U.S. Rep. Dan Bishop (R-NC) stated that “the deep state is on notice” in a tweet Tuesday. Bishop’s statement came as the new Republican-led House of Representatives agreed to form a “Church Commission-style” committee to investigate the weaponization of U.S. federal law enforcement against American citizens. The North Carolina Republican was among a handful of members who held their votes from Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) until such a commission was formed, along with an assurance that the “motion to vacate the chair” would be reinstated, which will allow Republicans to recall McCarthy if he fails to keep his word. The rules package was approved by all but one Republican Congressman on Monday, while Republicans voted to form the committee on Tuesday.
Rep. Bishop, along with Reps. Paul Gosar (R-AZ), Andrew Clyde (R-GA), Chip Roy (R-TX) and Scott Perry (R-PA), as well as recently elected U.S. Reps. Eli Crane (R-AZ) and Andy Ogles (R-TN), penned a letter that called for a “Church Commision-style” Congressional committee to investigate weaponization of federal law enforcement agencies in December, weeks before the U.S. House was set to select a new Speaker. The church commission was a 1975 Senate Select Committee that investigated abuses by the CIA, FBI, NSA and IRS.
The letter signed by the seven congressmen included a demand to, “create one centralized, empowered investigation and action committee to frame and carry out the fight against weaponized government in coordination with other critical standing committees (e.g., the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees), one that is fully engaged in the critical work of regular, detailed oversight and empowered with subpoena authority.”
On Tuesday, Rep. Bishop tweeted that “the Deep State is on notice,” adding that “any bureaucrat who violates Americans’ constitutional rights” will be investigated and held accountable.
“With great power comes great responsibility. We entrust our department of justice, FBI and intelligence community with great power to keep us safe. And yet, as long as these organizations have existed, they’ve violated Americans’ civil rights. Everyday Americans,” Bishop said on the House floor Tuesday.
“The security state believes itself to be above the constitution and the laws passed by Congress. Or perhaps the belief is only tacit, it is aware only of power. Not authority, power,” Bishop continued. He went on to list historic cases in which the FBI spied on famous celebrities, including Frank Sinatra, John Lennon and Muhammad Ali because they were viewed as “national security threats.”
“The intelligence community abused power to spy on presidential candidates, a sitting president, and members of Congress and their staffs. The FBI, continuously, coordinated with social media companies to ‘moderate’ social content, the public square,” the North Carolina congressman continued.
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“So contemptuous are they and out of touch, when confronted with this just weeks ago, they said ‘we were merely engaging with our community partners.’ Leading up to the 2020 election the FBI worked hand-in-hand to censor the Hunter Biden laptop story. Concealment from everyday Americans,” Bishop continued. “They’ve continued to censor and silence criticism of COVID policies and vaccine mandates to the harm of everyday Americans. In 2014, the former director of national intelligence James Clapper lied to Congress about the NSA collecting data on millions of Americans, yet he’s escaped a reckoning.
He went on to draw attention to the long history of lies from the intelligence community regarding data collection, investigations, and surveillance of politicians and journalists.
“That’s not all just illegal, it’s un-American, and it cannot continue,” Bishop said on the House floor. “The government’s massive surveillance apparatus is well documented, but there is still much more that we do not know. We owe it to the American people to reveal the rot within our federal government and cut it out, so that it can no longer harm everyday Americans.
“Mr. Speaker, today we’re putting the deep state on notice; we’re coming for you, on behalf of everyday Americans,” he concluded.