The three witnesses who have participated in transcribed interviews, all former FBI officials, have shown no firsthand evidence of the politically motivated misconduct Republicans say they are investigating. But they have variously promoted dissolving the FBI, cited baseless claims that the Jan. 6 insurrection was planned by Democrats, that rioter Ashli Babbitt was murdered, and made Nazi allusions, Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee said in a 316-page report. In addition, they said, two of the witnesses were paid and supported by Kash Patel, an ally of former president Donald Trump.
“There is reason to doubt the credibility of these witnesses. 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 report. “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.”
Republicans have pledged to use their House majority to investigate what they say is the politicization of the FBI and Justice Department, bias against conservatives and breach of Americans’ civil liberties. A divided House voted to create the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, chaired by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio). At a hearing of the subcommittee last month, Jordan claimed that whistleblowers have alleged an array of wrongdoing by the FBI, including that the agency has manipulated Jan. 6 case files and exaggerated evidence of domestic extremism.
Democrats on the committee say none of the three witnesses whom they’ve heard testify has produced such evidence, nor have committee Republicans produced the many whistleblowers they claim to have identified. Democrats say the investigation is a way to target the Biden administration, promote Trump’s 2024 candidacy for president and “whitewash” the Jan. 6 insurrection.
“The transcribed interviews we have held thus far refute [the] House Republican narrative about ‘bias’ at the Department of Justice,” Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) and Del. Stacey E. Plaskett (D-Virgin Islands) wrote in the report.
They called on Jordan to schedule the witnesses to testify publicly to allow Americans to judge their credibility, suggesting that Republicans were calling the witnesses whistleblowers so they could shield their testimony — and the investigation — from public scrutiny.
“It is beyond disappointing, but sadly not surprising, that Democrats would leak cherry-picked excerpts of testimony to attack the brave whistleblowers who risked their careers to speak out on abuses at the Justice Department and FBI,” said Russell Dye, a spokesman for Jordan. “It’s clear that Democrats would rather defend bureaucratic abuses than work collaboratively with Republicans to protect fundamental civil liberties.”
Nadler and Plaskett said they were taking the unusual step of publishing interviews in the middle of an investigation because House Republicans had already shared some of the contents with reporters.
“Full context and a reasonable rebuttal are necessary to protect the truth,” they wrote. “We hope it serves to educate the public about how House Republicans have found very few facts to fit their favorite talking points.”
The witnesses — George Hill, Garret O’Boyle and Stephen Friend — all worked for the FBI; Hill and Friend have left the agency, and O’Boyle was suspended, according to the Democrats’ report.
None of the first three witnesses meets the definition of a whistleblower, having presented no evidence of legal violation, mismanagement or abuse, the Democrats’ report said.
They presented only “secondhand claims and hearsay” in their testimony about perceived FBI and Justice Department misconduct, according to the report. Hill has said the government should “kill the king,” meaning dismantle the U.S. intelligence committee, while Friend has said the FBI is “a feckless, garbage institution” that should be eliminated.
The Democrats’ report draws on social media postings and other statements by the witnesses that showed support for unfounded or disproven conspiracy theories, along with their testimony before the committee.
Hill embraced the disproven conspiracy theory that a pro-Trump Jan. 6 rioter named Ray Epps was “planted” by the government to foment the riot and tweeted that the insurrection “was a set up.”
“The #FBI are the Brown Shirt enforcers of the @DNC,” he wrote, referring to the Democratic National Committee and alluding to Nazi soldiers.
The House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack interviewed Epps, an Arizona man who encouraged others to break into the Capitol on Jan. 5 and was seen on the Capitol grounds the day of the attack.
Trump and some Republicans have pushed false claims of antifa involvement or the baseless theory that the FBI had planted agents in the crowd to instigate the violent attack.
In the interview with the committee, Epps denied any involvement with the FBI or any other law enforcement agency. The panel dismissed as “unsupported” the claim that the FBI helped to incite the insurrection.
