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Floor Speech

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Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, today, I am here in the Senate about the Democrat Judiciary Committee minority in the House of Representatives.

They wrote a letter on May 12 of this year that I found to be more than troubling. That letter made disgraceful and wrongful accusations regarding this Senator's helping many FBI whistleblowers.

For the entirety of this Congress, I have been open and very public about my efforts to help whistleblowers. Accordingly, the timing of this letter, so late after settlements occurred in August of 2025, is suspect. If concerns existed, why were they not raised last year?

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

Now, you have often heard me say on the Senate floor, over many years, that I feel like honest whistleblowers are treated like a skunk at a picnic. Oftentimes, their only crime is telling the truth. And for telling the truth, they often lose their job. They are hurt professionally, and it discourages other people who want to tell the truth about wrongdoing in government from coming forth. That is why whistleblowers deserve the protection that I and other Senators give them.

So getting back to that letter, this letter from the minority calls my office's efforts to obtain a fix for whistleblowers who faced years of retaliation and financial ruin--that letter called it a ``shakedown scheme.''

The Democrats are dead wrong about what they said, and if they had a sliver of integrity, they would retract that letter. This isn't the way to handle disagreements.

But what is there to disagree with? Patriotic whistleblowers had wrongs against them righted, and I helped make their case right.

This should be a bipartisan celebration, especially since some of these whistleblowers weren't pro-President Trump.

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

Now, even publications in this town--and I am going to quote POLITICO.

POLITICO noted in their article:

Judiciary Democrats did not provide supporting documentation for the sources of some of their claims.

As an example of how far off base the letter is, one FBI official who was wrongly accused of being a part of a January 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 that whistleblower's claim.

Indeed, the whistleblower's lawyers have publicly defended their client, noting:

No classified leaks. No criminal conduct.

But the records happen to exist, just not the ones that the 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 the whistleblowers had against the FBI at the time of settlements.

Those lawyers also noted that they published hundreds of pages ``documenting the flaws in FBI actions against 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 also against other Empower Oversight clients--a wrong even the Biden-era FBI recognized when it reinstated Marcus Allen's security clearance.

President Trump's Justice Department and the 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 is exactly what my office did, and I am not going to back down one bit and let brave individuals suffer more years of ruin. And I am certainly not going to apologize for fighting and winning for whistleblowers.

That doesn't always mean that every whistleblower is going to get the satisfaction and settlement that he or she deserves. But that effort to get them justice must be made, and I make it clear to all of my staff that they must do what they can to get the job done of protecting whistleblowers--in other words, give the effort of protecting whistleblowers the ``old college try.'' That is what the taxpayers expect, and that is my reputation as a whistleblower defender.

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

I encourage all whistleblower groups in this town to stand up to what is happening here, just as I stood up for whistleblowers throughout the decades--no matter who they blow the whistle on, Republican or Democrat administrations--whether that is disagreeing with this administration about Mr. Reuveni being a real whistleblower or defending the Ukraine whistleblower, years ago.

In conclusion, I will note that 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 or Lisa Page receiving $800,000 from the Biden Department of Justice after the damage that they did to this country? Or were they covering up again for a disastrous Biden-Harris administration?

For God and country, this Senator will never stop fighting for whistleblowers.

Nomination of Kevin Warsh

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