Congress

Oversight Chair plans meeting with Patel to plot take-down of ‘Deep State’

Published

8 months ago

January 10, 2025

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chair James Comer (R-Ky.) plans to meet next week with Kash Patel, President-elect Donald Trump’s yet-to-be-confirmed pick to run the FBI, to discuss how he can be an ally in the new administration’s efforts to root out the so-called “Deep State.”

“I want [Patel] to know that our committee will assist in any way possible to help him disrupt the ‘Deep State,’” Comer said in an interview on Thursday, referring to the conspiracy of illicit power-players running the government.

Patel, who if confirmed would replace Christopher Wray as head of the FBI, has come under scrutiny for suggesting he intends to go after Trump’s political adversaries. But Trump’s allies, including Comer, have argued that Wray failed to address bias at the agency that they claim has become overly politicized.

While his confirmation hearing date has not yet been set, Patel has promised if installed in the posting to rebrand the FBI headquarters as a so-called “museum of the deep state” and enumerated members of the “Deep State” in his book “Government Gangsters.”

Comer said his committee could help in Patel’s effort, specifically suggesting the Oversight Committee could relay to Patel’s team the names of bureaucrats “that kept coming up in our depositions and interviews of people that were obstructing and covering up.”

He was alluding to the officials interviewed in the previous congress during the House GOP’s ultimately unsuccessful impeachment inquiry into the outgoing president, Joe Biden, of which Comer was a leader.

That probe, which failed to gain traction among the broader House GOP, was based on allegations that Biden engaged in “impeachable conduct” for using his position to enrich those close to him. Comer and his colleagues ultimately recommended that the Justice Department prosecute the president’s son, Hunter Biden, and brother, James Biden, for lying to Congress.

In an interview, Comer also suggested there was more work to be done in scrutinizing whether officials sought to obstruct his committee’s prior work surrounding the impeachment inquiry.

“[Patel] and I are fixing to meet because with respect to him, they need to hold some people accountable for a cover up,” Comer asserted. “It’s a big deal to know that the President of the United States is on the take, and yet you do nothing – and I would go further, obstructed our investigation and coordinated with the media to write things that just weren’t true.”

The expected meeting with Patel, a former Trump National Security Council staffer, is an early sign that the House GOP will play a key role in the Trump administration’s efforts to transform the Department of Justice and potentially pursue action against their political opponents.

Comer’s committee has already submitted a request that Biden’s former Social Security Administration commissioner Martin O’Malley, who is also a candidate for chair of the Democratic National Committee, appear before his committee this Congress.

The Oversight Committee chair is also not the only panel leader looking to keep the Biden administration on the front burner despite the upcoming transfer of power. House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said in an interview this week he might, in the months ahead, seek to recall the special counsel in the Hunter Biden criminal probe to get more information about the scope of the allegations against him.

Congress

White House declares $4.9B in foreign aid unilaterally canceled in end-run around Congress’ funding power

Published

2 days ago

August 29, 2025

Blue Light Newsroom

The White House budget office said Friday morning that President Donald Trump has canceled $4.9 billion in foreign aid by using a so-called pocket rescission — furthering the administration’s assault on Congress’ funding prerogatives.

The move raises tensions on Capitol Hill as lawmakers face an Oct. 1 deadline to avoid a government shutdown. Many lawmakers from both parties, as well as Congress’ top watchdog, view the maneuver as an illegal end-run around their “power of the purse.”

The Trump administration boldly embraced the strategy on Friday. “Congress can choose to vote to rescind or continue the funds — it doesn’t matter,” an official from the White House budget office said in a statement. “This approach is rare but not unprecedented.”

The White House is allowed to send Congress a clawbacks request and then withhold the cash for 45 days while lawmakers consider whether to approve, reject or ignore the proposal. Because there are less than 45 days left before the end of the fiscal year, Trump’s top budget officials — led by budget chief Russ Vought — argue that they can employ the so-called pocket rescission to withhold the funding until it lapses at month’s end, ensuring its cancellation regardless of what Congress decides.

The pocket rescission request was first reported by the New York Post.

Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.

Congress

Bondi, Patel to testify before Congress amid Epstein fallout

Published

2 days ago

August 28, 2025

Blue Light Newsroom

Two top Justice Department officials are expected to testify before the House Judiciary Committee in the coming weeks amid fallout over the administration’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case, according to two people granted anonymity to share scheduling information not yet public.

FBI director Kash Patel is set to give testimony Sept. 17, with attorney general Pam Bondi on tap to appear Oct. 9. Both have been invited as part of the Judiciary Committee’s general oversight work, and each will have an opportunity to outline some of the pieces of a crime bill President Donald Trump wants Hill Republicans to produce in the coming months.

But the hearings will likely focus most heavily on how the DOJ has maneuvered around the release of files related to the late, convicted sex offender.

Senior Republicans have continued over the August recess to press the Trump administration to unseal more Epstein documents after a mutiny over their release caused chaos in the GOP-controlled House, running the chamber aground before lawmakers left town early in late July.

DOJ started transmitting some of the so-called Epstein files last week in compliance with a subpoena from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. And Alex Acosta, President Donald Trump’s former labor secretary who singed off on Epstein’s previous plea deal as a then-U.S. attorney in Florida, will separately sit for a transcribed interview with the Oversight panel Sept. 19.

However, lawmakers otherwise have so far received scant new information during the month-long district work period, with members of both parties promising to continue to press the issue when the House is set to return to session next week.

Bondi has, in particular, been the subject of Republican consternation over allegedly withholding documents she at one point promised to reveal.

Congress

Mark Teixeira, former MLB All Star, kicks off Texas House campaign

Published

2 days ago

August 28, 2025

Blue Light Newsroom

Baseball star Mark Teixeira launched a campaign to fill an open Texas House seat Thursday, the latest celebrity athlete to dive into politics.

Teixeira is running as a Republican in a safe red seat being vacated by GOP Rep. Chip Roy. And he’s already appealing to President Donald Trump in search of a home run on the campaign trail.

“As a lifelong conservative who loves this country, I’m running for Congress to fight for the principles that make Texas and America great,” he wrote in a post on X. “It takes teamwork to win — I’m ready to help defend President Trump’s America First agenda, Texas families, and individual liberty.”

Teixeira was a superstar on the diamond, going yard 409 times in a career that spanned 14 seasons and saw him play for four big league outfits, including the Texas Rangers and New York Yankees. He last played in the 2016 season.

He reached baseball immortality when the Yankees won the World Series in 2009. He was included on the 2022 Hall of Fame ballot but failed to get enough votes from sportswriters to either get elected to the Hall or return to the ballot in future years.

Should he win the seat, he could be a major boon for Republicans in the Congressional Baseball Game, the annual charity event that pits Democrats against Republicans. The GOP has dominated the game in recent years, a gap that a former major leaguer would likely only widen.

Teixeira is leaning into his baseball bona fides.

“In Congress, he’ll bring the same grit, preparation, and competitive spirit that made him a champion in Major League Baseball to fight for Texas—and win,” reads his campaign website.

Roy, a Freedom Caucus member who has served in the House since 2019, is leaving Congress to run for the Texas attorney general post.