Congressman Louie Gohmert (TX-01) released the following statement today honoring America’s veterans on Veterans Day 2019:

“Today we honor our men and women who have served bravely and passionately in the United States Military. Our military members have placed themselves in harm’s way for the freedoms we enjoy today. We are thankful to these brave individuals for their service and devotion to this great nation. Their loyalty to the stars and stripes and to the people of this nation must never be forgotten, lest we lose that for which they fought and sacrificed."

"Additionally, we lift up in prayer the families and friends of all who have lost loved ones in the brutality of their fight for us – the warriors who paid 'the last full measure of devotion.' May their legacies and valor live on in our hearts – as their devotion is interwoven into the enduring fabric of this country.”

“We truly cannot thank our veterans and their families enough. May God continue to bless the United States of America and shine His favor down on the patriots who have risked life and limb for liberty.”

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Yesterday, the Congressional Justice for Warriors Caucus (CJWC) delivered a letter to President Donald J. Trump praising his consideration of the cases of 1Lt. Clint Lorance, Chief Petty Officer Eddie Gallagher and Maj. Matt Golsteyn for action as soon as November 11, 2019, on Veterans Day. 

Pursuing justice for these warriors has been of paramount importance to the CJWC, which has worked diligently on their behalf.

The caucus also requested review of two additional cases: Sgt. Derrick Miller and 1Sgt. John Hatley.

CJWC founding co-chairmen Louie Gohmert and Duncan Hunter released the following statements:

 “As founding co-chair of the House Congressional Justice for Warriors Caucus, I was delighted to hear Fox News host Pete Hegseth’s report that President Trump will act on the cases of 1Lt. Clint Lorance, Chief Petty Officer Eddie Gallagher and Maj. Matt Golsteyn. These men are true American heroes who served our nation with honor. Today, I am humbly requesting that the President also act in the cases of two more American heroes: Sgt. Derrick Miller and 1Sgt. John Hatley. All these men mentioned are deserving of having the findings and sentences of their cases disapproved. In the case of Maj. Golsteyn, whose court martial date is set for February 2020, I have submitted a letter asking the President to assume jurisdiction over Golsteyn’s case and dismiss the charges with prejudice. These warriors have been sacrificed at the altar of politically correct Rules of Engagement for far too long. It is time we take decisive action and put an end to the wrongful prosecution of our military heroes.”

-Rep. Louie Gohmert (TX-01)

“Thank God for President Trump, who had the courage to stand up to a military bureaucracy that wanted to maintain the status quo.  Unfortunately, a Presidential action to right the wrongs of our military justice system shouldn’t have been necessary.  Common sense and justice should have prevailed in these cases.  Instead, bureaucracy and politics got in the way, and cost our warriors years of their lives that they cannot get back.  We owe it to these men to fix our broken military justice system and ensure that history does not repeat itself.  Together, with the Congressional Justice for Warriors Caucus, that is what I will do.”   

-Rep. Duncan Hunter (CA-50) 

Read the letter to President Trump, here.

Read the letter requesting a pardon for Chief Petty Officer Gallagher, here. 

Read the request to vacate finding of guilt for Sgt. Derrick Miller, here.

Read letter to Parole Board for First Lieutenant Clint Lorance, here.

Read letter to Army Review Board for release of First Sergeant John E. Hatley, here.

Read letter to Secretary of the Army re: investigation into the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps, here.

For more information:
Contact: Lauren McLaughlin

Lauren.McLaughlin@mail.house.gov

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Congressman Louie Gohmert (TX-01) released the following statement on the 10^th Anniversary of the Fort Hood shooting in Killeen, Texas:

“Ten years ago, today, 13 precious people – soldiers and civilians – were brutally massacred at the hands of evil. The shooting spree at Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas is still to this day the worst mass murder at a U.S. military installation in U.S. history. 

“The malicious actions of radical Islamists have claimed far too many innocent lives. Even political correctness should not have prevented people from noticing he had been radicalized and was a threat. Thankfully, we now have a President and an administration who understand radical Islamic jihadists are a danger to our way of life.”

“Our hearts continue to empathize with the loved ones of the victims whose lives were tragically cut short that day. We can honor their loss by fighting apathy or political correctness that turns a blind eye to oncoming terror.”  

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Congressman Louie Gohmert (TX-01) released the following statement regarding the news announced by President Trump that the deadly leader of the Islamic State group was killed in a US military operation in northwest Syria:

"Yesterday was a great day for Americans who love justice. Under the leadership of Commander-in-Chief Trump, one of the world’s most ruthless, evil, terrorist leaders, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi along with his reign of terror was brought to an abrupt but appropriate end. We owe our brave patriots who planned and participated a debt of gratitude for carrying out such a dangerous but superbly effective mission. The heroic actions of our U.S. military members have ensured that al-Baghdadi will never callously murder again.” 

“Though thIs is a significant victory for the United States in the war against ISIS, radical jihadists should understand the war against them is not over. We may move troops to different places, but we are never so far away that we can’t come back and clean up a murderous, malevolent cesspool of terrorists. Thankfully, we currently have a President who delivers justice to our evil enemies instead of mounds of money.”

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With all the talk of whistleblowers in the media lately, it’s an opportune time to take a look at what it actually means to “blow the whistle” from within the federal government. The Obama administration dealt with leakers quite harshly, so they were able to control what got out about the numerous scandals. In fact, the Obama administration prosecuted more leakers under the Espionage Act for leaking than all other administrations put together. By contrast, today leakers of fourth-hand hearsay in the Trump administration are heralded by the left as meritorious whistleblowers.

The Obama administration found it much easier to fire people suspected of disloyalty without the bulk of the media raising any issue at all. The Obama administration was vicious in even spying on reporters, as we learned about their surveillance of not just a Fox News reporter but also even the Associated Press. Not even a whimper was heard from the “mainstream” over those abuses. They just lined up and said, ‘Thank you sir, may I have another.’

What we’re seeing now does not qualify for whistleblower status, but instead is more like anonymous newly legalized leaking of classified materials through multiple levels of hearsay for political purposes to harm a duly-elected President and his ability to perform his job. As we have learned, the Intel Inspector General (IG) changed the rule after the complaint was known in order to allow hearsay complaints, but the IG dishonestly backdated the rule change so that damage could be done to President Trump. We now need an IG investigation of the Intel IG.

In a just and fair nation, actual whistleblowers are people who disclose first-hand evidence that they reasonably believe is evidence of illegality, such as fraud or wasteful spending. Properly reporting the abuse of government resources and providing hard evidence of the abuse is essential to good governance in our country. A hearsay-spreading gossip is in no way a laudable whistleblower. Instead, someone so power-hungry and manipulative invites fraudulent and politically-biased claims, exactly like we are currently witnessing.

Whistleblower laws were meant to protect federal employees from losing their jobs as payback for these factual disclosures when their identity was revealed. If the identity of a legitimate whistleblower with firsthand knowledge is going to be kept secret, there is no need for whistleblower laws to protect them from reprisals.  This is especially true in the intelligence community where whistleblowers risk having their security clearance revoked without due process or just cause. In some cases, reporting misconduct can even cost them their career and livelihood by these means.

As far as what happens to legitimate whistleblowers, one need look no further than the case of Adam Lovinger, a Trump-supporting strategic affairs analyst who worked for the Pentagon’s Office of Net Assessment (ONA). Mr. Lovinger became concerned that the Pentagon was wasting millions of taxpayer dollars on outside contractors commissioned to write academic-style papers instead of authentic net assessments of future threats.

Although the sole mission of ONA was to create these net assessments, it had not produced a net assessment in over a decade, relegating the duties of its staff to outside contractors. The amount of the questionable payments under these contracts were well outside of the norm for ONA subject matter experts for such assessments, sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars more.

One of the recipient contractors in this scheme that Lovinger identified was an obscure college professor, a man the world would later learn was one of the key players in the coup attempt against then-candidate Donald J. Trump: Stefan Halper.  Mr. Lovinger had no idea he had just stepped on a landmine, when all he did was discern outrageously wasteful spending of taxpayer dollars.

Rather than leaking classified information to the press, as certain politically motivated disinformation operatives would do while claiming to be a “whistleblower,” Mr. Lovinger alerted his chain of command inside the Pentagon through a series of internal emails. Despite exercising the proper reporting channels, Mr. Lovinger would eventually be stripped of his security clearance, leaving him virtually unemployable in the areas of his expertise. Over two and a half years later he remains suspended without pay and without his security clearance as the bureaucrats continue their coverup for bad actors in the Obama administration who weaponized the security clearance process.

This egregious retaliatory action was why I first drafted the Adam S. Lovinger Whistleblower Reprisal Act in 2018. If enacted, this bill would make it a federal crime to use background checks as a political weapon in an effort to curb the largely unpunished trend of officials in Washington. These swamp-dwelling insider trolls have leveraged security clearances against potential whistleblowers who would otherwise report instances of corruption in the federal government.

Democrats in Congress and their willing accomplices in the media have given little to no coverage of Mr. Lovinger’s fact-filled, document-driven, honorable report. Contrast that with the way those same leftists have glorified the anonymous, malevolent gossiper and it reveals how self-serving their motivations truly are. Rather than protecting brave individuals who come forward with legitimate reports of government misconduct and malfeasance, like Mr. Lovinger, the Democrats instead choose to champion a politically expedient non-factual hearsay account to prop up their ongoing anti-Trump narrative.

When this type of flagrant bias is permitted, our nation’s whistleblowing mechanisms are corrupted and weaponized as we are seeing now with anonymous, hearsay accusations. Whistleblowers are supposed to identify themselves, testify, and provide documentation of wrongdoing. The current, third-world-style politics on display now was ramped up to new levels by the Obama Administration which has deeply divided this nation. The hatred is not coming from conservatives who want to keep our republic. Instead, it is seething anger that blinds the left into decreeing that there is no room for different views from their own. Some Trump-hating elitists need to awaken from their angry stupor, and allow America to once again be a place where hope blossoms and the third world has an example of justice to which they can aspire.

Rep. Louie Gohmert is a Republican Congressman from Texas.

Read this opinion piece in The Daily Caller, here.
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Congressman Louie Gohmert (TX-01) released the following statement today regarding the passing of Congressman Elijah Cummings who represented the city of Baltimore and Maryland’s Seventh Congressional District for more than two decades:

"My heartfelt prayers go out to Congressman Elijah Cummings’ family and loved ones during this difficult time of deep loss. Not only was Elijah a passionate and vocal advocate of civil rights, he was a devoted public servant."

“Despite our political differences, Elijah and I worked together on gaining freedom for a soldier who was wrongfully convicted of murder.  He was an accomplished and eloquent orator who stood up for what he believed. It has been a privilege to serve with him in the United States Congress. His legacy will forever live on in the hearts of those who deeply admired him.” 

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WASHINGTON – A half-dozen Republican lawmakers sought access Wednesday to a closed-door deposition with a former State Department official that is part of the House impeachment inquiry, but they were blocked in an escalation of the partisan dispute over the investigation of President Donald Trump.

Three House committees – Foreign Affairs, Intelligence and Oversight and Reform – have been meeting privately for weeks with current and former administration officials to gather information about how Trump urged Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden, a political rival. The latest session Wednesday was with Michael McKinley, a former senior adviser to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. A previous witness, Kurt Volker, a former special envoy to Ukraine, appeared Wednesday to review the transcript from his session Oct. 3.

Republicans have complained that the meetings should be public and transcripts should be released. Access has been limited to members of the three panels, which prevented one Republican from attending Monday and the half-dozen Wednesday. Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said private sessions are needed to prevent witnesses from hearing each other, the same protocol used by prosecutors in criminal investigations.

Leading the confrontation was House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., who called Schiff a liar and a partisan leading a witch hunt – language that echoes Trump’s terminology. McCarthy cited Schiff’s opening statement Sept. 26 in a public hearing with the acting director of national intelligence, Joseph Maguire, which characterized Trump’s phone call to his Ukrainian counterpart July 25 as a mafia shakedown.

“I can’t even go down there and read the transcript,” McCarthy said.

McCarthy alleged that Republicans have not been allowed to cross-examine the witnesses, which is not accurate. Staff attorneys led the questioning, and the time was evenly divided between Democratic and Republican aides.

“They designed a process to pick and choose who to come,” McCarthy said. “This is a closed system. This is a system designed to already try to find an outcome.”

The confrontation Wednesday followed a similar incident Monday, when Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., a member of the Judiciary Committee, was blocked from attending the private deposition with Fiona Hill, a former National Security Council senior director for Europe and Asia.

Schiff said Tuesday that transcripts would be released and public hearings held. But he said it was important not to have witnesses hear each other’s testimony “either to hide the truth or color the truth or know just how much they can give and how much they can conceal.”

Schiff noted that the special counsel or independent counsel investigations of Presidents Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton were held behind closed doors before public hearings. The committees conduct their own inquiry, for lack of a Justice Department investigation. Schiff said all members of the three committees have been allowed to attend the depositions.

“They have been very professionally done,” Schiff said. “All those members, too, asked questions. And we go until the questions are exhausted, so they get to ask whatever questions they want in a process in which they have every bit as much opportunity as the majority to ask questions.”

Schiff said the committees keep the sessions closed because some witnesses may lie like Michael Cohen, Trump’s former personal lawyer, who was convicted of lying to Congress.

“Now, we do anticipate a time when we'll be releasing transcripts, and we do anticipate there will be a time when we will hold back some of these witnesses for open session, and we may call witnesses in open session that we haven't called in closed session. But we will do so giving the GOP members every opportunity to ask questions,” Schiff said. “We want to make sure that we get to the truth, and this is the process, I think, early in an investigation that makes the most sense.”

Members of the Judiciary Committee, which traditionally handles impeachment inquiries, argued Wednesday that they deserve access to the depositions and transcripts of sessions.

Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, said he was told by the impeachment panel’s staff that he could not read the transcripts of  interviews or attend McKinley's private session.

“That is garbage," Gohmert said. "This is an insane asylum, and it’s clear the inmates are running it, because the elected people … said we want you to participate.”

Rep. Debbie Lesko, R-Ariz., accused Democrats of selectively leaking testimony that would cast Trump in the worst light.

“This is a political hit job on President Trump,” she said. “We’re talking about the impeachment of the president of the United States."

Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., compared the sessions to Soviet secret hearings. He proposed a resolution on the House floor Wednesday to condemn and censure Schiff, which McCarthy supported.

“What’s going on here is absolutely intolerable,” Biggs said.

The top Republican on the Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, who is allowed to attend the sessions, said McKinley said nothing “inside those closed doors in that secret room" that couldn't have been said at a public hearing. Republicans should have subpoena power to call their own witnesses and White House lawyers should be allowed to attend, McCaul said.

Another lawmaker who could attend, Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., a member of the Oversight and Reform Committee, derided Schiff for comparing this to a special prosecutor’s investigation.

“Four hundred and thirty-five members will have to make a decision” if Democrats move forward with articles of impeachment, Meadows said. “Yet you have less than three dozen members who are getting to hear the actual witnesses.”

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., defended the impeachment inquiry Tuesday in stark terms, listing allegations that Trump undermined national security by withholding military aid for Ukraine and by asking for the investigation of former Vice President Biden, a Democratic front-runner in the 2020 presidential campaign.

"We are here to find the truth and uphold the Constitution of the United States," Pelosi said. "This is not a game for us. This is deadly serious."

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There is a struggle going on in Washington, DC, which threatens to bring about the destruction of our American experiment in self-governance.

Not bound to a party affiliation, it is born of the notion the globalist elites of the world know better how to run the lives of the average American citizen than we do ourselves. These elites want to destroy the very idea of a government of, for and by the People and are willing to continue in the light of day their lawless coup attempt against a duly elected president.

We learned of this latest avenue of approach when the intelligence community manipulated its whistleblower policy so that someone without any direct, firsthand information could file a complaint based on multiple levels of hearsay and then claim whistleblower status.

In a just world, this change would be considered an overt action in furtherance of a conspiracy to commit an illegal act.

The whistleblower complaint itself reads like a policy rant written by a partisan attorney focused on facilitating the Democrats’ latest lurch toward impeachment. President Trump is alleged to have done what we know Vice-President Joe Biden admitted to doing. Yet again, it is another example of Democrats projecting their criminal acts on President Trump.

There is no law that restricts the president’s ability to ask a foreign leader – at the request of his own attorney general no less– to give his or her government’s cooperation in an investigation by our Department of Justice. In the instance of Ukraine, there is ample reason to request their cooperation and documentation, as this was one of the countries through which Democrat senators and the Obama Administration sought to derail then-candidate Donald Trump’s presidential bid.

Just last week, Attorney General William Barr and U.S. Attorney John Durham met with Italian authorities in Rome where, according to reports, they were briefed on the Italian government’s investigation surrounding a taped deposition from the mysterious Maltese professor, Joseph Mifsud.

Mifsud, as you may recall, became the linchpin of the FBI’s sham investigation into President Trump after it was revealed that he met with Trump campaign volunteer George Papadopoulos in 2016 and allegedly informed him that the Russians had “dirt” on Hillary Clinton.

According to a report by the left-leaning Daily Beast, Mifsud feared for his life, sought police protection in Italy and provided authorities with his deposition, “to explain just why some people might want to harm him.” Given the likelihood everything he said that would harm the Trump presidency has already been made public, it becomes clear that his video deposition endangers the authors and facilitators of the Crossfire Hurricane operation to derail the Trump campaign.

Based solely on hearsay from an anonymous whistleblower and empowered by the Speaker of the House, Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee have now begun a farcical “impeachment inquiry” where they have no authority or jurisdiction in impeachment matters. They were chosen decidedly by the speaker, I would argue, for their proximity to the Deep State Intelligence Community apparatus where this latest of their three-year-long drive to impeachment has surfaced.

Ironically, Democrats are accusing President Trump of what they, themselves, have engaged in: colluding with foreign governments to change the outcome of an election. The top brass operatives in the Obama Administration, including coup leaders at the helm of the Obama DOJ and FBI, the Clinton campaign, DNC, Fusion GPS and the discredited former MI-6 agent Christopher Steele, the foreign governments of Russia, Ukraine (under the former, corrupt regime) and rogue, elitist elements in the intelligence apparatus of the Brits and Australians were involved in the anti-Trump plot.

This entire impeachment circus is an attempt to obstruct the Department of Justice investigations into their own collusion with foreign governments to affect the outcome of the 2016 election while once again accusing the President of doing the colluding.

How did we get to a point where such powerful federal government positions exist, held by partisans within the upper echelons of a massive bureaucratic government who would risk our country’s survival to take down a duly-elected President? How did Democrats reach a point where they would rather see the most resplendent hope for freedom in the world be extinguished and gone, than to see Republicans lead it?

We stand on the precipice of the greatest self-governing country in history being destroyed by political manipulators who would rather end freedom for the world than lose political control as a result of losing a lawful election. What they did not anticipate was a president who would not go gentle into that good night as other “good Republicans” have in the past.

And by the way, it isn’t a legitimate, actual impeachment hearing until the House Judiciary Committee is formally having an impeachment proceeding; not an “inquiry.” Any other is yet another lie added to the ultimate deceit. The accessory list continues to grow.

God bless President Donald J. Trump.

Rep. Louie Gohmert (TX-01) is a senior member on the House Judiciary Committee


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Congressman Louie Gohmert (TX-01) released the following statement today regarding the U.S. House of Representatives votes this week to bar offshore oil and gas leasing on coasts, as well as, halt energy exploration in the vast, untapped Arctic National Wildlife Refuge:

“This week, House Democrats have championed three bills that together would permanently ban energy development on much of the federal waters of the U.S. Outer Continental Shelf and also the entirety of the vast untapped oil reserves of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. U.S. energy independence and dominance provides the cleanest and safest form of energy production – it also reduces the need for the U.S., or our allies, to send money to anybody that supports terrorists or harbors and hides terrorists from justice. These bills terminate jobs, raise energy prices, and will harm the economy.”

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