On Monday, the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing “Lessons from the Mueller Report: Presidential Obstruction and Other Crimes”. Witnesses included John Dean, former Nixon White House Counsel, John Malcolm, Director of the Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at the Heritage Foundation, and former U.S. Attorneys Barbara McQuade and Joyce White Vance. The scope of the hearing sought witness testimony regarding Volume II of the Mueller Report, but the hearing quickly devolved into a partisan attack on President Trump.

Last week, President Trump authorized Attorney General Bill Barr to declassify documents related to the surveillance of the Trump campaign in 2016.

While Democrats are likely all talk and no action, in the scenario that they actually follow through on impeachment threats – Republicans in the Senate are ready to “quickly quash” those efforts.

Recently, Congress has been focusing on the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) and election cybersecurity by holding hearings.  Lawyers Democracy Fund (LDF) has been covering these hearings on its blog and Twitter feed.

House Democrats and their most loyal liberal allies are attempting in multiple different ways to effectively repeal the First Amendment.  By taking away donor privacy and controlling how money is spent.  The effort was their top priority as shown by the very symbolically numbered HR 1.  As Real Clear Politics describes it:

Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee recently announced their plans to hold Attorney General Bill Barr in contempt.

On Monday, the Committee on House Administration's Election Subcommittee held a hearing in Florida on “Voting Rights and Election Administration.”

Democrats intentionally stacked the panel full of liberal congressional members and witnesses in order to outnumber Republican representation and stifle our perspective from being heard.

While Congressman Barry Loudermilk (R-GA) was the only Republican member and Logan Churchwell (Public Interest Legal Foundation) served as the only Republican witness, they stood their ground and spoke the truth.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is no friend of Republicans or conservatives, but it has traditionally been a defender of free speech and First Amendment rights, especially for marginalized and unpopular speakers.  While there are signs that its traditional support for civil liberties is waning and being replaced by support for liberal policy goals (the current pop-up on their website reads: "We need you with us: Donate monthly to fight Trump's attacks on people's rights."), the ACLU still will support some First Amendment rights.  For example, earlier this month, the ACLU sent a letter to the House Rules Committee opposing H.R. 1 despite supporting many of its election administration "reforms":

You would think House Democrats' first bill would be something that polled well for their base or that the public cared about.  Or maybe it would be something crazy and liberal like unofficial House Democrat spokesperson Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's idea for “reparations...for...the New Deal.”  Nope.  In HR 1 House Democrats made their first bill since gaining control of the House about limiting speech (and therefore criticism of them) and rigging election processes in their favor.  As House Administration Committee Republicans state:

#HR1 is a “proposal to grow the federal government’s power over Americans’ political speech and elections.” #FortheDemocrats

— CHA Republicans (@HouseAdmnGOP) January 24, 2019

The new Democratic majority of the House of Representatives carefully crafted House Resolution 1 (H.R. 1) behind closed doors. The first House Resolution of each session is intended to be a symbolic designation for a major legislative priority for the majority of that Congress. This House of Representatives is seeking to drastically change how America administers and conducts its elections. H.R.1—officially titled: “To expand Americans' access to the ballot box, reduce the influence of big money in politics, and strengthen ethics rules for public servants, and for other purposes”—has only recently been released to the general public after being secretly crafted behind closed doors while hyped by the incoming Democrat majority.

According to the Washington Post, in late November: