GOP "FBI Politicization" Hearing Features Witnesses Paid by Trump Adviser
By: Tori Otten (The New Republic)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Surprise, surprise, Republicans' big investigation into the FBI is a sham.
Drew Angerer/Getty ImagesJim Jordan
Representative Jim Jordan admitted Thursday that two FBI whistleblowers testifying in front of the House Judiciary Committee were paid by one of Donald Trump's advisers.
The Judiciary Committee held a hearing Thursday on the alleged "weaponization" of the federal government. Republicans have charged that the FBI has unfairly targeted conservatives, pointing to things like the Trump-Russia investigation.
During the hearing, Democratic Representative Dan Goldman got two FBI whistleblowers to admit that they had been paid by Kash Patel, a former member of the Trump administration and a current Trump adviser.
Goldman elicits from two of the Republican witnesses that they have been paid by Kash Patel pic.twitter.com/kG6N8OW2qA — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 18, 2023
When asked whether he thought that was appropriate, given this is allegedly a hearing on politicization, committee Chair Jordan implied that it was, shouting, "They got a family! How are they supposed to feed their family?"
REPORTER: Today's hearing is about how the FBI is politicized, but do you think it's appropriate for some of these whistleblowers to be paid by one of Trump's former advisers?
JIM JORDAN: They got a family! How are they supposed to feed their family? pic.twitter.com/L8lAx4z3qO — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 18, 2023
One of those paid witnesses also refused to participate in the January 6 investigation, while another former FBI agent directly interfered in said investigation.
Republicans have launched multiple wild-goose chases of investigations since taking control of the House, wasting everyone's time as the United States draws closer to defaulting on its debt. House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer recently admitted that not only does he have no concrete proof of wrongdoing by President Joe Biden, but he also lost track of one of his main informants.
Democrats also called out Republicans for not following standard protocols regarding the whistleblowers. Judiciary ranking member Stacey Plaskett said Jordan had violated committee rules by not sharing the whistleblowers' testimony ahead of the hearing, but Jordan brushed her off.
Plaskett slammed Republicans for giving Democrats next to no information and pushing conspiracy theories. "My colleagues on the far right are on a mission to attack, discredit, and ultimately dismantle the FBI," she said. "This is 'defund the police' on steroids."
Her opening statement: "My colleagues on the far right are on a mission to attack, discredit, and ultimately dismantle the FBI. This is defund the police on steroids." SO FREAKING GOOD @StaceyPlaskettpic.twitter.com/sooCD94AT1 — Victor Shi (@Victorshi2020) May 18, 2023
Prem Thakker/May 18, 2023/5:33 p.m. ET
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More buffoonery from Jim Jordan. Good thing for him that his target audience for this crap is so dumb.
In his defense, they were the best whistleblowers that Trump money could buy.
They just won't learn
Jordan and his compatriot fools want Americans to believe that the FBI is a liberal conspiracy.
It is ridiculous. The FBI is, if anything, a conservative institution.
So what? The FBI took everything from them as retribution for claiming whistleblower status, including any means to take care of their families.
Any logical person with a family to take care of would have done the same.
If they were whistleblowers they would be protected. They were fired from the FBI for lying about their involvement in Jan 6th!
You REALLY need to read more. Try starting with 4.2 below..............
No John...the FBI has become politicized and weaponized and corrupted at the highest levels in order to aid and abet the illegal actions of Biden and the leftists. The truth is being revealed and nothing can stop it.
Another article that will be proven to be a red herring for the idiots who will believe anything.
How about getting a job like everybody else?
Do you think they didn't have a job? To be a whistleblower, wouldn't one have to work within the organization that they are blowing the whistle on? Do you think that when they went whistleblower status that they still had that job? And lived at home as if nothing was going on?
Obviously you did not watch the hearing...probably because hearing the truth would have been toxic to you.The FBI hoodwinked one into moving to a different location under the guise of a "new position". One got he and his family got to the new location, the FBI suspended him, keeping his belongings for 2 weeks, taking away his clearance and not giving him documentation that they were qualified n particular skills so they could continue in a similar field that they have been in their entire adult lives, but in a different direction.
Would you just sit back and allow the FBI to do that to you if you did no wrong?
What possible credibility do these people have? The idea that the FBI would silence agents BECAUSE it is a liberal institution is nothing short of insanity.
They got fired for involvement in Jan 6th!
They were whistleblowers reporting wrongdoing by their superiors.
Maybe Tig can give you the definition of "wrongdoing".
Got proof of that?
Yes, see John Russell's comment #5...
The do not qualify as whistleblowers!
They got fired for lying about Jan 6th.
Yes, JBB we know the FBI is a bastion of truth telling, as has been for many years.
How do you know these claims are not used as retaliation for them reporting their seniors as engaging in, if not illegal, unethical conduct?
You were wrong about the Russian collusion, you were wrong about "clandestine Russian spies", you have been wrong about pretty much everything.
What makes you think you are right about this?
G.O.P. Witnesses, Paid by Trump Ally, Embraced Jan. 6 Conspiracy Theories
Democrats said a trio of witnesses billed as “whistle-blowers” provided no evidence of wrongdoing, espoused false claims about the Capitol riot and were compensated by an ally of former President Donald J. Trump.
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By Luke Broadwater and Adam Goldman
WASHINGTON — House Republicans have spent months promising to use their majority to uncover an insidious bias against conservatives on the part of the federal government, vowing to produce a roster of brave whistle-blowers who would come forward to provide damning evidence of abuses aimed at the right.
But the first three witnesses to testify privately before the new Republican-led House committee investigating the “weaponization” of the federal government have offered little firsthand knowledge of any wrongdoing or violation of the law, according to Democrats on the panel who have listened to their accounts. Instead, the trio appears to be a group of aggrieved former F.B.I. officials who have trafficked in right-wing conspiracy theories, including about the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the Capitol, and received financial support from a top ally of former President Donald J. Trump.
The roster of witnesses, whose interviews and statements are detailed in a 316-page report compiled by Democrats that was obtained by The New York Times, suggests that Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, the chairman of the panel, has so far relied on people who do not meet the definition of a whistle-blower and who have engaged in partisan conduct that calls into question their credibility. And it raises questions about whether Republicans, who have said that investigating the Biden administration is a top goal, will be able to deliver on their ambitious plans to uncover misdeeds at the highest levels.
“Each endorses an alarming series of conspiracy theories related to the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, the Covid vaccine, and the validity of the 2020 election,” Democrats wrote in the heavily footnoted report, which cites scores of statements made by the witnesses. “One has called repeatedly for the dismantling of the F.B.I. Another suggested that it would be better for Americans to die than to have any kind of domestic intelligence program.”
The report also notes that the men are tied to far-right Republican operatives and former Trump administration officials who have an interest in promoting false claims about the Jan. 6 attack and the Biden administration while working to defend Mr. Trump, who is seeking a second term.
Read the document
A report compiled by House Democrats details interviews and statements by the first three witnesses to testify privately before the Republican-led Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government.
The document centers on three men who have been interviewed by the panel’s investigators: George Hill, a retired F.B.I. supervisory intelligence analyst from the bureau’s Boston field office; Stephen Friend, a former special agent who worked in the Daytona Beach office; and Garret O’Boyle, a special agent from the field office in Wichita, Kan., who has been suspended.
Other potential witnesses for the new subcommittee are F.B.I. employees who were disciplined for attending protests on Jan. 6, 2021, according to Mr. Jordan.
Mr. Friend, who resigned from the F.B.I., is part of a group of former agents who were placed on leave and called themselves “the suspendables.” In a letter sent last year to Christopher A. Wray, the F.B.I. director, the group claimed that the bureau had discriminated against conservative-leaning agents.
Mr. Hill has claimed on Twitter that the Jan. 6 attack was a “set up,” and that there was “a larger #Democrat plan using their enforcement arm, the #FBI.” He also described the F.B.I. as “the Brown Shirt enforcers of the @DNC,” making an apparent reference to Nazi storm troopers to describe the federal law enforcement agency and its relationship to the Democratic National Committee.
Mr. O’Boyle and Mr. Friend both testified that they had received financial support from Kash Patel, a Trump loyalist and former high-ranking official in the former president’s administration. Mr. Friend said Mr. Patel sent him $5,000 almost immediately after they connected in November 2022 and that Mr. Patel has helped to promote Mr. Friend’s forthcoming book on social media.
In a statement, Mr. Patel declined to confirm that he has provided financial support to the witnesses but suggested that his organization has been focused on helping F.B.I. employees facing retaliation for speaking out publicly.
“Whistle-blowers who provide credible information exposing government waste, fraud, and abuse serve a critical role for constitutional oversight,” he said.
Democrats said they produced their report after they learned that Republicans on the committee were planning to leak material from the transcribed interviews. It was written by Representative Jerrold Nadler of New York, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, and Delegate Stacey Plaskett of the Virgin Islands, the top Democrat on the weaponization subcommittee.
Russell Dye, a spokesman for Mr. Jordan, said that Democrats were misrepresenting the testimony gathered so far to smear public servants who had come forward to expose wrongdoing.
“It is beyond disappointing, but sadly not surprising, that Democrats would leak cherry-picked excerpts of testimony to attack the brave whistle-blowers who risked their careers to speak out on abuses at the Justice Department and F.B.I.,” Mr. Dye said. “These same Democrats vowed to fight our oversight ‘tooth and nail,’ and they are willing to undermine the work of the Congress to achieve their partisan goals.”
The Democratic report includes excerpts from depositions and evidence of conspiratorial social media posts.
It also details the ties between Mr. Trump’s inner circle and the witnesses. For instance, Mr. Patel found Mr. Friend his next job, working as a fellow on domestic intelligence and security services with the Center for Renewing America, which is run by Russ Vought. The center is affiliated with the Conservative Partnership Institute, which is run by Mark Meadows, Mr. Trump’s former chief of staff, and former Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina.
“Based on this evidence, committee Democrats conclude that there is a strong likelihood that Kash Patel is encouraging the witnesses to continue pursuing their meritless claims, and in fact is using them to help propel his vendetta against the F.B.I., Justice Department, and Biden administration on behalf of himself and President Trump,” the report says.
In a statement, Rachel Semmel, a spokeswoman for the Center for Renewing America, said Mr. Friend “bravely blew the whistle on F.B.I. overreach and is devoted to ending the abuses of federal law enforcement.”
Republicans argue they received useful information from the men for their investigation. For instance, Mr. Hill told the subcommittee the F.B.I. regularly conducted nationwide calls involving all 56 field offices after Jan. 6. Mr. Hill described the calls as “bordering on hysterical,” according to excerpts from transcripts reviewed by The Times.
Mr. Friend has been celebrated in conservative circles, with right-wing pundits seizing on his accusations as evidence of wrongdoing at the F.B.I. But those claims did not appear to hold up during his testimony.
Mr. Friend has said he refused to take part in a S.W.A.T. raid of a Jan. 6 suspect facing misdemeanor charges , which at the time he called an “excessive use of force,” to which he was a “conscientious objector.” The suspect, Tyler Bensch, was accused of being a member of a right-wing militia group connected to the Three Percenter movement. Documents in Mr. Bensch’s case indicate that on Jan. 6, 2021, he posted a video of himself outside the Capitol wearing body armor and a gas mask and carrying an AR-15-style rifle.
Under questioning, the committee said that Mr. Friend “confirmed that ownership of a firearm, even without any additional factors, in fact would be enough of a factor on its own to justify deploying a S.W.A.T. team in an arrest.”
Mr. Friend also testified about being asked to surveil a person attending a school board meeting, touching on a claim promoted by Republicans that the government mistreated conservative parents . But according to the report, Mr. Friend conceded during his interview that the man being tracked was a Three Percenter who was under counterterrorism investigation. He was later arrested with Mr. Bensch and three other individuals.
Mr. Friend also engaged with Russian propaganda outlets while he was an F.B.I. employee, the report noted, including being quoted extensively in an article in Sputnik headlined “Under Biden Federal Agencies Turned Into Instrument of Intimidation, F.B.I. Whistleblower Says,” and appearing for an interview with Russia Today.
In a lengthy thread posted on Twitter on Friday, Mr. Friend insisted that he was a whistle-blower who had tried to speak out about what he described as “rule departures” and mistreatment of Jan. 6 suspects and had been punished for it.
The report cast doubt on the relevance of the witnesses’ accounts. Democrats wrote that nothing in Mr. O’Boyle’s testimony “suggests misconduct at the F.B.I.” and that Mr. Hill had “made multiple claims about the F.B.I.’s handling of criminal investigations into the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, despite having very little personal involvement in those investigations.”
The report also said that Mr. Hill had embraced a conspiracy theory that an Arizona man named Ray Epps was a federal informant who helped to instigate the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Prominent Republicans — including Mr. Trump — have widely promoted the claim, which Mr. Epps denies and the House Jan. 6 committee determined to be unfounded.
The witnesses also embraced the language and views of the right wing on other matters. At one point during his testimony, the report said, Mr. O’Boyle compared coronavirus vaccine mandates to a Polish reserve police unit during World War II that began as a group of “just normal people,” but ultimately “were basically engaging in genocide like the rest of the Nazi regime.”
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Should have stopped there to realize the whole premise is probably bullshit!!
So you are taking the word of that loon Sanchez from California who tried to paint twitter tweets on one of the witnesses, who testified, under oath, that the twitter account she was quoting from was not his.
She is a complete idiot and made the democrats in this hearing out to be just as stupid.
All from left wing sources that have been embarrassed by their Russian hoax reporting, now doubling down on stupid.
[TROLLING]
The only thing this establishes is that Godman is a complete tool, like most democrats in congress. no smoking gun, just a deflection to get the ignorant base riled up about nothing. They took a donation, no fucking different than a go fund me account. they are suspended, not fired, can you get another job while still technically in the employ of the FBI?
Dude, "donation" in this context means cash payment. It is not similar to Go Fund Me.
Holy fuck, the only difference is Go fund me doesn't get a cut......HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
Kash Patel is in deep doodoo...
How so?...and leave your feelings out of it.
Well at least Jordan defended the the ex-FBI bloke getting paid by Patel through a Trump Pac because the guy had a family to support. Then again, why didn't the bloke after he was fired get a job at Walmart or Home Depot like everybody else?