We now know quite a bit about the elusive “informant” that Republicans have relied on to fuel some of their anti-Biden theories. We know, for example, that the man in question is Gal Luft, a director at a D.C.-area think tank who’s been charged with being an unregistered agent for China, trying to broker secret arms deals, violating U.S. sanctions against Iran, and lying to federal agents.
We also know that a few too many congressional Republicans have responded to the indictment by incorporating the news into their partisan conspiracy theory and the GOP’s increasingly reflexive campaign against the U.S. justice system.
What we don’t know is the extent to which Republicans on the House Oversight Committee relied on, and interacted with, the accused operative. As Politico reported this morning, this is the area that’s sparking some worthwhile questions from some Democrats on the panel.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, and Rep. Dan Goldman sent a letter to Oversight Chair James Comer requesting that he hand over any information he has received from Gal Luft, who has claimed to have information about Hunter Biden.
This is hardly unreasonable. After all, House Republicans on the Oversight Committee have spent months pointing to highly provocative and dubious allegations, based in large part on claims they received from a suspected felon. It’s not too surprising that Democrats on the same committee would want to know what, exactly, the accused operative gave the panel.
“We are concerned that an official committee of the House of Representatives has been manipulated by an apparent con man who, while a fugitive from justice, attempted to fortify his defense by laundering unfounded and potentially false allegations through Congress,” Raskin and Goldman wrote in their correspondence to the committee’s GOP chairman.
The letter added: “It appears as if Mr. Luft sought ‘whistleblower’ status from you in an effort to defend himself from criminal prosecution while a fugitive from justice. Worse yet, this latest episode also raises concerns that Mr. Luft may be manipulating your investigation not only for his own self-interest but perhaps also in furtherance of the [Chinese Communist Party’s] efforts to undermine U.S. security interests and the President of the United States. These recent revelations naturally raise broader concerns about the credibility and motivations of other purported whistleblowers that Congressional Republicans have relied on to support unfounded and baseless allegations. Sadly, the Luft episode severely undermines the credibility of the critical function of whistleblowers in this body.”
Goldman and Raskin added that Comer, in addition to sharing relevant information with his colleagues, should also initiate an investigation into whether the GOP-led Oversight Committee “may have been unwittingly duped by Mr. Luft in furtherance of the [Chinese Communist Party’s] interests, as well as any potentially false statements made by Mr. Luft to Members of Congress or congressional staff.” In other words, as far as Raskin and Goldman are concerned, Republicans on the House Oversight Committee might’ve undermined U.S. national security interests by embracing an accused operative of the Chinese government. Given this possibility, and the available information, the call for greater scrutiny seems responsible. Stepping back, if Republicans kicked Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell off the House Intelligence Committee because a suspected Chinese operative reportedly tried to make inroads into the Democratic congressman’s campaign, perhaps it’s time for a related conversation about kicking Comer off the House Oversight Committee?
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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