Will the Real Ro Khanna Please Stand Up?: Filing in journalist's suit against House Oversight Committee for outside-consultants records reveals Chairman's ever-changing stories about purpose, staffing of 'Big Oil' investigation - Climate Litigation Watch

Will the Real Ro Khanna Please Stand Up?: Filing in journalist’s suit against House Oversight Committee for outside-consultants records reveals Chairman’s ever-changing stories about purpose, staffing of ‘Big Oil’ investigation

“Disinformation” is a funny thing.

As made clear in a filing this evening in Schilling v. Speaker Pelosi, et al., one could get whiplash from the claims by congressmen, activists and donors about whether or not “the [Oversight] committee has enlisted the aid of “a lot of people” involved in planning the Waxman hearings for advice and planning” a “year-long investigation” of perceived political opponents. Which is what the Chair first boasted, before being called out, and putting his shovel down…briefly, only to pick up another whilst denying this misstep.

Whatever the currently operative line about improper use of “unofficial office accounts“, tonight’s filing also makes clear it is now much more difficult to escape the conclusion that this weaponization of congressional subpoena authority was indeed — as argued in detail in a common law right of access records suit filed by the award-winning journalist Schilling — merely an effort to assist third parties. These third-party beneficiaries include not only the Biden administration; new records, including an exhibit filed this evening, suggest the hearings were in fact coordinated with a third-party litigation campaign beginning in the runup to the 2020 elections. 

Documents and the voluble Chairman himself continue to reinforce that this congressional investigation was certainly not conducted in pursuit of the required legitimate legislative purpose. 

Exhibit A, Overheated interview with Chairman Khanna

Exhibit B, Barnett Carlson email about post-election plan

Exhibit C, House lawyers’ letter to Plaintiff Schilling