Jim Jordan Grills Ex-FBI Agent About Confidential Human Sources At Capitol On Jan. 6

2 days ago

At today's House Judiciary Committee hearing, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) questioned witnesses about January 6 and the Hunter Biden laptop case.

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00:00the chairman of the whole committee. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Whitson, before you got

00:04what Mr. Johnson described as a high-paying job as senior director of Federal Affairs Foundation

00:10for Government Accountability, you worked in the FBI, is that right? Yes. Ten years in the FBI?

00:16Yes. And prior to that, you were in the United States Army? Yes, sir. 300 combat missions in

00:21Iraq, is that right? Yes, sir. In your time at the FBI, you were a special agent in the

00:28supervisory special agent in the Directorate of Intelligence, is that accurate? Yes,

00:32Chairman. In your testimony, and I just want to get you familiar with this subject matter,

00:37in your testimony you said, one of the ways we can eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse is

00:40including the overspending on confidential human sources. You said that in your testimony, right?

00:45Yes, Chairman. Are you familiar with the Inspector General's report about the confidential

00:49human sources who were there on January 6, 2021, here at the Capitol? I haven't read that.

00:55Well, let me tell you a few things that they say in there, and I want to ask you a few questions.

00:58You said there were 26 confidential human sources there at the Capitol that day,

01:03does that surprise you? No. Doesn't surprise you, okay. You said 17 of those 26 confidential

01:09human sources entered restricted space, space they weren't allowed to go into,

01:12does that surprise you? No. Doesn't surprise you, they did things they weren't allowed to do?

01:16Well, I'd need more details about, so were they doing it on their own, were they told to do it,

01:21were they, you know, that kind of thing? We want to know the answer to those questions, too. Yes,

01:25sir. Four of them went inside the Capitol, and two of the four who went inside the Capitol

01:29were specifically tasked, specifically asked, by the FBI to be there that day for this.

01:36Does that surprise you? Not necessarily, but I need to know more facts. Does it surprise you

01:42that any of them, none of these individuals, to our knowledge, were charged with anything?

01:46No, I mean, if they were tasked to be there. Okay. But I don't, I would need more information.

01:52Okay, well, in your testimony, you talk about overspending on confidential human sources,

01:55do you believe, is it likely these 26 were being paid by the FBI at the time they were doing this?

02:00I think that's, if they are a confidential human source that's actually on the books,

02:04then it's highly likely that they were paid. Highly likely they were being paid. Even if

02:08they weren't specifically asked to be there that day, you think there's likely they were paid?

02:12So if they weren't asked to be there, I think usually it's, they're giving us like a lump

02:16payment periodically, so it wouldn't be for a specific tasking necessarily. It'd be hard to

02:21answer that. Are you familiar with what was released here earlier this week? The text

02:26communications between FBI agents regarding October 14th, 2020, New York Post story on the

02:31Hunter Biden laptop. Have you had a chance to review those? I haven't seen those text messages.

02:35Let me just read a couple to you here. It says, nobody on the call is authorized to comment on

02:38the New York Post story. Twitter is treating this as disinformation. I just want to read

02:42something that took place earlier that day. The way this day worked is the story came out

02:47that day, Elvis Chan, a guy with the FBI is meeting with the tech company, something he did

02:51on a regular basis in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election. At that meeting, someone

02:57asked, hey, there's this New York Post story, is the laptop real? And we know this took place

03:02because we deposed Mr. Brady Olson and he gave us this information. And he said, when that question

03:07was asked, the response was, yes, the laptop is real. Then we get these text messages, which we

03:12didn't have before. We just got them this week, these text messages, which relate what happens

03:17after that. So the FBI has confirmed to Twitter at a FIDF meeting on October 14th, that the laptop

03:23is real. And then we have this, this, these text messages back and forth where they says, no one

03:28is authorized to comment further. Twitter is treating this as disinformation. You find that

03:33troubling that the FBI knew something was real, confirmed it at a meeting, then changed their

03:39story and went to no comment, no further comment and allowed the tech companies to run with the

03:44idea that this story was disinformation. Yeah, I do think that's problematic. And I do think

03:49the relationships that are, they tried to build with members of the FBI with these other organizations

03:55were problematic. Yeah. And the ranking member said, oh, the Republicans want to say the FBI

03:59was political and what really wasn't the case. If this is not political, I do not know what is

04:04because this became, this was the whole basis for the, the 51 former Intel officials doing their

04:09letter. And the FBI knew now we have written evidence. They knew coupled with the deposition

04:16we took before where they admitted this. And then later in the day, when they're meeting with other

04:20tech companies, they go with no comment. And they even admit here, Twitter is running with the

04:26disinformation story. Even before the 51 Intel officials come out with their letter, which is

04:30baloney, they're running with that. And the FBI was part of fostering and promoting that story.

04:36It's unacceptable. Totally unacceptable. And it shows how one bad apple and there were probably

04:41others, but you can see how much of a problem that is. And that one bad apple behaves that way.

04:46The entire Bureau's reputation is impacted. Trust is lost across the country. And so that's

04:50why it's so important to find folks like that. Going back to the entrenched bureaucrats,

04:55you have to find them and remove them because that's all it takes.

04:58I think that was point one in your testimony, which is exactly what Miss, Miss Bondi and Mr.

05:02Patel are doing is getting rid of those individuals who foster this kind of political environment,

05:07where you're going after your political foes, where you're telling things, saying things,

05:10allowing things to be believed that aren't accurate when you knew the truth all along.

05:14That's right. I yield back.

Jim Jordan Grills Ex-FBI Agent About Confidential Human Sources At Capitol On Jan. 6

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