WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) - A lawsuit against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi alleges that Democrats have created an unofficial staffing group to provide members on the Committee on Oversight & Reform with consultants and policy advisors who aren’t vetted by the committee.
A consulting group providing advice to the committee, Co-Equal, allegedly has funding ties to leftist billionaire George Soros.
“The lawsuit is about records. But what we already know suggests that what the records show is even more important,” said Matthew Hardin, attorney for the plaintiff. “We anticipate that the records are going to show the House Oversight Committee members compelling testimony, while warnings of subpoenas and perjury charges are being provided by private 'staff' or consultants to assist the campaign outside of the legally-permissible funding process.
"If so, that's allowing donors to weaponize Congress and in violation of House Rules and federal law. It is also a case about what Congress appears to be doing, which is allowing private staffing and private funding of investigations of political and ideological opponents.”
The complaint was filed on behalf of Virginia radio show host Rob Schilling in U.S. District Court in the District of Columba accusing Pelosi, House Clerk Cheryl L. Johnston, and House Chief Administrative Officer Catherine Szpindor of violating House Rules by using private donations to pay outside consultants and policy advisors who then support the official business of congressional offices of Democratic members of the committee.
Hardin said the mission of Co-Equal is to provide consulting resources to Congress to replace staff reduced by trimming Congress's budget.
"Co-Equal is privately financed by the biggest names among politically motivated, wealthy individuals," Hardin told Legal Newsline. "They are 'staffing' Congress off-books, and specifically to investigate perceived opponents of the agenda promoted by these wealthy donors who provided the non-staff with 'staff' to guide the pursuit. In a way that not only, on its face, appears to plainly violate House Rules and federal statute but also is an unseemly unconstitutional stretch of Congress's permissible investigative role. Hence, the view that this represents weaponization of Congress and the weaponization of congressional investigative powers.”
Hardin said Soros's involvement with Co-Equal is indirect.
"We can show that a Soros-funded group donated to Co-Equal, so it's not a direct Soros donated to Co-Equal, but Soros donated to a group and that group donated to Co-equal," Hardin said. "That's how we show the link and...we have records that show what Co-Equal is doing."
The lawsuit claims that Co-Equal was established "as a project of what media reports describe as a 'Democratic Dark Money Juggernaut,' 'the ‘mothership’ behind a network of Democratic dark money nonprofit groups' — to provide consulting services to burnish the staffs of congressional allies."
The Committee on Oversight & Reform is chaired by Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney (D-New York). Issues the committee are currently investigating include voter suppression, cybersecurity and drug pricing.
In the meantime, Co-Equal is allegedly compiling an oral history of the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol to preserve firsthand accounts "when they're still fresh in the memories of those with direct experience of that terrible day," according to Co-Equal’s website.
"These accounts should be memorialized and are important for the public and Congress to consider in evaluating what transpired and determining appropriate responses," the website further states.
Schilling’s lawsuit seeks emails, logs, Skype and similar recordings relating to the use of donor-provided consultants as professional staff to perform official business on behalf of two committee chairs.
“There are well-known laws that require, if you're a lobbyist, you to register,” Hardin added. “Ethics rules state that if you're a consultant, you need to have a contract approved through the proper procedure and made publicly available, but you cannot be paid by outside sources. All the admissions and other evidence in the public record are clear that these folks aren't either lobbyists or properly approved consultants. Further, they are being paid to provide these services, by outside parties, which is prohibited."