GOP Sen. Grassley rails against Dems, media, FBI 'triad of disinformation'

Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley on Thursday criticized his fellow lawmakers across the aisle, as well as the media and federal employees, for allegedly interfering with congressional oversight efforts of legitimate investigations.

"Congressional oversight is a constitutional demand. I've dedicated my career to it. And during the course of my career, I've run countless investigations," he said, in prepared remarks to the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government.

"In the past few years, I've never seen so much effort from the FBI, partisan media and some of my Democratic colleagues to interfere with and undermine very legitimate congressional inquiries," he continued. "It's become a triad of disinformation and outright falsehoods."

Grassley cited numerous examples from his investigations, in particular those involving Operation Crossfire Hurricane, the FBI's surveillance effort involving the Trump campaign. He further recounted public comments by his Democratic colleagues maligning his efforts and various leaks to the media of his meetings with the FBI.

In one example, he recalled an August 2020 meeting that he and GOP Sen. Ron Johnson had with the FBI, the details of which were ultimately leaked to the Washington Post. Grassley railed against that leak as "another effort to falsely label our good government oversight work as Russian disinformation."

"It's clear to me that the Justice Department and FBI are suffering from a political infection that – if it's not defeated – will cause the American people to no longer trust these storied institutions. It will also threaten our American way of life," Grassley said.

"You must relentlessly pursue the facts and the evidence," he told the committee.

The House subcommittee hearing is one of the opening activities of the House weaponization subcommittee, which Ohio Republican Rep. Jim Jordan is leading. Jordan is also the chairman of the Judiciary Committee and has recently subpoenaed several federal officials in that capacity.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on Twitter.