Democrats do not give a rattling about Jim Jordan’s pretend whistleblowers

Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee have released a report debunking Jim Jordan’s Justice Department whistleblowers as fake.

Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), member of the House Judiciary Committee Ranking, and Stacey Plaskett (D-VI), member of the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, wrote in the foreword to their report:

This partisan investigation, as it is, is based in large part on what Chairman Jordan has
described as “dozens and dozens of whistleblowers … coming up to us and talking about what’s going on
on the political nature of the Justice Department.”

To date, the House Judiciary Committee has conducted transcribed interviews with three of these individuals. Chairman Jordan, of course, has declined to name any of the other “dozens and dozens” who may have spoken to him. He has also declined to share any documents these individuals may have provided to the committee. Nonetheless, based on the interviews of the three witnesses provided to us, we can draw a number of notable conclusions about the state of the Republican investigation.

First, the three people we met are not actually “whistleblowers.” These individuals, who advanced a variety of conspiracy theories, presented no actual evidence of wrongdoing to the Justice Department or the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Second, the transcribed interviews we’ve conducted so far refute the House Republicans’ narrative of “bias” in the Justice Department. We urge Chairman Jordan to schedule the public testimony of these individuals immediately. The American public should be able to make their own judgment as to whether these witnesses or their claims are even remotely credible.

Third, these interviews also reveal the active engagement and orchestration of disruptive outside influences on the Witnesses and possibly the Republican members of the Select Subcommittee. A network of organizations led by former Trump administration officials such as Kash Patel and Russell Vought appear to have identified these witnesses, paid them financial compensation, and got them employment after they left the FBI. The same individuals primarily advocated the creation of the Select Subcommittee. They have a story to tell, and they seem to be using House Republicans to tell it.

Fourth and last, almost all of the Republicans involved in this investigation — the witnesses, some of the congressmen, and certainly their outside collaborators — are linked by the January 6, 2021 attacks. The witnesses we met disagreed with the arrests of people suspected of besieging the United States Capitol. Others of the “dozens and dozens,” as we suspect, directly participated in the riots. If this investigation is an attempt to whitewash the insurgency or hedge against pending indictments, it has been spectacularly ineffective — but these extremists share a view that is contrary to the security of our republic, and the American public has a right to be concerned.

Please note that in the normal course of business we would not disclose the content of a transcribed interview at this stage of an investigation. While we disagree with the goals of our Republican colleagues, we respect the importance of congressional control. We directed our staff to prepare this report only after learning that House Republicans had begun sharing the report

Content of these interviews with the press. Full context and proper rebuttal are necessary to protect the truth.

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The big advantage is that the whistleblowers are not really whistleblowers. They are the usual Trump collection of oddities put together to mislead the public and advance a political agenda. No one is quite sure what the purpose of this investigation is, aside from hurting Biden and helping Trump, but the whistleblowers have been a humiliating failure of Jim Jordan and Trump.

It hasn’t been two months, but the big House Republican investigation is underway.

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House press pool and congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a bachelor’s degree in political science. His thesis focused on public policy with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and professional memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and the American Political Science Association