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As this week got underway on Capitol Hill, there weren’t any major developments of note, though observers were taken aback when House Reading Clerk Susan Cole publicly informed lawmakers of something entirely unexpected.
“This is to notify you formally pursuant to Rule 8 of the rules of the House of Representatives that the office of the sergeant at arms for the House of Representatives has been served with a grand jury subpoena for documents issued by the U.S. Department of Justice,” Cole said, reading from written text.
What was that all about? An NBC News report filled in the gaps.
Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., a key progressive and former Black Lives Matter organizer, is being investigated by the Justice Department for her campaign’s spending on security services, she confirmed in a statement Tuesday. “We are fully cooperating in this investigation,” Bush said, denying any wrongdoing.
NBC News' report added that the Justice Department recently issued a grand jury subpoena to the House sergeant at arms for documents related to the Bush investigation, which led to the clerk's unexpected comment on the House floor, but we didn't know until this morning that the Missouri Democrat is is the focus of the federal probe.
Time will tell what, if anything, comes of the apparent criminal investigation, but in the meantime, it’s worth pausing to reflect on the bigger picture.
As things currently stand, the Justice Department, under the leadership of Attorney General Merrick Garland, is:
- prosecuting President Joe Biden’s son;
- prosecuting an incumbent Democratic senator during his re-election bid; and
- investigating an incumbent Democratic representative during her re-election bid.
And yet, despite these developments, one of the animating concepts in contemporary Republican politics is that rascally Democrats have “weaponized” federal law enforcement to punish GOP figures and shield Democrats from accountability. The Justice Department and the FBI, leading Republican voices insist, are little more than political tools for the Biden White House and its fiendish allies.
As we’ve discussed, Republicans don’t just want their conspiracy theory to be true; they need it to be true. This simple, baseless idea is the foundation for the party’s Trump defense, fundraising, stump speeches, cable news segments, and even legislative campaigns on Capitol Hill.
In 2024, assertions about a “two-tiered” justice system are foundational to GOP politics. They’re also routinely discredited by real-world events.
Indeed, if Biden and his team were trying to weaponize federal law enforcement to benefit Democrats, they’ve proved themselves to be incredibly bad at it.
This post updates our related earlier coverage. It's also been revised to reflect additional details about Bush and her latest comments.