PRESS RELEASE Contact: press@congressionalintegrity.org
For Immediate Release
Date: September 30, 2024
Washington, D.C. – Today, in his latest act of desperation, James Comer announced another political stunt investigation into one of Donald Trump’s political rivals. James Comer and Jim Jordan have spent the past two years parading out so-called whistleblowers in an attempt to support their baseless investigations into President Biden, his family, and now Vice President Harris’ running mate Governor Tim Walz. Time after time, their claims have been disproven and misrepresented by MAGA House Republicans and some of these individuals have even been exposed for pushing Russian disinformation, lying, and working closely with Trump allies.
In response, Congressional Integrity Project executive director Kyle Herrig said the following:
“James Comer has gone home to his district until the election with nothing to show for his time as Chairman of the House Oversight Committee. He is so desperate to help Donald Trump get elected and distract from his utter failure that he is willing to subject himself to yet another humiliation. One after another, his so-called whistleblowers and their allegations have been discredited and rebutted. He is woefully underestimating the American people who continue to see right through his baseless claims and political stunts.”
Take a look at some of the previous “whistleblowers” that James Comer and Jim Jordan have trotted out:
Comer’s Star Witness, Arrested For Spreading Russian Disinformation About President Biden and His Family, Was Exposed For Being Paid By Trump Business Associates. On. Feb. 15, a federal court unsealed a two-count indictment against the star witness in House Republicans’ baseless impeachment inquiry, Alexander Smirnov, charging him with making false statements accusing President Biden and his son Hunter of corruption and bribery and exposing the debunked, criminal lie at the center of Comer’s baseless impeachment inquiry. Just days later, Smirnov was also exposed for meeting with and being fed information by Russian intelligence officials. Smirnov was the key informant behind an FBI Form FD-1023 dating back to 2020 that documented his secondhand account of a conversation between officials at Ukrainian energy company Burisma that Republicans spent nearly a year promoting as their key source of evidence supposedly implicating President Biden in a so-called bribery scheme. As independent fact-checkers concluded, “Smirnov’s allegations that Biden accepted a $5 million bribe while vice president were a key element of Republicans’ Biden investigation.” In mid-March, new reporting further revealed that Smirnov received over half a million dollars from a U.S. firm tied to Trump’s business associates during the same year he began feeding the FBI lies about the Biden family. Journalists also found that serious doubts about Smirnov credibility had been raised nearly a decade ago, after Smirnov was accused of lying in an earlier criminal case – his credibility issues may have even led to a sharp reduction in sentencing recommendations by federal prosecutors.
Three U.S. Attorneys Debunked Comer’s Lies About Special Counsel David Weiss. Comer has long accused the Department of Justice and IRS of instigating a “cover-up” of an investigation into Hunter Biden, citing two IRS whistleblowers. Comer has maintained that “the evidence is overwhelming,” and continues to baselessly claim his allegations have been “proven through the testimony of Shapley and Ziegler.” But in October, House Republicans interviewed three U.S. attorneys, including a Trump appointee, who debunked Republicans’ bogus bribery allegations and testified that the DOJ was fairly and honestly prosecuting Hunter Biden. Ahead of the interview, Comer declared, “We put together a pretty good case. And I think we’re gonna have some exceptional questions for the Biden family to answer.” But instead of validating Comer’s bogus claims, all three federal prosecutors debunked them. The Trump-appointed prosecutor even said he had no reason to doubt that Mr. Weiss is “fairly and honestly prosecuting the case.”
At Least Six Criminal Investigators Interviewed By House Republicans Have Debunked Comer’s Allegations of A “Cover-Up.” Comer has long accused the Department of Justice and IRS of instigating a “cover-up” of an investigation into Hunter Biden, citing two so-called whistleblowers. But in September 2023, at least six federal criminal investigators testified to House Republicans, including an unnamed FBI agent, three FBI investigators, and two IRS criminal investigators, all rejecting GOP whistleblower Gary Shapley’s allegations against the Biden administration. All six officials testified that Shapley’s claims were “false and misleading” and confirmed that did not recall hearing US Attorney David Weiss ever say that he lacked the authority to decide whether to bring charges against the president’s son, or that Weiss said he had been denied a request for special counsel status. One of the witnesses, who was Shapley’s former supervisor, testified that he recommended removing Shapley from the Hunter Biden probe “to protect the integrity of the investigation” because his former subordinate made “unsubstantiated allegations.”
Comer’s IRS Whistleblowers Contradicted His Claims, Testifying That There’s No Evidence President Biden Interfered In IRS/DOJ Investigations Into Hunter Biden. Comer has long accused the Department of Justice and IRS of instigating a “cover-up” of an investigation into Hunter Biden, citing two so-called whistleblowers. He called their testimony “pivotal,” and “evidence of a cover-up.” Despite their lofty claims, however, Comer’s two IRS whistleblowers themselves testified, under oath, that neither President Biden nor his Attorney General interfered in the Internal Revenue Service and Department of Justice’s investigation into Hunter Biden.
Comer Blatantly Misrepresented Witnesses, Then Refused to Produce Evidence Substantiating His Claims. For months, Comer talked to the press about four individuals he claimed were “whistleblowers.” But there was a key problem with Comer’s narrative: they weren’t whistleblowers, and there were only two people. As Ranking Member Raskin wrote to Comer in a letter obtained by the Washington Post: “The two individuals your staff specifically identified as the individuals they understood to have been referenced during your March 6 Fox News interview, are not whistleblowers… your repeated statements about ‘four people’ suggest that either you have intentionally misrepresented the Committee’s investigative progress to your conservative audience or that key investigative steps have been deliberately withheld from Committee Democrats.”
Like Comer, Jim Jordan Blatantly Misrepresented So-Called FBI Whistleblowers Involved In His Investigation. In May 2023, MAGA House Judiciary Chair Jordan claimed one of his whistleblowers was suspended from the FBI for performing his job, including conducting case-related research. But according to the FBI, Jordan’s so-called whistleblower refused to actually do his job by refusing to conduct open-source research into a Jan. 6 suspect’s potential engagement with criminal activity or terrorism.