On the Senate floor, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) took aim at President Biden and Hunter Biden.
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00:00 Senator from Iowa.
00:05 Today, I want to address the ill-advised and really unacceptable conduct at the November 30th Judiciary Committee Executive Meeting.
00:22 The majority there didn't allow a single Republican amendment to the adoption of the subpoena authorization, and that was breaking with precedent.
00:38 Contrary to what Democrats alleged when I was chairman, I followed the rules and let everyone speak who wanted to so speak.
00:51 I even allowed them to offer resolutions during a confirmation process, which I could have ruled out of order.
01:02 Simply put, this subpoena authorization isn't based on oversight. It's based on overreach.
01:14 It's a political hit.
01:17 Over the past six months, the left's web of dark money interest groups has tried to impugn the character and reputation of certain conservative members of the Supreme Court.
01:35 This Democratic investigation into the Supreme Court totally ignores ethical questions and dark money network surrounding liberal justices.
01:50 This is all part of a whirlwind effort to cast doubt on our country's highest court and call into question the legitimacy of its rulings.
02:07 Conservative justices have been specifically targeted, harassed, and even threatened.
02:17 The left's influence-peddling scheme views these conservative justices as the greatest obstacle to jamming their radical agenda through our courts because Congress won't do the same liberal abiding, bidding.
02:39 The left has outlined new rules for conservative justices.
02:46 Justices' spouses must give up their independent law practice.
02:53 Justices shouldn't vacation with close personal friends.
03:00 Justices shouldn't have wealthy friends.
03:04 And justices shouldn't make any new friends after donning their robe.
03:12 How unfair and how unrealistic.
03:17 No such conflict of interest ever were raised during the court's liberal years.
03:27 These rules were not invoked against the court's liberal justices.
03:35 This persistent political battering of the judiciary is coming at a tremendous cost.
03:46 The conservative justices have endured real threats to their safety and the safety of their loved ones.
03:56 As I've said before, judicial decision-making must be based on law and sound jurisprudence.
04:06 It shouldn't be subject to the whims of public opinion or clamor.
04:12 It cannot result in threats and intimidation to Supreme Court justices.
04:20 This political hit by the Democrat majority of the committee will do lasting damage not only to the court, but to the committee.
04:33 Again, this effort isn't really oversight.
04:39 As I like to brag, we do a good job about.
04:44 Instead, it's about political theater.
04:48 Let me give some examples of how an investigation should be conducted.
04:55 During my time as chairman of the Judiciary Committee, starting in 2017, the committee investigated, in a bipartisan fashion,
05:05 alleged collusions between Trump campaign and the Russians.
05:10 Bipartisan committee staff interviewed five individuals who participated in that meeting, including President Trump's son,
05:23 and collected documents from several others involved.
05:28 At the Democrats' request, the committee interviewed an additional six individuals.
05:37 I subpoenaed even Paul Manafort, with then-ranking member Feinstein's agreement to appear at a hearing and to provide testimony.
05:50 With the exception of Democrats refusing to subpoena Jews and GPS and related parties,
05:58 then-chairman Graham's 2020 crossfire hurricane subpoena authorization was based on years of bipartisan work.
06:11 As I've thought more about my Democrats' colleagues' apparent laser focus on government ethics,
06:19 it's clear that they've totally ignored the biggest, most obvious ethical fact pattern that requires investigation,
06:30 and that is of the Biden family.
06:36 Since August 2019, Senator Johnson and I have investigated the Biden family connection to foreign governments
06:46 and questionable foreign nationals.
06:50 We issued two reports and gave three floor speeches that made public hundreds of bank records.
07:01 Our findings showed criminal activity to include potential money laundering,
07:08 with respect to members of the Biden family and their business associates,
07:14 and the use of public office for private gain.
07:21 Well, specifically with respect to the Hunter Biden-related accounts,
07:29 some have also been flagged for potential human trafficking.
07:38 As Senator Johnson and I noted in our September 23, 2020 Biden family report,
07:45 Treasury records showed thousands of dollars in financial transactions involving Hunter Biden and Ukrainian and Russian women.
07:56 These Treasury records link those women to Eastern European prostitution or human trafficking rings.
08:07 At this Judiciary Subcommittee Executive Meeting that I've been speaking about,
08:13 Democrats failed to consider my amendment to gather more facts on this abuse against women.
08:22 Senator Johnson and I made public a bank record that showed Hunter Biden received $1 million
08:32 from a Chinese company that was an arm of the Communist regime for representing Patrick Ho.
08:42 Patrick Ho was charged and convicted for bribery and related federal offenses.
08:49 Now, guess what? Hunter Biden called Patrick Ho the spy chief for China.
09:00 Based on the known facts, it appears that Hunter Biden was effectively a foreign agent of the Communist regime.
09:10 The Judiciary Committee maintained jurisdiction and still maintains jurisdiction
09:20 over the Foreign Agents Registration Act and the Justice Department's enforcement of it.
09:28 Yet the Democrat-led committee has ignored the law and the Biden family.
09:35 In July of this year, I obtained and publicly released what's now called the Biden Family 1023, an FBI document.
09:47 This FBI-generated document based on information provided to the FBI by a highly credible,
09:56 long-serving FBI confidential human source.
10:01 The FBI document shows a criminal bribery scheme.
10:07 The criminal scheme included Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, each being paid $5 million
10:17 for Joe Biden to take a policy position in favor of foreign nationals.
10:25 That policy position was ultimately taken.
10:29 Joe Biden even bragged about it, and you can see it fairly regularly, his voice and his face talking about this,
10:40 what he did to the Ukrainian government to get somebody fired.
10:47 The 1023 used the phrase, quote, "Big guy," quote, unquote, to end, to describe Joe Biden
11:02 before the "big guy" description was publicly known months later.
11:08 Different people at different times in different parts of the world
11:13 independently used the same code name to describe Joe Biden.
11:20 Do my Democratic colleagues believe that it's just a coincidence?
11:26 The 1023 includes references to audio recordings with Joe Biden, text messages,
11:35 and records allegedly proving a bribery criminal activity and that it was real.
11:45 What have my Democratic colleagues done to investigate that evidence?
11:50 What has the Biden Justice Department done?
11:54 Tony Ulynski, FBI interview, noted that the Biden family would receive multimillion dollar unsecured loans
12:07 intended to be forgivable from the energy company in China called CEFC.
12:16 That would serve as payments for actions Joe Biden took during the vice presidency.
12:23 This financial strategy to illegally treat income as a loan is consistent with the IRS's whistleblower testimony
12:36 that indicated Hunter Biden attempted the same with respect to other income.
12:42 These facts and allegations indicate criminal activity, money laundering, bribery, tax evasion,
12:53 and significant ethical violations.
12:58 And by the way, the Hunter Biden tax indictment mentioned financial transactions
13:04 that my and Senator Johnson's work exposed years ago.
13:11 Look at the indictments, paragraphs 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, and 100.
13:23 Compare them with the other two reports from 2020 and three floor speeches last year.
13:33 My Democratic colleagues have shown zero interest in knowing, understanding, joining forces,
13:42 or advancing this four-year-old investigation.
13:47 Instead, they've shown willful blindness to protect the president and family.
13:56 One of my Democratic colleagues said the right thing when we considered then-Chairman Graham's subpoena authorization.
14:06 Senator Whitehouse brought up an amendment to quote,
14:15 "reinforce his point made at the last meeting about the selective enthusiasm of the Judiciary Committee
14:26 for getting to the bottom of things and what appeared to be a policy at the Department of Justice
14:33 of refusing to answer committee members' letters and committee members' questions for the record."
14:42 End of Senator Whitehouse's quote.
14:46 The United States Congress has constitutional mandate to conduct oversight
14:55 of Republican and Democratic administrations without any political bias for either.
15:02 We have a duty to ensure the Justice Department and the FBI consistently enforce law without regard to politics.
15:12 Judiciary Committee Democrats were eager to engage in the FBI's Trump-Reichschaedt investigation
15:20 before it was totally debunked.
15:24 However, they were very eager to falsely attack my and Senator Johnson's Biden family investigation
15:35 as Russian disinformation.
15:38 Sadly, I haven't seen the same enthusiasm for the other side
15:43 now that a Democrat political family is under the microscope.
15:48 If it's criminal and ethical questions my Democrat colleagues are interested in,
15:54 then the Judiciary should, in a bipartisan fashion, bring the family members for interviews
16:04 and obtain records from them.
16:08 No, the Democrat majority wants to investigate Supreme Court justices
16:15 and of all nine of the justices, only the conservative ones.
16:21 So I can only conclude that Democrats' brand of oversight is more about politics than fact-finding.
16:32 On another subject, Mr. Chairman,
16:37 I come to the floor today to bring attention to three brave Department of Homeland Security whistleblowers,
16:47 Mark Jones, Mike Taylor, and Fred Wynn.
16:53 These three whistleblowers came to my office to report retaliation and government misconduct.
17:04 People like this, I say they ought to be considered heroes instead of like skunk at a picnic,
17:15 sometimes as whistleblowers are treated by our bureaucracy.
17:20 Now, the retaliation that they told me about has been extensive and long-enduring.
17:28 In 2018, these whistleblowers made legally protected disclosures
17:34 to the Office of Special Counsel and Customs and Border Protection.
17:40 They legally disclosed information about delays and the failure to collect DNA
17:50 from detained illegal immigrants based on DNA Fingerprint Act of 2005 and subsequent regulations.
18:00 An August 21, 2019 letter from the Office of Special Counsel to the President
18:07 substantiated these whistleblowers' disclosures stating, quote,
18:14 "The agency's noncompliance with the law has allowed subjects subsequently accused of violent crimes,
18:22 including homicide and sexual assault, to elude detection even when detained multiple times
18:31 by Customs and Border Protection or Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
18:36 This is unacceptable dereliction of the agency's law enforcement mandate," end of quote.
18:44 I don't know how you can get a stronger statement from a nonpolitical division of our government
18:51 about information not being properly used to stop wrongdoing.
19:00 After making their protective disclosures, all three whistleblowers were retaliated against.
19:10 And that gets back to my skunk at a picnic of how whistleblowers are treated by the bureaucracy.
19:18 They aren't treated as the patriots they ought to be treated as.
19:22 All they want to do is the government to do what the government's supposed to be doing,
19:26 the law requires, and how the money should be spent.
19:30 From February 2018 to the present, the Customs and Border Protection officials subjected these whistleblowers
19:41 to significant changes of duty, responsibility, and working conditions.
19:48 That's how you get treated if you're a whistleblower.
19:51 After harsh retaliation, Fred Winn left Customs and Border Protection Office of Intelligence
19:59 to work for the United States Border Patrol doing management program analysis work.
20:05 Mr. Jones and Mr. Taylor didn't receive a performance award any year after their disclosures,
20:14 for the first time in all of their employment at Customs and Border Protection.
20:21 They had an overall reduction in pay, had been removed from their supervisory positions,
20:30 negatively impacting promotional opportunities, once again, like a skunk at a picnic.
20:41 The Office of Special Counsel also identified an intentional non-promotion for Mr. George.
20:49 Additionally, Customs and Border Protection removed credentials, law enforcement authority,
20:56 firearms, and law enforcement retirement coverage from Mr. Taylor and Mr. Jones.
21:03 The removal of one's firearm and one's credentials is the ultimate act of personal and career retaliation
21:14 against federal employees.
21:18 I've been told that Mr. Jones and Mr. Taylor discovered that one senior official
21:25 who was aware of their ongoing retaliation refused to commandeer their firearms and credentials
21:33 without a letter from senior officials.
21:39 Another person retaliated against.
21:42 Customs and Border officials refused to provide the letter.
21:48 The senior official who refused to participate in this retaliatory scheme then was involuntarily
21:56 transferred out of his law enforcement position and stripped of premium pay in July of this year.
22:06 So another person retaliated against.
22:12 The Office of Special Counsel said its investigation supports a conclusion that government action
22:19 against these three whistleblowers constituted a prohibited personnel practice.
22:27 To put it plainly, the government violated federal law and retaliated against these brave whistleblowers.
22:39 On August 18th this year, I sent a letter to Secretary Mayorkas and current head of the Customs and Border Protection,
22:48 Troy Miller.
22:50 I asked what they've done to correct the retaliatory actions and take disciplinary actions against the retaliators.
23:06 Now as you might expect, both have failed to respond.
23:10 Not uncommon after telling Congress when these people come up for confirmation,
23:17 we always ask them, "Will you answer our letters, answer our phone calls?
23:21 Will you come and testify before Congress?"
23:24 They always say yes.
23:26 In the end, I tell them, "Maybe to be honest, you ought to say maybe."
23:31 But instead of responding to Congress, Mr. Miller's Customs and Border Protection provided a public comment to the New York Post on August 22nd.
23:42 It said this, "The Office of Special Counsel terminated its investigation into these claims
23:49 without issuing a prohibited personnel practice report or seeking corrective action."
23:56 Now the Office of Special Counsel told my staff multiple times that they did in fact seek corrective action with Customs and Border Protection.
24:06 Customs and Border Protection public comment is then a liar, demonstratively false.
24:14 On September 11th of this year, I sent a follow-up letter to further address their failures to protect these whistleblowers
24:22 and debunk public retraction.
24:29 Secretary Mayorkas and Mr. Miller failed to respond.
24:34 But again, Customs and Border Protection provided a public comment to the New York Post saying about my letter,
24:43 "This is a mischaracterization of this issue based on incomplete records and we're unable to comment further based upon open litigation regarding these cases."
24:58 Something bureaucrats regularly hide behind with a quotation like that.
25:04 On September 27th of this year, I wrote another letter to Secretary Mayorkas and Mr. Miller demanding they explain their second inaccurate public comment.
25:14 Customs and Border Protection, but not the Department of Homeland Security provided a response on October 17th.
25:23 That letter said, "The Office of Special Counsel didn't issue a final report finding a prohibited personnel practice
25:33 and didn't initiate corrective action litigation before the Merit System Protection Board on the petitioner's behalf."
25:45 Did anyone catch that distinction?
25:50 The public comment said, "Corrective action."
25:55 The letter said, "Corrective action litigation."
26:02 Corrective action can take many forms and doesn't always include litigation.
26:09 For example, negotiating with a parent agency to put a whistleblower in a position they were in before retaliation occurred.
26:19 Customs and Border Protection attempted sleight of hand.
26:24 That sleight of hand has failed.
26:27 Customs and Border Protection letter makes clear its public comments are false
26:32 and they were the ones to offer mischaracterization to the public.
26:37 Secretary Mayorkas has failed to take action despite my oversight efforts.
26:43 Mr. Jones, Mr. Wynn, Mr. Taylor are still struggling from the many acts of retaliation that have been taken against them for speaking up to protect Americans.
27:02 But this Senator won't stop fighting for them and the dozens of other whistleblowers that have come to my office.
27:09 There must be accountability for what's happened to these patriotic Americans.
27:16 I yield the floor.
27:18 [BLANK_AUDIO]