Grassley Condemns Democrat Attacks Against Whistleblowers

Prepared Floor Statement by Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa
Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee
"Democrat Attacks Against Whistleblowers Are a Disgrace"
Wednesday, May 13, 2026

VIDEO

Today, I come to the floor to speak about the Democrat Judiciary Committee Minority in the House of Representatives.

They wrote a letter on May 12, 2026, that I found to be more than troubling.

That letter made disgraceful and wrongful accusations regarding my helping many FBI whistleblowers.

For the entirety of this Congress, I've been open and public about my efforts to help them.

Accordingly, the timing of this letter so late after the settlements occurred in August 2025 is suspect. If concerns existed, why weren't they raised last year?

I've seen a lot in my time serving the people of Iowa, but this attack on my office and whistleblowers is beyond the pale.

This letter from the minority calls my office's efforts to obtain a fix for whistleblowers who faced years of retaliation and financial ruin a "shakedown scheme."

The Democrats are dead wrong about what they said, and if they had a sliver of integrity, they'd retract it.

This isn't the way to handle disagreements. But, what's there to disagree about? Patriotic whistleblowers had wrongs against them righted! This should be a bipartisan celebration, especially since some of them weren't pro-President Trump.

The letter also notes that some of the whistleblowers were properly disciplined, as if suffering retaliation is somehow OK.

The letter further notes, "The record definitively shows that the agents weren't disciplined for making protected disclosures to Congress or for the imaginary offense of being a Republican."

Even Politico noted in their article, "Judiciary Democrats didn't provide supporting documentation for the sources of some of their claims."

As an example of how off base the letter is, one FBI official who was wrongfully accused of being a part of the January 6 siege was cleared by the Inspector General. His clearance was restored. He got his job back. The FBI Security Division had ignored photo and video evidence supporting the whistleblower.

Indeed, the whistleblower's lawyers have publicly defended their clients, noting "No classified leaks. No criminal conduct."

But, records do exist, just not the ones Democrats want to talk about.

The lawyers for the whistleblowers rightly said the following publicly: "It's common practice for federal agencies to settle legal or administrative complaints against them, which virtually all of the whistleblowers had against the FBI at the time of the settlements."

Those lawyers also noted they've published hundreds of pages "documenting the flaws in FBI actions against these employees. In fact, two of our clients who received settlements were FBI Security Division employees retaliated against for exposing the FBI's use of the security clearance process for reprisal against other Empower Oversight clients-a wrong even the Biden-era FBI recognized when it reinstated Marcus Allen's security clearance."

The Trump Justice Department and FBI should get credit for righting the wrongs against these additional whistleblowers.

And what the Democrats did with this letter may cause tremendous damage to whistleblower reputations for getting the facts wrong.

At my direction, my staff did what many in this town don't understand - when whistleblowers step up to the plate, you have to fight for them. So, that's exactly what my office did and I'm not going to back down and let brave individuals suffer more years of ruin.

And I'm certainly not going to apologize for fighting and winning for whistleblowers.

That doesn't always mean every whistleblower is going to get the satisfaction and settlement that he or she deserves.

But, the effort must be made, and I make that clear to all my staff that they must do what they can to get the job done.

That's what the taxpayers expect and that's my reputation as a whistleblower defender.

I've made a career out of protecting and defending whistleblowers, and never in my time have I, my staff and my whistleblowers received more attacks for doing that job than this Congress.

I encourage all whistleblower groups in this town to stand up to what's happening here, just as I've stood up for whistleblowers throughout the decades, no matter who they blow the whistle on.

Whether that's disagreeing with this administration about Mr. Reuveni being a real whistleblower or defending the Ukraine whistleblower years ago.

In conclusion, I'll note the Democrat letter said "The Treasury isn't a personal checkbook for ideological payouts, and the misuse of millions of dollars in taxpayer resources for personal or political benefit is a felony."

Did the Democrats forget about FBI Agent Peter Strzok reportedly receiving 1.2 million dollars and Lisa Page receiving 800,000 dollars from Biden's DOJ after the damage they did to this country? Or were they covering up again for the disastrous Biden-Harris administration?

For God and Country, this senator will never stop fighting for whistleblowers.

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