Should House Oversight & Accountability "Tread Lightly" Out of Fear of Retaliation?

I just got off the phone with staff at @RepEricBurlison's office. I was calling to follow up to find out if Congressman Burlison, after having recently released a video about having been turned away from visiting inmates at the DC jail, had made any other attempts to visit inmates to learn about the conditions under which J6 political prisoners are being held. 

I am appalled at what I was told. Congressman Burlison has not yet been able to arrange to visit the DC jail, but efforts are supposedly underway. For that I am grateful; HOWEVER, the appalling thing which I learned is that I was told that members of Congress are now "treading lightly" with regard to addressing concerns over the conditions prisoners are facing within the DC jail after they had received reports that recent visits from members of Congress who DID get to visit the jail was resulting in prisoners being treated WORSE as a form of retaliation. 

This is right in line with what Jeremy Brown recently told us about jail officials offering to move him to WORSE conditions after people who were concerned for his safety had made calls asking for him to be moved to the protected area where other J6ers are held. It is also in line with warnings I have received from people who interact frequently with the jail on behalf of the J6ers who told me that we all should cease to refer to Jeremy Brown as a "whistleblower," for to do so would make him more of a target. What is being acknowledged is that the threats to these political prisoners is very real. And the response that we give to it should not be one that is dictated by fear or by threats from those who are the root of the problem. Is this what our Congressional members have been reduced to--to catering to messages that tell them to keep their heads down because WORSE things may happen if they don't? 

It is precisely because those threats DO exist and ARE known that we should not cower from them. Members of Congress--and especially those on the @GOPoversight Committee--should NOT be "treading lightly" out of fear that oversight and accountability will result in retaliatory actions from the very same people over whom they are supposed to be providing oversight! 

If it is true that retaliation is occurring in response to attempts to provide government oversight, then the Oversight Committee should not recoil but should REDOUBLE their efforts to ensure that there is answerability from those who are committing such crimes. To do anything less is to announce themselves to be impotent, and if they have no intention of getting the job done, then they should just say so and stop pissing on our leg and telling us it's raining. They should also accept their complicity in any harm that does come from their failure to protect the rights of the prisoners if they fail to act out of fear.

We deserve better answers. If the circumstances truly are as described, then this shouldn't be tiptoed around, but should be spoken of loudly so that MORE sets of eyes--not fewer--are on such abuses. 

Every member of Congress has a voice and a platform within our government from which to SPEAK UP--so when they tell you that they are having to "tread lightly" or that there is nothing they can do, tell them THAT'S NOT GOOD ENOUGH. 

My heart is breaking at the thought that political prisoners in need of help to ensure their safety might not be getting the help that they need out of fears from our government that the very people over whom they are supposed to be providing oversight might retaliate and WORSEN conditions for the prisoners if they are overseen. 

On my call to Congressman Burlison's office, I also requested that when he does go back to the jail that he seeks out political prisoner Jeremy Brown to discuss the whistleblower audio that Jeremy released (and which our government and our media have been too fearful to address) that points to FBI involvement in January 6. I hope the congressman takes other members of the Oversight and Accountability Committee with him to do the same. We'll see what happens.