WASHINGTON — A move by Senate Republicans to allow members of their caucus whose phone records were swept up in the Jan. 6, 2021 investigation to sue the government they are a part of “stinks like sh––”, a prominent Democrat told Raw Story.
Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) and a bipartisan group of lawmakers are appalled and vow to follow the House and swiftly nix the measure.
The controversial provision directed by Senate Majority Leader Sen. John Thune (R-SD) was included in the bill to reopen the government after the recent record-breaking shutdown.
“It stinks like sh––. It's just stinky,” Sen. Luján told Raw Story: “It's why people across the country hate politicians.
“Because, you know, under the guise of opening up the government and [with] Republicans saying they would not allow food programs to go forward … they sneak in more than a $500,000 payoff.”
Under the Senate measure passed on Nov. 10, senators who had their phone records collected during Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol could qualify for hundreds of thousands of dollars in compensation.
At the time, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), one of the senators investigated over his links to Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn his 2020 defeat by Joe Biden, said: “Leader Thune inserted that in the bill to provide real teeth to the prohibition on the Department of Justice targeting senators.”
Cruz also bemoaned what he called “the abuse of power from the Biden Justice Department … the worst single instance of politicization our country has ever seen,” telling Politico: “I think it is Joe Biden’s Watergate, and the statutory prohibition needs to have real teeth and real consequences.”
But the move caused widespread outcry. Last week, the House, which is controlled by Republicans, voted unanimously to repeal the provision.
“It's $500,000 per instance, so it's arguably millions of dollars for arguably eight senators,” Sen. Lujan told Raw Story at the Capitol, ahead of lawmakers’ Thanksgiving recess.
“It's stinky. There's a reason why the House Republicans said this was garbage and they acted so quickly. So kudos to them for moving so quickly, and kudos to Sen. [Martin] Heinrich (D-NM) for offering a piece of legislation that says, ‘Take it out.’”
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) was among other Democrats who told Raw Story they expected the Senate to remove the compensation measure, “probably in one of the one of the must-passes [budgetary bills] at the end of the year.”
‘What the hell are they up to?’
Lujan did accept Republican concerns about senators’ phone records being obtained by Smith and his team.
“Whether it's Democrats or Republicans, I mean, what the hell are they up to?” Lujan asked. “Why are they doing it? Arguably, it's against the law.”
But he also demanded to know why Republican senators needed a “payout” on the issue when they “left out” of their legislation “my Republican colleague out of Pennsylvania that was also in the damn report” — a reference to either Mike Kelly or Scott Perry, the only two Key Stone State lawmakers mentioned.
“It's stupid, and it's broken all around,” Lujan said.
‘We’ll talk about it’
Republican senators are reportedly split over how to amend their measure after its rejection by the House.
At the Capitol, Sen. Cruz dodged Raw Story’s question, saying he had a call to attend to.
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) said her party would be “discussing it.”
She also said she had not known about Thune’s provision when the government funding bill passed.
“I think the leaders even said, you know, maybe the process of doing it was not the best,” Capito said. “The substance of it, I don't argue with, being able to keep the separation of powers, but we'll talk about it next week.”
Democrats want to make it as uncomfortable as possible.
“It's outrageous that people would put into the bill essentially a check for themselves for up to $500,000,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) told Raw Story.
“Are you guys pressuring?” Raw Story asked.
“Oh, we're working very hard to overturn it,” Van Hollen promised.
