Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.) insists House Republicans’ investigation into Twitter will yield charges — though he is not clear on what the charges will be.
During an appearance on Fox News Thursday night, Higgins suggested the investigation will produce “probable cause.”
But host Laura Ingraham was quick to challenge him as she asked, “Sir, sir, probable cause for what? What’s the actual crime?”
“I mean, I was a criminal defense lawyer in my day,” she added.
Higgins responded, “Basically, the FBI used the Twitter executives and Twitter’s platform and mechanism. The civilians that made decisions with Twitter conspired with the FBI to restrict the constitutional rights and to suppress the vote of American citizens.”
“Who gets charged with what ultimately will be determined based upon the probable cause level of evidence we’re able to produce,” he continued. “The FBI agents will be charged differently than civilians. You understand, that’s the way things work. But they conspired together to commit election and voter suppression crimes.”
Watch the exchange below:
Clay Higgins is on Laura Ingraham's show insisting that the ex-Twitter officials he intimidated during a hearing yesterday will be arrested for "probable cause" of crimes he can't specify. Even Ingraham thinks he's full of it. What an embarrassment. pic.twitter.com/MqQsYnX49v
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 10, 2023
Higgins asserted “the investigation would reveal exactly what the charges would be.”
His comment comes after a moment during the House Oversight Committee’s hearing on Twitter’s decision to suppress a story about Hunter Biden.
While grilling former executives from Twitter, Higgins claimed, “You, ladies and gentlemen, interfered with the United States of America 2020 presidential election, knowingly and willingly.”
“That’s the bad news, it’s gonna get worse because this is the investigation part. Later comes the arrest part,” he added.
In case you missed it:
Rep. Clay Higgins threatens ex-Twitter employees with arrest for interfering with the 2020 election. pic.twitter.com/QM0KVakOQe
— Republican Voters Against Trump (@AccountableGOP) February 8, 2023
It is unclear what laws were allegedly broken. And Higgins did not share any examples of laws broken during his appearance on Fox. However, he repeated his assertion an investigation would determine “what” charges would be brought.
Republicans can look into allegations Twitter swung the 2020 election all they want. They are in the majority. And they made no secret they planned on investigating the Bidens and Twitter.
But while Congress cannot bring charges, it can make referrals to the Justice Department — whether or not it listens to those referrals is a different story.
Still, going into an investigation essentially determined to bring charges or criminal referrals is not how the system is supposed to work. There is supposed to be a presumption of innocence.