The Daily Signal - BONUS: Chip Roy Tears Into Democratic Lawfare Against Trump, Bannon

Starting point is 00:00:05 This is a bonus edition of the Daily Signal podcast. I'm Mary Margaret O'Lahan, and I sat down with Congressman Chip Roy of Texas to discuss the DOJ's continued lawfare against Donald Trump's allies. We'll discuss Steve Bannon, Peter Navarro, and more. Here's my interview with Congressman Roy. Congressman Roy, thank you so much for joining us. Happy to be on. So we saw last Thursday that a federal judge ordered Steve Bannon

Starting point is 00:00:38 to begin serving his prison sentence by July 1st for to do. the January 6th committee subpoenas. Can we get your reaction to this news? Yeah, well, this is a, you know, extension of what we saw unfold with the improperly structured and improperly empowered January 6th committee, which means that kind of everything that flowed from that was sort of, you know, fruit of the poisonous tree, if you will. And then, you know, everything that we're now looking at with respect to the subpoenas that were issued for, Steve, And then obviously then the contempt for which he was then found guilty after DOJ prosecuted him. I mean, now it's got to go to jail on July 1st.

Starting point is 00:01:22 We believe that's all something that should never have been pursued because of the nature of the January 6th committee being not just partisan, not just a political, you know, kind of witch hunt. But really, it was just foundationally flawed and didn't even follow all of the structures that were originally put in place, which means that once that, subpoena got, you know, to the House, it was flawed when it got to the House floor. And again, none of this was for something that was very specific to a standing committee exercising. It's duly, you know, constituted authority. This was a propped up committee designed for a political purpose. And that contrasts significantly from what we're seeing with Merrick Garland, who is just flouting a standing committee's subpoena for literally to see a, a, a, a record. that the Department of Justice has and simply won't give it to us with no legitimate basis. Now, we're hearing a lot of anger from Americans over the lawfare that's being used against former

Starting point is 00:02:22 President Donald Trump, people like Bannon and former Trump advisor Peter Navarro. What would you say House Republicans are doing in response? Well, I know there's some conversations among some of my colleagues to take steps as we probably should do in the House to unwind or undo, or if you will, or at least take a step in this Congress to say that those subpoenas were, were inappropriately issued. We think that might at least help. You can't undo a previously, you know, a previous conviction. But we do think it might help on appeal.

Starting point is 00:02:56 And it certainly would set a better standard going forward. But look, I think this is all stuff that we need to be moving more quickly as it relates to using our own subpoena power to pursue the lawlessness of the Biden administration. And, you know, we saw some of that with. respect to what we did this week in passing the contempt resolution for Merrick Garland. And then even just today and having hearings in the House Judiciary Committee with respect to the Bragg prosecution of President Trump, we hope to have the district attorney in front of the House Ushare Committee in July if he honors his commitment, his pledge to Judiciary Committee Jordan

Starting point is 00:03:36 to come in as soon as the sentencing phase is completed. We had a pretty robust debate in the House of the House of Shire Committee. committee today about the inappropriateness of the Bragg prosecution. But we need to do more, but I mean, we're doing a lot to try to highlight it, but we need to start taking some actions. I do think the contempt of Merrick Garland was a good start. And I also saw that Bannon endorsed the idea of fighting back by appointing a special legislative council that would conduct a fully funded comprehensive investigation. What do you make of this kind of idea? Yeah, I mean, that's something that we're having conversations about. It's not something we typically do or have done. But

Starting point is 00:04:11 it is, I think, well within the purview of Congress. We people kind of forget. I mean, we do exist. We are Congress. We can, you know, set up the rules and carry out our activities in the House as we see fit. We certainly have the power of subpoena power. And there has to be consequences to that. And we're getting ourselves trapped as a Congress where we're not able to use our own

Starting point is 00:04:33 authority to force response to our legislative and impeachment power, which is significant, right i mean the constitution contemplates the impeachment power of the house representatives to be able to go after and look at the misdeeds of a executive branch official including the president well if we're reliant upon the department of justice which reports to the president right then that that necessarily limits to a degree the power that you have now i will note that while i agree we should look into this option um i want to stress as i think steve would agree that we have failed utterly as republicans in my view to use the power of the purse appropriately to constrain the executive branch and force the executive branch into following the law, whether you're dealing with the border, whether you're dealing with student loans, whether you're

Starting point is 00:05:15 dealing with these issues and the aggressive weaponization of the Department of Justice against members of the other party and the politicization of the DOJ. We can and should use the power of the purse to restrain that. So there are a number of tools under disposal, but you just damn well got to be willing to use them. Now, we're hearing a lot of talk that these imprisonments of people like Bannon Navarro and the Gelsie verdict against former President Donald Trump, there's no coincidence that they're happening during an election year. Can we get your thoughts on that? Well, I mean, that's pretty obvious if you look at the timing of the Brad conviction and then the sentencing, right? You've got the sentencing occurring the week before the RNC convention.

Starting point is 00:05:57 I think it's pretty obvious what's happening with respect to the timing and the political motivation of the prosecutions. And look, I think that's, that's, that's, that's, That is what it should be most concerning for all Americans, regardless of what party you affiliate with. This is a clear, politically motivated targeting of the former president of the United States, the people who worked for him, and doing so in a way to almost, not almost, but to decidedly and assuredly affect and impact the election. You know, I asked a Democratic witness today about the extent to which, you know, they like to say that somehow Trump was influencing the election because of the. the payment issues in the NDA, the non-disclosure agreements up in New York in 2016. And I paused and I said, all right, put that aside for a minute. Do you want to explain to me how you are not impacting the elections, the Biden administration?

Starting point is 00:06:51 President Biden was not trying to influence the elections by claiming that the Hunter laptop was a Russian hoax, when in fact the laptop just yesterday. evidence from that laptop was used to convict Hunter Biden for at least one bucket of the crimes for which she was engaged in with respect to having a firearm and having lied on forms, having been a user in possession. Switching gears a little bit. I know that you have been very vocal in talking about the FACE Act and the way that the DOJ has weaponized this act against pro-lifers. Can we get your reaction to news that multiple elderly women, grandmothers, have been sentenced to prison time for. their pro-life protesting. Yeah, it's pretty unconscionable. I mean, I've obviously introduced legislation to repeal the FACE Act because of its abuse.

Starting point is 00:07:41 It has been used in numerous cases against people who are pro-life. It's been decidedly used against pro-lipers, not those that are pro-choice. Something that at order of magazine is 2005 or 130 times over the entirety of the FACE Act's life. But in particular, under the Biden administration, I think there's been about 50 people who have been targeted under the Face Act who are pro-life or have been, you know, praying or protesting in an abortion clinic, but only four or five that have been used in the other category of folks. So I think we need to deal with it. The fact that they're putting a 70, a judge, a judge is putting a 75-year-old woman who

Starting point is 00:08:21 was praying at an abortion clinic in jail for two years. That should cause everybody to pause, maybe catch your breath about what this weaponized government will be used against, you know, the average American, you know, Mark Halk, the father who was targeted by the FBI for defending his son, you know, out in front of an abortion clinic, again, facing FASAC charges. Charges, by the way, which were passed over by the local DA in not very conservative Philadelphia, you get an idea of what the Department of Justice is doing. So it's horrific. We should do something about it. I hope to be able to expose this even further in future hearings and debates. Well, Congressman Roy, we so appreciate your time with us.

Starting point is 00:09:01 Thank you so much for being here. Yeah, happy to join you all. Take care. And that'll do it for today's episode. If you haven't gotten a chance, be sure to check out our evening show right here in this podcast, B, where we bring you the top news of the day. Also, make sure you subscribe to The Daily Signal wherever you get your podcast and help us reach more listeners by leaving a five-star rating and review. We read all your feedback. Thanks again for listening and have a great day.

Starting point is 00:09:30 The Daily Signal podcast is made possible because of a lot. listeners like you. Executive producers are Rob Bluey and Kate Trinko. Hosts are Virginia Allen, Brian Gottstein, Mary Margaret O'Lehan, and Tyler O'Neill. Sound designed by Lauren Evans, Mark Geiney, and John Pop. To learn more or support our work, please visit DailySignal.com.

The Daily Signal - BONUS: Chip Roy Tears Into Democratic Lawfare Against Trump, Bannon

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