Congress

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

Published

1 year 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

House ponders reconciliation delay

Published

32 minutes ago

May 21, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

House GOP leaders are considering delaying a vote on their party-line immigration enforcement bill until after next week’s Memorial Day recess, according to three people granted anonymity to describe internal conversations — possibly inching right up to President Donald Trump’s June 1 deadline.

The Senate has yet to release final bill text or launch debate, meaning the House might not get the bill until well into Friday. Leaders there don’t know how long they can keep their members in town ahead of a busy holiday weekend. A number of New York Republicans, for instance, want to attend a Friday event with Trump in Rep. Mike Lawler’s district.

Speaker Mike Johnson is set to meet with Trump at the White House Thursday afternoon, where they will likely discuss next steps.

Congress

Bipartisan House effort aims to kill ‘anti-weaponization’ fund

Published

1 hour ago

May 21, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

A bipartisan House effort is afoot to kill the $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund created by the Justice Department that could pay allies of President Donald Trump, according to three people granted anonymity to discuss the effort ahead of a formal announcement.

Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) and Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.) have drafted text and are taking steps to unveil the legislation soon, the people said.

Speaker Mike Johnson raised the level of urgency to block the fund among some congressional skeptics when he refused to say Wednesday whether violent Jan. 6 convicts should have access to the taxpayer money.

Fitzpatrick said in an interview Wednesday he’s waiting to hear back from the Justice Dpartment regarding a list of questions he sent Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche seeking more information about who will be able to access the fund, which was created pursuant to a settlement between Trump and the IRS.

Fitzpatrick said his constituents and others “don’t want a DOJ slush fund that has not been described or explained to anybody.”

Blanche is meeting with GOP senators Thursday morning, some of whom are want to curtail or block the fund through the immigration enforcement package Senate Republicans are planning to advance today.

Johnson would be unlikely to bring the Fitzpatrick-Suozzi legislation to the House floor, but Fitzpatrick has been involved in multiple efforts this Congress to use discharge petitions to pass bipartisan bills over GOP leaders’ objections.

Congress

House Oversight confronts toughest Epstein interview to date

Published

2 hours ago

May 21, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Sarah Kellen, a former assistant to Jeffrey Epstein, told congressional investigators Thursday she was “sexually and psychologically abused” by the convicted sex offender, according to a copy of her prepared opening statement.

Kellen — who is sitting for a closed-door, transcribed interview with the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee as part of its investigation into the late, disgraced financier — has presented a quandary for lawmakers as to whether she should be regarded as victim or an accomplice to Epstein in carrying out his crimes.

Speaking with reporters before the start of the interview, House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) said he suspected it would be the hardest conversation with a witness to date.

“I know how the Department of Justice viewed her. I don’t know how the Oversight Committee will view her,” Comer said. “Obviously she’s presumed innocent, she’s going to have due process, and I appreciate her being here today.”

He noted, “We have a lot of questions about everything from the day-to-day activities to what she saw and what she knows.”

According to the prepared remarks, Kellen described details of the abuse that she endured at the hands of Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, the only convicted co-conspirator in the Epstein case who is now serving 20 years in prison for her part in the sex trafficking scheme.

“Jeffrey made certain I knew that defying him would cost me my life,” Kellen said, per the pre-written opening statement. “I was a silent body in a chair beside men who started and ended wars.”

Kellen was one of four women viewed as possible co-conspirators as part of the 2008 non-prosecution agreement many have argued allowed Epstein to continue to prey on young women and girls for years. Kellen, who was ultimately never prosecuted or charged, described the government’s scrutiny of her as a total blindside.

“The federal government of the United States branded me a criminal in a secret deal with my own abuser, without ever once speaking to me,” she said in her prepared remarks.

Kellen also recounted to the Oversight panel that she was raised in a “religious cult” and married at the age of 17. After her divorce, she was excommunicated from her community. A man said he would introduce her to Epstein under the auspices that he was a “scout for Victoria’s Secret.” She later got a job as Epstein’s assistant and said he only paid her once the sexual abuse began.

“I have read articles online labeling me as Ghislaine’s Lieutenant; that is a gross misrepresentation,” she said, according to the prepared statement. “I was a literal indentured slave; in fact, she even referred to me as her slave and minion.”

Erica Orden contributed to this report.