TO: Interested Parties
FROM: Congressional Integrity Project
DATE: June 4, 2025
RE: Republicans Weaponize Oversight with Sham Hearing Featuring Hate Group Leaders and Conspiracy Theorists While Ignoring Billions in MAGA Grift
Republicans in Congress are escalating their attacks on civil society organizations under the guise of oversight, using the House Oversight Committee’s DOGE Subcommittee to weaponize government power against their political opponents. Chairwoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) has assembled a panel of discredited witnesses—including a representative from a Southern Poverty Law Center-designated hate group, conspiracy theorists featured in debunked election films, a Koch network insider, and dark money operatives who funnel anonymous donations to Supreme Court justices’ families—to legitimize partisan attacks on organizations that serve vulnerable communities.
The profound hypocrisy underlying this hearing is revealed by the billions in federal funding that have flowed to Republican allies, donors, and ideological organizations. While these witnesses attack civil society organizations that help refugees find safety, support women’s reproductive rights, and combat climate change for receiving federal grants, their own networks have systematically benefited from government contracts, subsidies, and loans worth billions of dollars.
This selective outrage exposes the hearing’s true purpose: not legitimate oversight, but political theater designed to damage civil society organizations that Republicans view as obstacles to their agenda.
The Same Republicans Attacking Civil Society Organizations for Taking Public Funds Have Turned a Blind Eye to Their Allies Pocketing Billions from the Federal Government
The brazen hypocrisy driving this hearing is staggering: Marjorie Taylor Greene’s DOGE committee is targeting civil society organizations for accepting public funding while the very billionaires who inspired DOGE have gorged themselves on federal contracts.
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Elon Musk – Led the Department of Government Efficiency – which largely failed to create efficiencies – and inked at least one lucrative deal with the government during his time in the Trump administration, building on the over $17 billion in federal contracts his companies have received during the last decade.
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Marc Andreessen – Helped handpick Trump’s cabinet while his portfolio companies secured over 300 federal contracts since 2017.
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Palmer Luckey – His defense company Anduril pocketed $2 billion in taxpayer money while bankrolling politicians who rail against government spending.
These Republican power brokers have built fortunes dining at the federal trough, then turned around to attack nonprofits serving the public good for the crime of accepting far smaller government grants.
Beyond major donors, right-leaning ideological organizations have also systematically benefited from federal funding streams. Anti-abortion “crisis pregnancy centers” have received over $415 million in government grants despite pushing ideological messaging disguised as healthcare counseling. Several Christian ministries have been large recipients of government spending, including World Vision, which got $661 million in government grants during 2023, one of five ministries that each received over $100 million in government money. This pattern of selective outrage—where Republican witnesses attack progressive NGOs for receiving federal grants while their own networks have systematically benefited from government contracts, subsidies, and loans—completely undermines the credibility of any legitimate oversight concerns. The systematic flow of federal funds to Republican allies and ideological organizations exposes the hearing’s true purpose as partisan political theater designed to weaponize government oversight against ideological opponents rather than conduct a substantive investigation into actual waste or abuse.
Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Witnesses: A Rogues’ Gallery of Extremists, Conspiracy Theorists, and C-Team Political Operatives Masquerading as Government Watchdogs
To advance this partisan agenda, Chairwoman Greene—herself a conspiracy theorist who has promoted QAnon theories and suggested school shootings were staged—has handpicked a collection of fringe figures whose own dubious credentials perfectly mirror the hearing’s sham nature. Each witness brings a history of extremist positions, financial conflicts, or outright deception that disqualifies them from any credible oversight role.
Mark Krikorian Runs the Center for Immigration Studies, a Southern Poverty Law Center-Designated Hate Group That’s Currently Under DOJ Investigation Over Whether They Misrepresented Themselves to Obtain a PPP Loan During the Pandemic
Krikorian leads the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), a Southern Poverty Law Center-designated hate group that regularly circulates content from “white nationalist and antisemitic writers.” If that wasn’t disqualifying enough, despite criticizing others for accepting government money, CIS received over $700,000 in PPP loans and is now under investigation by the DOJ for potentially lying to obtain at least one of them. That’s right, Republicans chose as their star witness on government waste someone who may have committed fraud to secure government money for his organization.
This financial hypocrisy is matched by Krikorian’s extremist views. He has made openly controversial statements, including that Haiti’s problems stem from not being “colonized long enough.” He is a favorite of white nationalist groups, who frequently cite his anti-immigration positions. Krikorian represents the extremist voices Republicans are elevating to attack civil society organizations that serve vulnerable communities and everyday Americans—organizations that actually help refugees find safety, support women’s reproductive rights, and combat climate change.
Daniel Turner Is a Climate Denier and Career Republican Operative Whose Former Boss Charles Koch Has Gorged on Over Three-Quarters of a Billion Dollars in Government Subsidies
Turner’s presence at this hearing perfectly encapsulates Republican hypocrisy on government spending. This career political operative worked for the Charles Koch Institute before founding Power The Future, a climate denial organization that attacks environmental groups for receiving federal grants. The staggering irony: Turner’s former employer, Charles Koch, has received over $750 million in government subsidies.
Turner, who calls “climate change the slippery slope to socialism” and promotes conspiracy theories about climate science, represents everything wrong with this sham hearing. He’s a junior varsity Republican operative masquerading as an objective analyst while advancing the financial interests of the fossil fuel industry—the same interests that have systematically profited from the very government largesse he now pretends to oppose.
Scott Walter Is a Controversial, Right Wing Dark Money Operative Who Funneled Money to a Group Led by Ginni Thomas and Who Was Featured in the Widely Discredited 2000 Mules
Walter epitomizes Republican hypocrisy on display in this hearing—operating the Capital Research Center, a secretive organization that won’t disclose its donors while attacking others for lacking transparency. His organization’s fiscal arrangements appear designed to shield activities from public scrutiny, yet he positions himself as a watchdog exposing liberal “dark money.”
Walter’s actions expose the facade of his “watchdog” claims. In 2023, he helped funnel nearly $600,000 in anonymous donations to Ginni Thomas’s group while his organization had business before the Supreme Court, creating obvious conflicts of interest. He was also featured prominently in the debunked “2000 Mules” conspiracy documentary that claimed so-called “mules” stuffed ballot boxes to steal the election from Donald Trump. After significant public scrutiny, even its creator, Dinesh D’Souza, ultimately admitted the film was misleading.
If his dark money hypocrisy wasn’t bad enough, Walter has a documented history of making or defending offensive statements about race, gender, and sexual orientation. He publicly defended a university professor “accused of making racist statements,” said average Americans have “disgust at homosexual practice,” and in the 90s mused that one good thing from the Monica Lewinsky scandal might be “that feminism will die, that sexual harassment laws will fizzle.”
Walter’s blatant hypocrisy, offensive personal statements, and promotion of conspiracy theories render him unsuitable for any credible oversight role.
Conclusion: A Sham Hearing That Exposes Republican Hypocrisy and Extremism
This hearing represents weaponized government oversight at its worst, with Chairwoman Marjorie Taylor Greene assembling hate group leaders, conspiracy theorists, and dark money operatives to attack civil society organizations while the very people crying about government waste have pocketed billions in federal contracts and subsidies. When Republicans choose witnesses under DOJ investigation for fraud to lecture others about fiscal responsibility, it exposes this hearing’s true purpose: political theater designed to damage the reputation of NGOs individually and as a sector.