FBI whistleblowers who testified before the House Judiciary Committee are mere conspiracy theorists who offered no real evidence of wrongdoing at the Department of Justice or FBI according to Democratic committee staff members.
Nadler is the ranking member of the committee. Plaskett is the ranking member of the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government.
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) chairs both bodies and is spearheading an investigation into the government’s treatment of school board protesters in 2021.
In response to the report, a Jordan spokesperson called the action by Nadler and Plaskett a disappointing leak of “cherry-picked excerpts” of testimony in an attempt to attack “brave whistleblowers.”
“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,” Russell Dye, told The Epoch Times.
“It’s clear that Democrats would rather defend bureaucratic abuses than work collaboratively with Republicans to protect fundamental civil liberties.”
Republicans have spoken to “dozens and dozens” of whistleblowers in connection with this investigation, a Capitol Hill staffer told The Epoch Times, but so far only three have agreed to testify on the record.
“We hope that Democrat leaks do not chill their bravery to speak to Congress about what these whistleblowers see as wrongdoing within the Department of Justice and FBI,” the staffer said.
The Democratic report also impugned the investigation as an attempt to distract public attention from the Capitol riot in 2021.
“Nearly all of the Republicans involved in this investigation—the witnesses, some of the members, and certainly their outside operators—are tied together by the attacks of Jan. 6, 2021,” Nadler and Plaskett wrote, and, “these extremists share a view antithetical to the safety of our republic, and the American public has a right to be concerned.”
In evidence, the Democratic report cited a number of statements made on Twitter, especially those by witness George Hill, a retired FBI intelligence analyst.
The report cited a posted tweet from Nov. 9, 2022, in which Hill referred to the FBI as “the Brown Shirt enforcers of the @DNC,” an apparent reference to the former paramilitary arm of the German Nazi party. The post has since been edited to delete the reference.
Democrats further alleged that the three witnesses who testified do not meet the definition of a whistleblower in that they did not speak about a violation of the law, gross mismanagement, waste of funds, abuse of authority, or a substantial or specific danger to public health or safety.
“Instead, the witnesses presented claims relating to their personal opinions—most of which lacked actual firsthand knowledge of the events or matters at issue,” which means their testimony is not considered a legally protected disclosure, the report stated.
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