Really late to responding (oof, I don't use HN much), but really nicely phrased point, haha. And I do agree on congress not being a courtroom -- my assumption would always be that their motivations are just corporate lobbying or distracting the public from more pressing social issues.

However, returning to your witty witch-hunt comment, I don't think it's 1:1.

Consider that by that line of reasoning it's very difficult to prove that intelligence agencies ever do anything at all. All they have to do is say "no we didn't, and we don't have to allow anyone to have a close look".

In fact, if we simply relied on governments and faceless corporations to always tell us the truth, we'd probably manage to be even worse off than now! Haha.

There exists a difference between investigating or rejecting that with uncertain sources (esp. large and secretive institutions) and specifically accusing. Or between a witch hunt and demanding that (for example) food manufacturers should have to disclose their secret ingredients and some processes to the government to make it harder to put poison or addictive drugs in there without telling anyone.