[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 105 (Wednesday, June 18, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3453-S3454]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                             Whistleblowers

  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, today, I come to the floor to speak 
about a favorite topic that my friends know I am proud of, protecting 
whistleblowers and the roles that they play in government.
  I have long held that government oversight can't be done without the 
patriotic work of whistleblowers. Even Department and Agency heads need 
whistleblowers to know what is really going on in their respective 
Departments and Agencies.
  I tell people that come to my office before their Senate confirmation 
that whether you are in a very small number of employees Agency or, you 
know, hundreds of thousands of employees in our Agency, you are at the 
top; you can't know what is going on at the bottom. And you need to 
listen to whistleblowers, and they usually come forward with very 
important information.
  When they don't get that respect from the Department heads, they 
usually end up coming to the Congress, and many of them come to the 
office of this Senator.
  Just this year, to show you the importance of whistleblowers, I made 
records public, exposing the political origin of Arctic Frost. Arctic 
Frost is the case that ultimately became one of Jack Smith's cases 
against President Trump. Anti-Trump FBI agents and Department of 
Justice prosecutors started Arctic Frost.
  Based on even more records that I have made public, those very same 
anti-Trump FBI agents were involved in the investigation and 
prosecution of Peter Navarro, now serving with President Trump in the 
White House, like he did in the first Trump administration. Those 
agents that took on Peter Navarro were Assistant Special Agent in 
Charge Thibault and Special Agent Walter Giardina.
  Whistleblowers have also disclosed to me that J.P. Cooney wanted to 
potentially open yet another case on Trump. J.P. Cooney was Jack 
Smith's deputy. Allegedly, Cooney wanted to use compulsory process to 
obtain more information. He improperly based that desire to do so, in 
large part, on partisan news outlets.
  And guess who was included in the communication about the new case 
against Trump? That same person's name shows up, Special Agent Walter

[[Page S3454]]

Giardina. I will have more to speak on that matter later.
  Whistleblowers have told me that Special Agent Giardina openly stated 
his desire to investigate Trump, even if it meant false predication.
  I have been able to make all these records publicly available because 
of brave, patriotic whistleblowers. They are patriots to the highest 
order. And a lot of this information that I received from 
whistleblowers wouldn't have been made available or even known that it 
existed without the help of these whistleblowers.
  And because of those whistleblowers, it is now an absolute fact that 
these cases against President Trump and his associates were politically 
motivated. My investigative work won't rest. There will be much more 
coming from this Senator.