Dems call for probe into whether ‘whistleblower’ Gal Luft made claims about Biden to help China
Leading Democrats on the House Oversight Committee are asking Chairman James Comer to investigate whether the accused foreign agent who claims to be a “whistleblower” against President Joe Biden and his son favored Chinese interests when he accused the Bidens of crimes.
In a letter to Mr. Comer, Ranking member Jamie Raskin of Maryland and Representative Daniel Goldman of New York expressed “concern” that the oversight committee was “manipulated” by suspected arms dealer Gal Luft, whom they described as an “obvious impostor” when he came before Escaping justice, he attempted to bolster his defense by washing baseless and possibly false allegations through Congress.”
The suspected Republican Party whistleblower, an Israeli-American think tank founder, was indicted last November on alleged arms trafficking, being a foreign agent for China and violating US sanctions on Iran.
Mr Luft, who was arrested by Cypriot authorities in February, was released on bail pending extradition to the US and has been on the run ever since.
While he claims he is being prosecuted by the federal government for providing derogatory information about the Biden family to the FBI in a 2019 interview, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams said in one Statement that he was “involved in several serious criminal activities”.
“He undermined the laws registering foreign agents in the United States to further Chinese politics, acting through a former senior US government official; he acted as an intermediary in deals involving dangerous weapons and Iranian oil; and he repeatedly told law enforcement lies about his crimes,” Mr Williams said.
Mr Raskin and Mr Goldman noted that the allegations of misrepresentation against Mr Luft “destroy” his credibility, although Mr Comer has continued to describe him as “a very credible witness” even as Mr Luft remains on the run from justice is.
They also pointed out that Mr. Luft allegedly lied to FBI agents during the same March 2019 interview in which he claimed to have provided the FBI with information about Hunter Biden, and indicated that Mr. Luft’s claims to the president and his son may be part of a China-backed effort to undermine US interests and the Biden presidency.
“It appears that Mr. Luft has applied to you for ‘whistleblower’ status in order to protect himself from criminal prosecution while fleeing justice. Worse, this latest incident also raises concerns that Mr. Luft is rigging your investigation not only in his own interest, but perhaps also to further CCP efforts to undermine the security interests of the US and the President of the United States,” they say called her.
“Of course, these latest revelations raise broader concerns about the credibility and motivations of other alleged whistleblowers that Republicans in Congress have relied on to support baseless and unsubstantiated allegations.” Unfortunately, the air episode undermines the credibility of the critical function of whistleblowers on that body significantly.”
Democratic officials urged Mr. Comer not to withhold documents about Mr. Luft from minority members on the committee and urged him to open an investigation into whether his panel was manipulated by Mr. Luft in the service of a foreign power.
“To protect the institutional credibility of Congress and to reassure the American people that the CCP is not using the Republican investigation as a means to undermine the United States government, we urge you to immediately launch an investigation to determine whether.” the committee may have acted unknowingly.” were deceived by Mr. Luft to further the interests of the CCP, as well as any potentially false statements made by Mr. Luft to members of Congress or congressional staff,” they said.
Mr. Raskin and Mr. Goldman later joined their call for an investigation into whether Mr. Luft had manipulated the House panel by Representative Gerry Connolly of Virginia and Representative Kweisi Mfume of Maryland.
The two representatives, who respectively chair the oversight subcommittee on cybersecurity, information technology and government innovation and the subcommittee on government operations and federal labor, said in a statement that they were “shocked by the released reports by the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Oversight” The Majority’s collaboration with discredited “whistleblower” Gal Luft” and stressed that it is “imperative” that they know if Committee resources have been expended to support his “allegedly illegal activities”.
“The majority’s work with Mr. Luft risks bringing great disgrace to the committee, and the majority have a responsibility to account for the damage caused by their partnership with Mr. Luft.” There is significant concern that the Committee by the overzealous majority effort to denigrate President Joe Biden and his family, which has furthered the interests and activities of a person charged with serious federal crimes,” they said. “The public and members of our committee have a right to know how this happened.”
