Ever since the federal government shutdown was averted, controversy has sprung up over a hidden provision in the bill that would let U.S. senators investigated by former special counsel Jack Smith in the 2020 election coup plot to sue the federal government for up to $500,000. Even Republicans in the House scrambled to disavow the provision, and though they stopped short of amending it out, several, including House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), signaled support for a standalone bill to repeal it.
But according to CNN congressional correspondent Manu Raju, senators are still standing firm in support of it, and Majority Leader John Thune (R-SC) took a swipe at Johnson on Tuesday for attacking the measure.
“The House is going to do what they're going to do with it. It didn't apply to them,” said Thune. “There's a statute that obviously was violated, and what this does is enables people who are harmed, in this case, United States senators, to have a private right of action against the weaponization by the Justice Department.”
Thune went on to say that, even though the provision allows each senator who had their phone records seized to sue for half a million dollars apiece in taxpayer money, they aren't actually going to do it.
"I don't think anybody was talking about taking the money, but I think the penalty is in place to ensure that in the future ... there is a remedy in place,” said Thune.
All of this comes at the same time that the GOP is scrambling from the fallout over the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking case files controversy, with most of the party voting alongside Democrats to compel the release of documents after President Donald Trump all but gave up on his opposition to the matter.