00:00I'd like to address the whistleblower complaint that I received the morning before Emil Bovey's nomination hearing.
00:11That's the complaint that was given to the New York Times for them to report on it the very same morning as the hearing.
00:22One group has publicly accused this chairman of the Judiciary Committee of undermining that whistleblower.
00:33That group also said, quote, I used to be a champion of whistleblowers, end of quote.
00:42Then the whistleblower and his lawyers took part in a political hit piece on my handling of this situation.
00:57And so now, my Democratic colleagues have all of a sudden found whistleblowers to be of benefit to them.
01:06Let me be absolutely clear.
01:11I appreciate the whistleblower's disclosure being sent to my office.
01:16My door is open to anyone.
01:22But that doesn't mean that I'm going to jump at every allegation in a way that some may want this senator to do.
01:33So let me respond with a very short history lesson.
01:40Last Congress, during the Biden administration, I worked to protect many whistleblowers, as I have throughout my Senate career.
01:52I recall with pride the work that I did during the Reagan administration with Department of Defense whistleblowers.
02:05In some cases, my whistleblower work never sees the light of day because the situation demands non-public attention.
02:18In other cases, publicity is required.
02:24In my efforts to protect the IRS whistleblowers who came forward during the previous administration, my Democrat colleagues didn't join me.
02:37In my efforts to protect the Department of Homeland Security whistleblowers, my Democrats' colleagues refused to join me.
02:48And those whistleblowers even disclosed problematic conduct during the Trump administration.
02:57Conduct which that administration actually tried to fix.
03:05In my efforts to protect health and human services whistleblowers, my Democratic colleagues didn't join me in that effort either.
03:16Last year, I hosted two oversight roundtables.
03:23One on the Biden administration's failure to protect unaccompanied children from trafficking.
03:31Another on the Biden administration's failure to collect DNA at the border, resulting in Americans being subjected to senseless crimes from illegals.
03:44At that roundtable, the witnesses said that Rachel Morin's murder by an illegal could have been prevented had his DNA been taken by the border people as required under law.
04:05At both of these roundtables, my whistleblowers testified.
04:14On both roundtables, not a single Democrat attended, even though I invited them to come.
04:23During Trump's first term, I made a public statement that it appeared the Ukraine complaint followed whistleblower laws.
04:35I said that even though I had serious concerns about the complaint's substantive legitimacy, concerns which have been proven right over time.
04:50Now, at that particular time, Democratic groups praised me during Trump's first term, I investigated Russian collusion.
05:03Then-ranking member Feinstein joined me in that effort.
05:09We and our staffs interviewed Donald Trump Jr. and other Republicans.
05:17As we found out, there was nothing there.
05:23And what ended up happening is the exposure of the Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee paying for the fake Steele dossier.
05:34Yet, with overwhelming evidence of Biden family corruption, my Democrat colleagues didn't do any investigation of that matter.
05:49And when I say overwhelming, I made bank records public proving the case, and it was still crickets from the other side.
06:00During the Kavanaugh nomination, many alleged whistleblowers came forward.
06:08I directed my oversight and investigative staffs to dig in.
06:14Forty-five witnesses were interviewed.
06:19Twenty-five written statements.
06:21And over a full hundred-page report.
06:24Some of those witnesses were sent to us by my Democrat colleagues.
06:32The conclusion of that?
06:35No evidence to support the allegations that were brought forward against Kavanaugh.
06:43Indeed, what ended up happening were several criminal referrals for felonious lies from these same witnesses.
06:55This committee made four criminal referrals for materially false statements and obstruction.
07:04Two of these four referrals also included criminal conspiracy.
07:11One witness was referred to my staff by a fellow senator who also referred that witness to a reporter.
07:21That witness's information was used to question Kavanaugh under oath.
07:30That witness later publicly admitted that they lied.
07:37When individuals provide fabricated allegations, it diverts committee resources when other time-sensitive investigations are ongoing.
07:52Resources were diverted away from whistleblowers to handle the Kavanaugh matter.
08:00Such conduct impedes the Senate's work.
08:06During Kavanaugh, my investigative staff spent hours, days, and many weeks investing one claim after another.
08:13So on the matter, getting back to the matter I opened with, Amos Bouvez, my first question to him at a public hearing
08:28was directly about the whistleblower complaint that my staff received the very single day before the hearing.
08:41So the nominee, Mr. Bovee, denied the allegations under oath.
08:49The deputy attorney general has denied the allegations publicly.
08:55Two high-level principals have made outright denials publicly.
09:01Secondly, the whistleblower also signed papers acknowledging the Justice Department had complied with court orders.
09:13So right now, that's the state of the play.
09:19Every day, my office receives many whistleblower cases.
09:24My investigative staff studies them and run down the facts.
09:31There are many government employees who need help.
09:37And just this year, I've had a lot of success with whistleblowers that were discriminated against,
09:47investigated against, maybe fired, maybe put on administrative leave.
09:54But in most cases, it was all an attempt to hurt them professionally, besides being out of a job.
10:04So in regard to these whistleblowers, some were finally helped, one of whom is a Democrat.
10:15My Department of Homeland Security whistleblowers got their guns, badges, and retirement back.
10:22On another example, I've spent significant time helping FDI whistleblowers.
10:31And it appears their cases are trending in the right direction.
10:37And guess what?
10:40One of those whistleblowers is also a Democrat.
10:45I'd always welcome more bipartisan oversight.
10:50It's just that the Democrats apparently don't want to join my efforts.
10:54So when I read unfounded public broadsides about my operation,
11:01and that political piece I've already referred to,
11:05let what I said today be a reminder of my dedication to helping the whistleblower community.
11:14And let me also remind everyone that sometimes what I do to protect whistleblowers
11:21is non-public as it should be.
11:24And I don't care about that.
11:27All I care about are the results of helping whistleblowers
11:33and bringing attention to the wrongs that the whistleblowers say are wrong within our government.
