House Republican leaders reportedly have promised Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green (R-Georgia) and other right-wing lawmakers that the party will investigate House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Department of Justice over their treatment of defendants jailed for their participation in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The pledge comes at the moment the GOP retook control of the House.
According to political observers, there’s an expectation among MAGA Republicans to use the opportunity not to pass legislative measures but to take investigative actions that could harm President Joe Biden and his allies.
Last week, Republicans secured a narrow majority in the House.
Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-California) was nominated to be next House Speaker, but still has to get 218 votes on the floor of the House in January.
In October, Greene told the New York Times that “to be the best Speaker of the House and to please the base, [McCarthy is] going to give me a lot of power and a lot of leeway.”
Greene has been advocating for better conditions for defendants held in custody at a Washington, D.C., jail. In November, she visited the facility and said thy were “prisoners of wars,” claiming they were being mistreated because of politics.
Reports indicate that the poor conditions at the facility have been a problem for a long time, affecting mainly black inmates. Attention to the issues started to arise when the high-profile defendants arrived.
“Concerns about conditions at the jail received little attention until they were raised by mostly white defendants accused of perpetrating the Jan. 6 insurrection,” Karl Racine, Washington’s attorney general, said at a recent hearing.
