well, that's true.
And the reason it was never presented to the committee is because Kevin McCarthy did not appoint Republicans
and get them a Republican staff.
These committees should be fair. They shouldn't be one-sided. I don't know that there's a
Democratic version to FBI spying or to FBI persuading Facebook to silence somebody. I
can't imagine what the Democratic Party's version of that would be. But there should be Democrats on the committee with a
Democratic staff to challenge what the committee does. It was a major mistake that Kevin McCarthy
made not putting Republicans on the committee with a Republican staff to challenge what the
Democrats did on January 6th. Just my two cents, Congressman Jeffries. If you agree with me, give me a shout
out. And if you don't agree with me, give me a shout out. This is going to be very intrusive
into the executive branch. Listening to Congressman Massey this morning, full disclosure,
Congressman Thomas Massey and I are longtime friends and ideological colleagues. He is the
successor to Ron Paul in the House of Representatives.
He is the only member of the House who was a true blue, true North, dyed in the wool, unbridled
libertarian who believes that individuals are greater than the state. Enough said. But what he
did say is that there's no rabbit hole down which they won't go. I encourage them to go down all
the rabbit holes, and I encourage them to do that with their Democratic colleagues. Judge
Napolitano, more as we get it. There's going to be a lot more on this. Judge Napolitano for judging
freedom.