Jim Jordan’s absurdly named House Subcommittee on the “Weaponization of the Federal Government” held a hearing Thursday that featured three former FBI agents who claim to be “whistleblowers.” However, that claim appears to be rooted in nonsense and crackpot conspiracy theories.
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The witnesses that Jordan invited to testify have already lost their security clearances due to misconduct related to their participation in, or support for, the January 6th insurrection that was incited by Donald Trump. What’s more, they are being financially supported by Kash Patel, a close Trump aide. Consequently, their credibility is suspect, to say the least.
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During the hearing, Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman confronted Jordan with regard to his refusal to share the transcripts of witness testimony that was previously given in private and exclusively to Republicans on the Committee. Goldman pointed out that the Committee rules require such testimony to be provided to all members. Which is something that Jordan, as chairman, should know. But after apprising Jordan of these facts, the following exchange took place…
Goldman: [Reading from the rules] “Such records shall be the property of the House and each member delegate, and the resident commissioner, shall have access thereto.” Why does that not apply? Where is the whistleblower exception in the rules of Congress that says that does not apply?
Jordan: It is the prerogative of the Committee to decide.
Goldman: No it’s not.
Jordan: We have the whistleblower’s testimony. The whistleblower does not wish that to be made available to the Democrats at this time.
Goldman: The whistleblower doesn’t make Committee rules, sir.
Rep. Dan Goldman nails Jim Jordan for refusing to share testimony transcripts with Democrats in violation of House rules.
Mini-dictator Jim Jordan just makes up rules as he goes along.pic.twitter.com/THlAfgobp9
— News Corpse (@NewsCorpse) May 18, 2023
Whereupon Jordan simply ignored Goldman and recognized the next member for questioning. He seems to believe that he can just make up rules as he goes along. And if those made up rules violate the most basic precepts of fairness and democracy, that’s just too bad.
Goldman, however, is right. Witnesses do not get to tell Congress who can have access to their pre-testimonial depositions. How can Democrats determine what inquiries to make if they don’t even know what the witness is asserting? How can the witnesses’ accounts be examined or challenged if members don’t know what those accounts allege?
Jordan is purposefully preventing Democrats from being able to engage in a substantive debate. He doesn’t want them to learn anything potentially controversial, or that might lead to embarrassing facts being disclosed. Jordan doesn’t offer any timeline for which Democrats could have access to the testimony transcripts. Perhaps he is simply saving all of that for a future interview on Fox News.
It’s also possible that these so-called whistleblowers don’t really have anything significant to say. Or maybe their allegations can be easily refuted. It’s reminiscent of the “missing whistleblower” that Oversight Committee Chair James Comer claims to have lost.
SEE THIS: HOW CONVENIENT: GOP Oversight Committee Chair Says He Can’t Find His Star Witness Against Biden
Since assuming the barest of majorities of the House of Representative, Republican efforts to smear Democrats have been pitiful failures. They have held hearings wherein their members have humiliated themselves with idiotic questions, and their witnesses have provided nothing but debunkable bullpucky.
And yet they persist with these mockeries of legislative activity, littered with imaginary witnesses and fluff-filled fantasies dressed up as evidence of utterly fictional scandals. So topping it off with tyrannical breaches of established rules shouldn’t surprise anyone. But it should still nauseate them.
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