WATCH: Matt Gaetz to take on Merrick Garland and the DOJ

Gaetz talked to Revolver's Darren Beattie to talk about the weaponization of the Department of Justice against Americans.

"My expectation," Gaetz said of Garland's upcoming testimony, "is that he already knows the news he wants to make. On the heels of action against Steve Bannon, on the heels of subpoenas to Mark Meadows, Dan Scavino, Kash Patel, many others. Preservation demands even involving members of Congress. Merrick Garland, in a few hours, wants to make the news that he will use criminal process against those who defied the January 6 committee, your reaction?"

"Well, it's outrageous," Beattie replied. "And it's entirely in keeping with the scam that is the entire January 6 commission. As readers of Revolver will know we've been extremely critical of the Commission. But originally we liked the idea of a commission it's just that it could never have been implemented correctly. They're asking the wrong questions. They're not even asking the questions that the chairman of the commission itself would seem to be interested in." Beattie noted that the chairman, Bennie Thompson, is primarily "interested in grandstanding and going after Steve Bannon, and really anyone else who was remotely connected with Donald Trump and his inner circle and so forth. So it's a big sham."

"It seems that this is a coordinated from a Washington theater standpoint," Gaetz said. "They want to have action against Bannon. They want Merrick Garland saying he will use the Department of Justice to enforce the actions of the January 6 committee. But we know, Darren, that the real reason they need Garland in this act in this play, is because the founders never vested in the United States Congress, any real authority or any real power to enforce its subpoenas. It's very interesting in the balance of powers we have if someone simply defies Congress, there is no inherent consequence to that. What does it tell you that at this stage of the game, they are trying to supercharge the use of criminal process rather than the normal political tools that a congressional committee would use in the media or with the collection of documents and legislation?" He asked.

"Well, it tells you that all the normal procedure is thrown right out the window," Beattie said. "This is a power consolidation. It's been a power consolidation from the beginning. And so, theoretical consideration like you know, separation of powers and so forth, the founders intention, this is irrelevant from the point of view of the regime, the Biden regime. It's certainly irrelevant from the point of view of Garland, who has a long and storied history of covering up the crimes of the intelligence community."

Gaetz noted that the Democrats are "jumping right over kind of the normal outlay of foundation and the development of a factual case, they're going right to contempt before Congress, and then criminal action from Garland."

"Does it tell us something about how Republicans fight versus how democrats fight that they're willing to actually do what we only talked about?" Gaetz asked.

Beattie said Democrats are "swimming in the same direction as the larger current determined by the vast bureaucracies, the intelligence apparatus, the media, basically every major institution in the entire country. And therefore, it's not simply an issue of 'oh, should we do this or not?' The underlying conditions are just fundamentally different from the Democrat side. From the Republican side this is not to excuse any inaction, I think that we need to be as aggressive and proactive as possible.

"And there are many occasions when I think subpoenas would have been appropriate, and I think simply drawing attention to issues can be better than nothing. And so I would say, I'd have to give mixed reviews, to put it generously to the broader kind of congressional sector in the Republican side and how they've approached 1/6. I think they've kind of been lagging behind and really should have taken an aggressive approach, in particular, on the question of FBI involvement in 1/6 in order to reshape the narrative from the defensive to the offensive."

"Now that is going to be a question area that I expect to be developed during Attorney General Garland's presence over the House Judiciary Committee. I get to ask some of those questions. Darren, obviously you don't. I've just stepped out of a strategy session with my colleagues. There are many who want to discuss FISA, and the recent report showing just extensive abuses that continue to persist. Folks want to talk about the border. Folks want to talk about the use of the FBI to target school board parents who show up at meetings and wag their fingers in the face of their duly elected members of the school board," Gaetz said.

"But undoubtedly, you would be asking questions about the FBI is assets that were there on January 6. Now here, bringing folks into the room a little bit here, but you know what has to occur is that we've got to get around the standard answers to these types of questions. So Darren Beattie, if you're sitting there on the dais, you've got five minutes. What's the first question? You're asking Merrick Garland?" Gaetz asked, giving Beattie the floor.

Beattie wanted to know how many informants were involved in January 6, and what Garland knows about the founder of the Oathkeepers, and why "nobody's touched him." For Beattie, there is something shady going on as to the reasons why "little fish are indicted," but the Oathkeepers' founder hasn't been touched.

Gaetz said that a question that will likely be posed to Garland is "can you assure the country that there were no FBI informants assets or agents that animated any violence on January 6 that instigated in any way?"

He said that "if he's unable to give the country the assurance that our own government wasn't a part of animating that violence, that will be the news of the day. They want the news of the day to be that the attorney general will go after the Steve Bannon to the world. But I think if he cannot deny the activity, that was that really would be the most extreme activity of that. I think that that would be really the news."

Gaetz doesn't anticipate that Garland is "going to give a straightforward answer to anything," but he's definitely going to try to hold him accountable.