‘Any One of Us Could Be Next': Judiciary Chairman Jordan Warns of Feds’ Assault on Civil Liberties

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) presides over a hearing of the Weaponization of the Federal Government Subcommittee in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill on Feb. 09, 2023. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Americans’ constitutional civil liberties are being violated with increasingly dangerous frequency by irresponsible government officials who then deprive whistleblowing colleagues of their pay and positions, according to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).

“Seven years of attacking Trump is scary enough, but what’s more frightening is any one of us could be next. In fact, it’s already started. Parents at school board meetings are terrorists; pro-life Catholics are extremists, and even journalists aren’t safe,” Jordan warned in his opening statement to the committee’s June 21 hearing to question special counsel John Durham on his report on the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane investigation arising from the 2016 presidential campaign.

Durham’s exhaustively detailed 306-page report described how FBI officials rushed, without justification, to investigate allegations that employees of former President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign colluded with Russian intelligence to defeat his Democratic opponent, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Durham also described how FBI officials declined to investigate significant evidence that Clinton used her office to assist the international fundraising efforts of her husband, former President Bill Clinton, on behalf of the Clinton Foundation.

“Federal Trade Commission (FTC), 13 letters. One of those letters to Twitter said ‘who are the journalists you are talking to?’ Think about that, they named four people personally. Two of them come and testify before this committee,” Jordan said, referring to multiple letters from the FTC to Twitter in which federal officials demanded to know the names of journalists with whom the social media outlet was dealing.

Rep. Sylvia Garcia (D-Texas) engaged in a heated discussion with "Twitter Files" journalist Matt Taibbi as she tried to get him to reveal a source during a congressional hearing in Washington on March 9, 2023. (House Judiciary Committee/Screenshot via NTD)

“While they are in front of this committee, Democrats are asking them to reveal their sources in violation of First Amendment principles. One of them, Matt Taibi, while he sat at that table testifying before this judiciary committee, the IRS is knocking on his door,” Jordan said.

“Parents, Catholics, journalists, but guess who gets it the worst. Whistleblowers. If you dare come forward and tell Congress what is going on, look out! They will come for you, they will take your security clearance, they will take your pay, they will even take your kids’ clothes. Just ask Garrett O'Boyle, who testified in front of this committee as well.”

O'Boyle was one of three FBI agents who testified on May 18 before the House Judiciary Select Subcommittee on Weaponization of the Federal Government with details of how Department of Justice officials retaliated against them for sharing critical information with Congress. Numerous laws bar officials from punishing federal employees who provide information to Congress.

Civil liberties attorneys and advocates interviewed by The Epoch Times agreed with Jordan’s assessment, with some pointing to President Joe Biden and officials in his administration as the primary culprits and others to the immense and often unaccountable “deep state” power and influence of numerous federal intelligence and law enforcement agencies.

Kristen Waggoner, CEO, general counsel, and president of the Phoenix-based Alliance Defending Freedom, told The Epoch Times that her public interest law foundation is “receiving a record number of requests” for legal assistance.

“The volume, velocity, and ferocity of attacks on free speech by the Biden administration and its allies at all levels of government is alarming and unprecedented,“ she said. ”Average citizens are being systematically censored and coerced, not only by an increasingly powerful state, but by hostile corporations, who are colluding in this clamp-down on liberty.”

Waggoner praised Jordan for pointing out that “the ideological left is barely even attempting to keep the curtain closed on its authoritarian intentions.”

“In some sense, the opponents of freedom are doing us a favor by declaring themselves. We must remain vigilant and act boldly to preserve the precious freedoms promised in our First Amendment,” she said.

Kelly Shackleford, president of First Liberty Institute in Plano, Texas, contended: “[The Biden administration] unfortunately operates with two sets of laws, depending on people’s beliefs or politics. That is not America. The good news is that, at the same time, we are winning back precious freedoms in the courts. We won two landmark Supreme Court religious freedom decisions 11 months ago and we are hopeful to win another in the next two weeks.

Kelly Shackleford, president, First Liberty Institute. (Courtesy of First Liberty Institute)

“The left is attacking the courts daily in the media, since they don’t control the courts, but our polling shows it is not working. The American people treasure their freedoms and the rule of law. They will not stand for or approve lawlessness and one set of laws for one person that is different from the rest.”

Liberty Counsel founder and Chairman Mat Staver agreed with Jordan, saying: “I don’t think he’s exaggerating, I think there is a real assault against our civil liberties and a clear erosion of the fundament right of freedom of speech. The Biden administration, and Obama did this, too, in weaponizing government to target people’s views that they disagree with. I think it’s very dangerous.” Liberty Counsel is based in Orlando, Florida.

From Charlottesville, Virginia, Rutherford Institute President John Whitehead told The Epoch Times the threat to constitutional civil liberties isn’t limited to particular politicians or political parties.

“Anyone who suggests that threats to our freedoms are partisan in nature or the result of any particular politician have not been paying attention. For years now, ‘we the people’ have suffered the injustices, cruelties, corruption and abuse of an entrenched government bureaucracy that has no regard for the Constitution or the rights of the citizenry,” he said.

“By ‘government,’ I’m not referring to the highly partisan, two-party bureaucracy of the Republicans and Democrats. Rather, I’m referring to ‘Government’ with a capital ‘G,’ the entrenched deep state that is unaffected by elections, unaltered by populist movements, and has set itself beyond the reach of the law. We are overdue for a systemic check on the government’s overreaches and power grabs.”

A spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union didn’t respond to The Epoch Times’ request for comment on Jordan’s statement.