Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee Jim Jordan sat down with Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo earlier this week, and the conservative host expressed frustration with House Republicans’ seemingly endless parade of inconsequential investigations.
As the two discussed Donald Trump’s ongoing criminal trial in New York, Bartiromo said The Ohio Republican said, “Well, look, I mean, right now, American citizens are asking, ‘What can they do about this?’ “I mean, look, with all due respect, people are sick and tired of congressional investigations that go nowhere.”
For context, the Fox host wasn’t suggesting that Republican lawmakers end pointless partisan investigations; Instead, Bartiromo was suggesting that Jordan and his partisan allies start launching More productive partisan investigations.
The far-right congressman understood the message and acted accordingly. The conservative Washington Times reported:
Chances are, most of the public has never heard of Matthew Colangelo, although there’s a good chance your weird uncle, who consumes conservative media all day, is aware of him.
Like us discussed A couple of years ago, Colangelo served as a former top Justice Department official with a long history of taking on Donald Trump, including leading the investigation that led to the closure of Trump’s fraudulent charitable foundation. When he joined District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s team in 2022, it was evidence of an intensifying investigation into the former president’s alleged crimes.
Conservative conspiracy theorists, however, came to believe that Colangelo’s work in the Manhattan district attorney’s office was actually evidence that the Biden administration was secretly pulling the strings in the hush money case, as part of an elaborate electoral plot against Trump.
It’s this conspiracy theory that Jordan is now taking seriously (or at least pretends to take seriously), as evidenced by the Ohioan’s latest allegations directed at the Department of Justice.
By all appearances, Jordan’s most recent efforts to investigate an investigation (one of the Judiciary Committee chairman’s) most unfortunate habits – probably not much. But what’s especially notable about the events is the degree to which the Republican congressman was effectively intimidated into following the conspiracy theory in the first place.
Media issues explained in a report This week, “pro-Trump media figures alleged that Colangelo is a “partisan hatchet man” and stated that his past service at the Department of Justice… proves that Trump’s impeachment was a ‘political coup by Biden to eliminate Trump.’ Colangelo actually had a unique experience for Bragg because he led the New York attorney general’s civil investigation into Trump before joining the Justice Department, and it’s not unusual “Let lawyers leave the Justice Department to take high-level positions in the Manhattan district attorney’s office.”
However, Steve Bannon took a special interest in the matter and, just last week, said that he intended to “force“Jordan take the right-wing theories about Colangelo seriously.
“We’re already working behind the scenes and we’re going to force Jordan to do it because all Jordan has given, and you can talk to the Trump team, all he’s done is talk happily,” Bannon told his listeners, adding that Jordan has produced a series of “airballs” (a basketball term that refers to shots that don’t hit anything).
“You must take action,” Bannon added. “I shouldn’t have to take up valuable airtime here, since we have so many other things to chase after you. To harass you. To harass you. Because if you don’t put a bayonet in these guys’ backs, they’re going to back off on everything, you know why? Because they are cowards.”
“It’s called controlled opposition” Bannon concluded. “He’s going to go to Hannity and talk about some things, right? But nothing happens and this has to happen.”
Days later, Jordan demanded that the attorney general test his panel with evidence related to the Colangelo conspiracy theory, at which point Bannon was happy for the “beginning.”
When Jordan became chairman of the Judiciary Committee, it was logical that far-right voices would help make decisions. However, I didn’t realize how easy it would be to bully him into submission.
This article was originally published in MSNBC.com
