Republican lawmakers are pushing back on a GOP-sponsored provision that would allow for GOP lawmakers to sue the Justice Department for $500,000 over its probe in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, a reversal that one journalist dubbed a series of “self-owns.”
The provision was included in the recent spending bill that re-opened the government, and at the direction of Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD). And, while Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has said he intends to take advantage of the provision and sue the DOJ for damages, other GOP lawmakers have criticized it, including House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), who said he was unaware of its inclusion.
“Wow, I mean these are both two examples of party self-owns, honestly,” said Marianna Sotomayor, a political reporter for The Washington Post, appearing on CNN Saturday.
“House Republicans this week [are] expected to vote to repeal that provision; it's still a question whether the Senate will put it on the floor, but a lot of the senators have mostly said that they would support either a vote to repeal this provision, or haven't really commented yet.”
That probe was a sweeping investigation carried out by the DOJ into efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, and resulted in eight Republican senators having their phone records seized. The investigation was reportedly dubbed “Operation Arctic Frost,” and has been decried by Republicans as being “worse than Watergate.”
CNN Chief National Affairs Correspondent Jeff Zeleny ripped into the provision as well, and predicted that Graham would back off his pledge to sue the DOJ due to the optics of suing for taxpayer dollars, which many Republican lawmakers have openly come out against.
“This is taxpayer money we're talking about here!” Zeleny said. “So for all of the angst against the government, several of those senators said they wouldn't take the money, so my guess is if this becomes an issue in South Carolina, Lindsey Graham may have a 'take two' on that answer, saying [he's] going to take the taxpayers' money.”
"These are both two examples of party self-owns, honestly."@MariannaReports rips the GOP after coming out against a provision included in a recent spending bill allowing GOP lawmakers to sue the DOJ $500k over having their phones siezed as part of its investgations into Jan. 6. pic.twitter.com/IEpWucgiFe
— Alexander Willis (@ReporterWillis) November 16, 2025