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Even in Utah, Congressman Came Home to Angry Overflow Crowd

Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) held a town hall in his home district last night and came under fire for resisting calls to investigate President Donald Trump's international business empire and its myriad conflicts of interest. As the chair of the House Oversight Committee, Chaffetz is perhaps the government official with the most power to check Trump's vast potential to use the executive office to enrich himself and his relatives. (Earlier this week, Chaffetz admitted that Trump would not let him discuss his ability to investigate the administration for breaching ethics. “Before my bum even hit the chair, the president said, ‘No oversight. You can’t talk about anything that has to do with oversight,’” Chaffetz said.)

More than 1,000 people showed up at the town hall in Cottonwood Heights, a Salt Lake City suburb, to question Chaffetz on his failure to investigate Trump. Chaffetz has not issued subpoenas, has not called for hearings, and scheduled no meetings to discuss the president's abuse of office. In fact, the 43 items on a proposed two-year agenda for the House Oversight Committee includes, according to Washington Post reporter Tom Hamburger, "a look at District of Columbia spending, cyber security policy at federal agencies and reform at the Office of Government Ethics, which had previously been critical of Trump’s failure to divest himself of potential conflicts."

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