Rep. Dan Goldman Slapped With House Ethics Complaint and DOJ Referral Over Whistleblower Slurs

Susie Moore reporting for RedState 

In his brief stint in Congress thus far, Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) has distinguished himself as one of the Democrat pit bulls on the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. In the March hearing regarding the Twitter Files, with journalists Matt Taibbi and Michael Shellenberger testifying as witnesses, Goldman went on a smarm offensive — a brief refresher on that performance:

Goldman got another shot at questioning, which he snarkily reclaimed when Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) seemingly forgot to return to him, using that segment to relitigate 2016 and the Mueller indictments. When Taibbi pushed back on the premise of his questioning, Goldman barked, “Let me move on. That’s how this works — you should know that by now!” He then quibbled with Shellenberger over what constituted “direction” from the FBI to Twitter to remove posts or accounts before detouring to complaining to Jordan about the committee not discussing Republican book banning and the horrific misdeeds of one Donald J. Trump.

For his grand finale, Goldman bemoaned the fact that the committee was there discussing Twitter — “Twitter!” — contending that “Even with Twitter, you cannot find actual evidence of any direct government censorship of any lawful speech.” When Jordan offered an example of a White House official contacting Twitter two days after Biden assumed office to request a tweet be taken down, they got into a back-and-forth about whether it involved “lawful speech.” When Jordan didn’t immediately have the tweet handy, Goldman snidely replied, “Oh, shocking.”  The tweet in question, it turns out, was from Robert Kennedy, Jr. regarding Hank Aaron’s death after he received the vaccine. (Read: Lawful but contradicting the preferred narrative.)

It would appear that Mr. Goldman, after chiding the witnesses for not having committed the Ukraine Impeachment Report and Mueller indictments to memory, hadn’t bothered to do his own homework.

Goldman also managed to wind up with egg on his face after he went after our Townhall colleague Julio Rosas in May. (Obnoxious Tool Daniel Goldman Attacks Julio Rosas, Gets Set on Fire in Response.)

But speaking of Twitter, Goldman may have landed himself in a bit of hot water over his own (mis)use of the platform by comments he made following the May 18th hearing where FBI whistleblowers Garret O’Boyle, Steve Friend, and Marcus Allen testified.

Liar. He’s not under investigation. Here you people go again with Russian-style lies.

And Kash’s Foundation gave grants to the whistleblowers AFTER THEY CAME FORWARD because the @fbi took their pay away.

They don’t have family wealth like you.

Everyone should donate to… https://t.co/tpdfFwAdXB

— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) May 18, 2023

As indicated by the above tweet, former Acting Director of the United States National Intelligence Ric Grenell excoriated Goldman for his accusations.

Now, however, Goldman’s earned himself a House ethics complaint and a Department of Justice (DOJ) referral for his imprudent tweet.

Kash Patel, who served as chief of staff to the acting secretary of defense under President Trump and as the senior counsel for the House Intelligence Committee under then-Rep. Devin Nunes, launched the counteroffensive on Wednesday when his attorney filed an ethics complaint against Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y., and simultaneously sent a referral to the Department of Justice.

…

“The clear implication” of Goldman’s Tweet, the Patel complaint argued, was “that the witnesses lied under oath in exchange for payment by Mr. Patel.” In the same tweet, which was viewed by more than 4 million users, Goldman asserted Patel was “under investigation by the DOJ for leaking classified information.”

By publishing lies about a private citizen on his official Twitter account, Goldman violated Rule XXIII of the House of Representatives rules, which provides that a member “shall behave at all times in a manner that shall reflect creditably on the House,” the ethics complaint asserted.

Patel also asserts Goldman’s comments may have violated federal law.

Patel’s complaint points to Section 1519 of the federal criminal code and suggests that “by making false statements on his official U.S. Government Twitter account, Rep. Goldman has arguably made a false entry on the record with the intent to impede or influence the investigation of the Select Subcommittee.” The complaint also suggests, “Rep. Goldman’s dishonest tweet is a corrupt attempt to obstruct, influence, or impede the investigation of the Select Subcommittee,” which Patel notes is an arguable violation of Section 1512(C)(2) of the criminal code.

Presumably, Patel isn’t holding his breath over Merrick Garland’s DOJ taking action on the referral. Nonetheless, his complaint and referral may serve as a brushback pitch to Goldman, reminding him not to play so fast and loose with accusations in his ardent efforts to maintain the federal government hasn’t been weaponized against its citizens.