Rep. Jordan issues statement on FBI oversight

https://judiciary.house.gov/

WASHINGTON, D.C. – House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) delivers his opening statement during today's hearing with FBI Director Christopher Wray.

Eight days ago, on July Fourth in the Western District of Louisiana, the court found that the federal government suppressed Americans’ First Amendment free speech rights. In his conclusion on page 154, the court said this, the judge said this, "Plaintiffs are likely to succeed on the merits in establishing that the government has used its power to silence the opposition. Opposition to COVID-19 vaccines, opposition to COVID-19 mask and lockdowns, opposition to the lab leak theory of COVID-19, opposition to the validity of the 2020 election, opposition to President Biden's policies, statements that the Hunter Biden laptop was true, and opposition to policies of the government officials in power. All were suppressed. It is quite telling that each example or category of suppressed speech was conservative in nature."

The court further writes the United States government seems to have assumed a role similar to an Orwellian Ministry of Truth. Specific to the FBI, the court said this, "the FBI’s failure to alert social media companies that the Biden laptop story was real and not Russian disinformation is particularly troubling. The FBI had the laptop in their possession since December 2019, and it warned social media companies repeatedly to look out for, quote, hack and dump operation by the Russians prior to the 2020 election. Even after Facebook specifically asked whether the laptop story was Russian disinformation, the FBI refused to comment. Resulting in social media companies suppression of this story, and as a result, millions, millions of our fellow citizens did not hear this story prior to the November 3, 2020 election. Additionally, the FBI was included in industry meetings, bilateral meetings, received and forwarded alleged misinformation in social media companies, and actually misled companies in regard to the laptop story." When the court says the FBI misled, that's a nice way of saying they lied. They lied, and as a result important information was kept from We the People, days before the most important election we have: the election of President of the United States, the election of the Commander-in-Chief.

In a survey last fall, four out of five Americans said they believe there's a two-tiered system of justice in America today. They said that because there is. They said that because of what they've witnessed. Think about what Americans have seen. National School Board Association, left-wing political group writes the White House and asked them to treat parents at school board meetings as terrorist and the Garland Justice Department does just that. They put together a memo, set up a dedicated line of threat communication, a snitch line on parents. As a result, parents get investigated by our FBI, get a threat tag associated with their name, 25 of them, as whistleblowers came and told us, were investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Americans have seen the FBI’s Richmond field office put together a memorandum saying pro-life Catholics are extremist. They've seen 20 FBI agents, SWAT team members, show up at the home of Mark Houck and arrest him in front of his wife and seven children, even though he had indicated he'd be happy to turn himself in. And what was he arrested for? Him and his 12-year-old son we're praying outside an abortion facility. Some guy start screaming in his son's face, and he did what, what frankly any dad would do, defended his child.

What's interesting is the National School Board Association apologized for the letter, but the Attorney General refuses to rescind his directive. The FBI did rescind, thank goodness, the Richmond Catholic memorandum, but they refuse to tell Congress who wrote it and who approved it. And Mr. Houck, Mr. Houck when he got his day in court, he was acquitted by a jury of his peers.

American speech is censored, parents are called terrorists, Catholics are called radicals, and I haven't even talked about the spying that took place of a presidential campaign or the raiding of a former president’s home. But maybe what's more frightening is what happens if you come forward and tell Congress.

If you're a whistleblower, come tell the legislature, come tell the Congress what's going on. Lookout. You will be retaliated against. Ask Garrett O’Boyle who told Congress about these issues. Took his clearance, they took his pay, they took his kid’s clothes. Ask Gary Shapley, 14-year veteran at the IRS, handled some of the biggest international tax fraud cases at the agency. He comes forward and the Justice Department kicks him off the case.

But here's what's truly unbelievable. Here's what's amazing. With all that history, with all that, the Justice Department and the FBI want the taxpayers they censored, the parents they labeled, the pro-life Catholics they called radical, they want them to pay for a new FBI headquarters and they want FISA reauthorization of the 702 program in its current form. It’s in the director’s opening statement. I mean, you can't make this stuff up. There are 204,000 reasons why Republicans will oppose FISA reauthorization in its current form. Two hundred and four thousand times, the FBI improperly searched the 702 database. And unlike the FBI censorship, in the court's opinion that was focused on conservatives, the FBI’s illegal scrutiny wasn't just limited to conservatives. BLM supporters were illegally scrutinized by the FBI as well, and I hope our Democrat friends will join us in opposing reauthorization of section 702 the way it's currently done. And I think they will, and I hope, and I hope they will work with us in the appropriations process to stop the weaponization of the government against the American people and in this double standard that exists now in our justice system.