Republicans and Democrats battled during a tense hearing Thursday over three FBI agents who Republicans say were retaliated against for blowing the whistle on bias at the agency. Democrats argue the GOP is using them to legitimize the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. GOP lawmakers accused the FBI of retaliating against “truth tellers” by revoking their security clearances because they espoused conservative views and took their concerns to Republicans on the House Judiciary Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. “Politics is driving the federal agencies,” said Jim Jordan (R-OH), chairman of the Judiciary Committee and the subcommittee, alleging that the government targets citizens who are not politically correct, The Hill reports. Democrats countered by arguing that the GOP, in the words of Rep. Linda Sánchez (D-CA), was using the hearing as “a vehicle to legitimize the events of Jan. 6 and the people who perpetrated it.”
The hearing accompanied the release of an interim staff report from the panel’s Republicans that detailed what it says are abuses by the FBI, as described by what Republicans say are dozens of whistleblowers. Democrats had already preemptively countered the GOP’s “weaponization” investigation, writing in a report in March that some of the GOP witnesses were connected to committee Republicans through people with deep ties to former President Trump. Jordan brushed off the financial connection between witnesses and Trump allies in a press conference Thursday. The FBI said that it does not retaliate against protected whistleblowers.