Tipsheet

'I Will Name Names': Congresswoman Calls Out 'Corrupt' Christopher Wray, Merrick Garland

Spencer Brown
Spencer Brown  |  May 18, 2023 1:00 PM

In an at-times chaotic House Judiciary Committee hearing on the weaponization of the federal government, U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-WY) was not afraid to "name names" when it comes to the corrupt leaders within the administration of President Joe Biden.

"To be blunt, the leadership of the FBI and DOJ are corrupt," Hageman said. "I will name names: Christopher Wray and Merrick Garland are corrupt. They know it, we know it, and the American people know it," she added. 

Citing "fundamental changes" made to the culture of the FBI and DOJ, Hageman explained how those changes have "led to the political capture of our flagship law enforcement agencies" and allowed Democrats to use them as their "personal political hacks."

"As the DOJ and FBI have become more political, they have amassed more power," Hageman continued. "And as they have amassed more power they have become more political." That "vicious cycle," she argued, "must be stopped."

Addressing the FBI whistleblowers seated before her to testify about what they say is political and ideological targeting that amounts to retaliation, Hageman said that "Congress needs whistleblowers like you so that we can conduct oversight and correct course."

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Presciently, Hageman warned the whistleblowers that Democrats would "not focus on the substance" of their testimony or "engage in a discussion about how to protect our constitutional rights and institutions from the tyrants who are running these agencies."

"Instead what we will see is that they will deflect, they will call the witnesses names, they will scream 'MAGA' and 'extremist' at the tops of their lungs," Hageman continued. Democrats, she predicted, would simply try "to cover up the unforgivable and the indefensible which is the creation of a two-tiered justice system based on political beliefs and the corruption of our political elites."

Sure enough, Democrats through every diversion tactic and insult they had at Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) and the witnesses in attempts to derail and distract from the hearing's intended purpose.

Despite the fact that House Democrats never attacked Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee for withholding information on accusers from SJC Republicans, they suddenly decided that Thursday's hearing was a farce because, allegedly, some of the whistleblowers protected disclosures were not made available. But, as Jordan explained, protected disclosures from whistleblowers are not treated the same as other witness testimony. 

Never ones to be great with facts, Democrats also struggled to question witnesses in the hearing. Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-CA) seemed to think she had one witness dead to rights based on his tweets. The account she found, however, did not belong to the Marcus Allen testifying before her.