WASHINGTON, D.C. — Rep. Louie Gohmert (TX-01) and Rep. Bill Posey (FL-08) led a letter to NSA Director Paul Nakasone demanding information on reports that the Agency illegally spied on Fox News host Tucker Carlson and planned to leak his personal emails to media outlets.

The letter requests that the NSA provide all documents the Agency may have involving Tucker Carlson as well as the following information:

• A detailed description of the “limited exceptions” that would permit the NSA to target a US citizen without a court order, as the Agency understands the term as it is used in its own tweet;
• A detailed description of what constitutes an “emergency” that would permit the NSA to target a US citizen without a court order, as the Agency understands the term as used in its own tweet;
• A detailed description of “the foreign activities that could harm the United States”, as the Agency understands the phrase as used in its own tweet;
• A full explanation of when the Agency understands it is lawful to monitor, surveil, collect, unmask, or receive data on a US citizen without a court order explicitly authorizing such targeting, including while conducted in the course of targeting foreign powers;
• A detailed description of how the Agency defines “domestic terrorist” and when its mission could extend to targeting foreign powers who are corresponding with individuals defined as such;
• A detailed description of your understanding of the term “clandestine intelligence activities;” and
• What specific actions have been taken to hold accountable those who unmasked, approved unmasking, or shared information on unmasked U.S. citizens?

The letter is co-signed by 15 other Members: Andy Biggs (AZ-05), Rep. Lauren Boebert (CO-03), Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA-14), Rep. Matt Gaetz (FL-01), Rep. Jeff Duncan (SC-03), Rep. Chip Roy (TX-21), Rep. Andy Harris, M.D. (MD-01), Rep. Greg Steube (FL-17), Rep. Tom McClintock (CA-04), Rep. Randy K. Weber (TX-14), Rep. Diana Harshbarger (TN-01), Rep. Mo Brooks (AL-05), Rep. Bob Good (VA-05), Rep. Mary E. Miller (IL-15), Rep. Jody Hice (GA-10)

"After the disturbing treatment of Donald Trump by the Deep State, it should come as no surprise that intelligence agencies are continuing their illegal surveillance of Americans who dare to challenge power-hungry elites in Washington, D.C. Reports about the NSA spying on Tucker Carlson are reminiscent of something one would expect to see in a tyrannical dictatorship, not the United States of America where citizens supposedly still have Constitutional rights. The Agency’s attempt to explain itself thus far has only raised more questions that Mr. Carlson and every citizen of this country deserve to have answered." — Rep. Louie Gohmert.

"Spying, unmasking, and leaking the private communications of American citizens weaponizes our intelligence agencies, and this abuse of power must stop. Protecting national security is not only about deterring enemy threats, but it also involves safeguarding our liberties." – Rep. Bill Posey.

Text of the letter can be found HERE.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. – Rep. Louie Gohmert released the following statement on June 14th, 2021, on the filed lawsuit against the use of magnetometers on the House floor and fines for alleged violators:

“It is an honor to be joined by Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA), and counsel, former DHS Deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli, in bringing suit in the D.C. Circuit Court against the unprecedented power grab by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. 

“With the Speaker’s full support, Democrats passed House Resolution 73 that would subject Members of Congress to illegal interference in the course of fulfilling their duties. Under Section 1(a), I received a notice from the Acting Sergeant at Arms alleging a violation for 'failure to complete security screening in the House Chamber,' when in fact I had completed the screening before entering the House Chamber. Article I, Section VI, of the U.S. Constitution mandates that a Member of Congress cannot be detained on the way to the House Chamber for a session and it is even more important that Members not be intentionally impeded from voting on behalf of the over 700,000 constituents we represent. 

“In addition, the 27th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution forbids withholding or amending compensation for a Member in the same Congressional session. The Chief Administrative Officer of the House seeks to illegally withhold funds from my salary because of the Speaker’s desire to manipulate and hold Members of Congress hostage to her whims, especially Members of the opposing party.

“The installation of magnetometers at the House Chamber door and the charging of a fine is a blatant attempt to bully House Members and disrupt good order for the purpose of political “optics.” On February 24, 2021, the Acting Chief of the U.S. Capitol Police, Yogananda Pittman, advised the Republican House Members’ conference meeting stating twice that there was no intelligence from any source that any Member of the House of Representatives was a threat to any other Member of the House.

“Further, the aggressive fines are not being enforced against Democrats. The fines are either dropped or never even assessed when the Speaker and other Democrats blow through the magnetometers. She has allowed no citations, no referrals to the House Ethics Committee, and no fines for her own non-compliance. There is only arbitrary and capricious enforcement against Republicans.

“In contrast, my targeted treatment in these matters is something I cannot let go without a fight against this totalitarian injustice. It is in the interest of upholding the Constitution and safeguarding fairness to the minority party which, for now, is the Republican Party. It is NOT that we are exempt from being screened through metal detectors. Every one of us goes through magnetometers multiple times most every week. There is no legitimate purpose for adding a new layer of magnetometers for entering the House Chamber since there is absolutely no evidence that any Member is a threat to any other Member of Congress. 

“It was outrageous enough that the Speaker rammed through a House Rule prohibiting the mention of our mother, father, sister, brother, son or daughter. Rep. Andrew Clyde and I are taking a stand against the reign of terror under Speaker Pelosi that has cast a pall over the People’s House. We will continue the fight to uphold the Constitution and bring these injustices to light and, in this case, to court.”

Filed in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.
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Rep. Louie Gohmert (TX-01) issued the following statement on the Israel-Hamas crisis:

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On Wednesday, January 6, 2021, an unprecedented incident of civil insurrection at the United States Capitol resulted in the deaths of five individuals. The District of Columbia Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, Dr. Francisco J. Diaz, MD, FACP, issued determinations on April 7 as to the cause and manner of death for four of those individuals and today issues the cause and manner of death of the remaining individual.

Brian Sicknick, 42 years old:

• Cause of Death—Acute brainstem and cerebellar infarcts due to acute basilar artery thrombosis
• Manner of Death—Natural

Publicly disclosed timeline of events:

• Wednesday, January 6, 2021:
  • Approximately 2:20 PM: Officer Brian Sicknick is sprayed with a chemical substance outside the U.S. Capitol.
  • Approximately 10:00 PM: Officer Sicknick collapses at the U.S. Capitol and is transported by D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services to a local hospital.
• Thursday, January 7, 2021:
  • Approximately 9:30 PM: Officer Sicknick dies at a local hospital.

Background explanation of medical terminology on the cause and manner of death:

As determined by the Chief Medical Examiner, the “cause of death” is the medical disease, injury, alcohol, drug or toxic substance that caused a person’s death. The “manner of death” describes the circumstances surrounding a person’s death and falls within one of the following categories:

• Accident: Used when there is no evidence of intent; an unintentional, sudden, and unexpected death.
  
• Homicide: Death results from the intentional harm of one person by another, including actions of grossly reckless behavior.
• Natural: Used when a disease alone causes death. If death is hastened by an injury, the manner of death is not considered natural.
• Suicide: Death results from the purposeful attempt to end one’s life.
• Undetermined: Used when there is insufficient information to assign another manner.

To learn more about the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner or cause and manner investigations in the District, visit ocme.dc.gov.

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Rep. Louie Gohmert (TX-01) issued the following statement regarding Rep. Cheney's removal as GOP Conference Chair:

"There are more important issues that we should be talking about today, rather than Liz Cheney and her interpersonal relationships. How about the two U.S. pipelines that are being held hostage at the moment: one by the cyber-attackers and one by the Biden Administration? Fuel prices this high haven't been seen since the last time Biden was in the White House." Read More

Rep. Louie Gohmert (TX-01) issued the following statement on President Biden’s invitation-only Joint Session of Congress Address:

“Under the guise of COVID-19 safety protocols, the President, or people making his decisions, have not invited all members of both Houses of Congress to attend Wednesday evening’s speech. Instead, they have broken the Biden administration’s pledge of unity, making his speech invitation-only. 

“Searching House precedents which are catalogued as far back as 1789, it does not appear there are any instances of a restricted small group of Members of Congress being favored with an exclusive invitation to a Joint Session. Though the Speaker even brought a Member with COVID into the House Chamber to insure she had enough votes to be reelected Speaker, she now claims to want to protect everyone from that same virus. A majority of us with immunity to COVID were not invited.

“Perhaps they fear Congressional reaction to this Administration’s radical, divisive, socialist agenda from a House and Senate with razor thin Democrat majorities. Their replacement of Constitutional devotion with optics and a gaslighting narrative continues to be their modus operandi. In 2016, Democrat Members staged an insurrection where they physically took over the House Floor, and for the first time in Congressional history, prevented a scheduled session, all in an effort to force the then-Republican majority to vote on stripping Americans of their constitutional right to bear arms. They are constantly setting new patterns for divisiveness and this is yet one more.”

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As widespread abuse and criminality pour over the U.S.-Mexico border thanks to the Biden Administration’s manufactured crisis, Rep. Louie Gohmert (TX-01) led a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra requesting the following:

•            The name and location of each U.S. city and town where illegal immigrants have been sent, transported, or provided ability or funding to travel to, or allowed to travel to by other funding including their own or private funding for all individuals who entered the U.S. without visas; and

•            For each named U.S. city or town, the total number of immigrants who have been sent, transported, or provided ability or funding to travel to, or allowed to travel to by other funding including their own or private funding to such city or town. 

Rep. Gohmert was joined by 33 of his colleagues in signing the letter: Rep. Brian Babin (TX-36), Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA-14), Rep. Yvette Herrell (NM-02), Rep. Tracey Mann (KS-01), Rep. Diana Harshbarger (TN-01), Rep. Jeff Duncan (SC-03), Rep. Ralph Norman (SC-05), Rep. Dan Bishop (NC-09), Rep. Chip Roy (TX-21), Rep. Scott Perry (PA-10), Rep. Matthew Rosendale, Sr. (MT-At Large), Rep. Paul A. Gosar, D.D.S. (AZ-04), Rep. John R. Carter (TX-31), Rep. Pete Sessions (TX-17), Rep. Ted Budd (NC-13), Rep. Bill Posey (FL-08), Rep. Lauren Boebert (CO-03), Rep. W. Gregory Steube (FL-17), Rep. Mo Brooks (AL-05), Rep. Jody Hice (GA-10), Rep. Lance Gooden (TX-05), Rep. Bob Good (VA-05), Rep. Tom Rice (SC-07), Rep. Ronny L. Jackson (TX-13), Rep. Kelly Armstrong (ND-At Large), Rep. Glenn Grothman (WI-06), Rep. Michael Cloud (TX-27), Rep. Andy Biggs (AZ-05), Rep. Randy K. Weber (TX-14), Rep. Ken Calvert (CA-42), Rep. Ann Wagner (MO-02), Rep. Madison Cawthorn (NC-11), Rep. Andy Harris, M.D. (MD-01)

“It wasn’t long ago that—thanks to the leadership and vision of President Trump—the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border was under control,” said Rep. Gohmert. “Now, after being lured here by misleading promises from the current President, our Southern border has become complete pandemonium, with criminality running rampant. As a result, many illegal immigrants are receiving all-expenses-paid trips, oftentimes courtesy of U.S. taxpayers, to American cities across the country. Congress, and more importantly, the American people, have a right to know how many of these individuals will be flooding their neighborhoods.”

Text of the letter can be found HERE.

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Last night, Rep. Louie Gohmert (TX-01) offered an amendment to H.R. 40, the Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African-Americans Act, to determine whether or not the Democratic Party should be responsible for any compensation to descendants of slavery in the United States given the party’s longstanding support for the barbaric practice.

“Throughout American history, one political party has had a virtual obsession with protecting and perpetuating the evil institution of slavery,” said Rep. Gohmert. “That is the Democratic Party, which even had party platforms in the 1800’s that advocated for slavery. Even after the Civil War ended slavery, Democrats continued to attempt perpetuating the outrageous wickedness of racial discrimination, including disparate treatment, segregation, and Jim Crow laws. As Democrats continued to fight against equal treatment for African-Americans, not a single Democrat in Congress voted to support the 14th Amendment which granted full citizenship to freed slaves. Nor did any Democrats vote for the 15th Amendment which gave freed slaves the right to vote. 

“Democrats now try to hide their Party’s hideous history by claiming that all the racist Democrats changed parties, which a look at the facts and numbers disclose is blatantly false. Should the commission determine that compensation should be awarded to descendants of slaves, those funds should come directly from the party which embraced, perpetuated and promoted nearly two centuries of terror and injustices against African-Americans. We’ve already seen the modern-day damage that Democrat policies have done to African-American communities in big cities across America. Let’s continue to fight for equal opportunity, and cease attempting to punish children for sins of people they never knew.”

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Rep. Louie Gohmert (TX-01) issued the following statement after the House Ethics Committee denied his appeal to overturn the Speaker’s unconstitutional fine in a 5-5 vote along party lines with the requirement of a majority to overturn the fine:

 

"Multiple witnesses watched Speaker Pelosi avoid metal detectors and avoid being wanded when she entered the House Floor that same day that I DID go through the metal detector to enter the House floor but was not wanded coming out of the restroom. If this is not corrected in a courtroom, then House members of both parties will be subject to the tyranny of a partisan, zealot Speaker for the rest of Congress’ existence."

 

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