Comer Blasts Raskin’s Attempt to Chill American Energy Producers’ First Amendment Rights

WASHINGTON—House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) today is chastising Ranking Member Jamie Raskin’s (D-Md.) attempt to chill American energy producers’ First Amendment rights. In a letter sent to the Ranking Member, Chairman Comer points out how Ranking Member Raskin is attempting to create a non-existent scandal about American energy producers’ support for former President Trump’s energy policies and emphasizes that the Committee majority and the committee’s authorities will not be used to support his election year stunt.  

Below are key excerpts from the letters:

“Despite efforts by you and some left-leaning pundits to conjure a non-existent scandal, there is nothing inappropriate or surprising about oil and gas executives aligning themselves with the candidate who favors increased production and U.S. independence from reliance on foreign energy sources.

[…]

“On many inquiries you pursue in your position as Ranking Member, even when I do not share your concerns or add them to the Committee’s agenda, I remain open to new information they may uncover and the possibility of working together and utilizing the Committee’s authorities under House Rule X, as noted in your letter.  In this matter, however, no such possibility exists.  Given the invasive nature of your requests to private individuals, I find it easy to read your letters not as a genuine attempt to gather information but as a political attempt to send a message to all would-be supporters of and donors to former President Trump to beware of exercising their right to political participation.

[…]

“Your letters carry the odor, not of good-faith oversight, but of the weaponization of government office and of hypocrisy in chilling participation in the election.  This is far from the first time that election-year politics have entered into Committee Democrats’ oversight efforts. But there should be no ambiguity among the recipients of your letters or anyone else: neither I nor the Committee majority will be joining or utilizing the Committee’s investigative authorities in this matter.“

Read the letter to Ranking Member Raskin here.