In a move that reeks of self-preservation, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy threatened telecommunication companies on Tuesday, saying if they gave Congressional investigators records related to the January 6th attack of the U.S. Capitol, a future “Republican majority would not forget.”
McCarthy made his statement after lawmakers probing the January 6th riots sent letters to more than 30 companies asking them to “preserve the phone records of certain lawmakers and members of former President Donald Trump’s orbit who played some role in the “Stop the Steal” rally that served as the prelude to the Capitol insurrection,” according to CNN.
CNN adds:
While the committee did not make public the names of the lawmakers whose records it is targeting, multiple sources familiar with the panel’s work have confirmed for CNN that the records of several members of Congress are among those the committee would like to be preserved.
But McCarthy framed his warning as pushback against a “surveillance state.” From POLITICO:
McCarthy called out Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for what he called “attempts to strong-arm private companies to turn over individuals’ private data.” He asserted that such a forfeiture of information would “put every American with a phone or computer in the crosshairs of a surveillance state run by Democrat politicians.”
“If these companies comply with the Democrat order to turn over private information, they are in violation of federal law and subject to losing their ability to operate in the United States,” McCarthy posted on Twitter. “If companies still choose to violate federal law, a Republican majority will not forget and will stand with Americans to hold them fully accountable under the law.”
CNN reports that McCarthy did not respond to an inquiry asking what specific law the telecommunication companies would be breaking.
Schiff responded to McCarthy’s threat during an MSNBC appearance:
He’s scared. And I think his boss is scared,” Schiff said on MSNBC. “They didn’t want this commission and this select committee to go forward. They certainly didn’t want it to go forward as it is on a bipartisan basis, and they don’t want the country to know exactly what they were involved in.
And Kevin McCarthy lives to do whatever Trump wants. But he is trying to threaten these companies, and it shows yet again why this man, Kevin McCarthy, can never be allowed to go anywhere near the speaker’s office.
Appearing on Fox News, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) went further than McCarthy, saying “These telecommunication companies, if they go along with this, they will be shut down. That’s a promise.”
Harvard Law Professor Laurence Tribe tweeted that Greene’s remarks qualify as an obstruction of justice.