‘These Are Not Whistleblowers!’ House Hearing on FBI Weaponization Plunges Into Chaos Over Rules Fight

The House Judiciary Committee’s hearing on the alleged weaponization of federal agencies has gone off the rails early and often as Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) faced accusations of violating committee rules by refusing to share witness testimony with Democratic members.

The hearing was organized to address the alleged politicization of federal law enforcement and their abuses of power against conservatives. The committee was expected to hear from FBI whistleblowers to advance the claims against the Justice Department, though their testimony has come into question since two of these witnesses — FBI agents Marcus Allen and Steve Friend — had their security clearances revoked due to issues relating to January 6th.

While Republicans claim this was an attempt to stifle FBI employees from speaking out, Ranking Member Stacey Plaskett and other Democrats raised protests against Jordan by saying they weren’t allowed access to testimony that the witnesses gave before the hearing. The hearing particularly lit up when Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) made a point of inquiry where she said “it’s my understanding that the minority in this committee, under the rules, is entitled to the same testimony, information, documents — that the majority is entitled to. I’m not aware that you are able to withhold information from the minority that we would need to use to prepare for [this hearing].”

“When it comes to whistleblowers, you’re not,” Jordan responded, which was met with protests of “that’s not right!” This led a flurry of crosstalk, but when Jordan reiterated his claim that the Democrats were not entitled to whistleblower testimony, Wasserman Schultz countered “They’ve been determined by the agency that they are not whistleblowers! These are not whistleblowers! Are you deciding that they’re whistleblowers?”

The din bubbled up as Plaskett corroborated Wasserman Schultz in saying “The law has not determined they are whistleblowers. His attorney is just asserting that.”

“We can talk about the testimony, but right now you’re not getting the testimony,” Jordan said.

The blow-up follows previous chaos in the committee when Democrats slammed Jordan for not giving them a chance to cross-examine the GOP’s witnesses.

Watch above via CSPAN3.