During the House Select Committee on Weaponization of the Federal Government's first hearing, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) corners Elliot Williams about the "revolving door" of lobbyists and government employees.
"MUST WATCH: Democrat witness at the first @Weaponization Subcommittee hearing – who was defending the FBI – STUMBLES when admitting that he’s a partner at a lobbying firm that represents Pfizer, Google, George Soros' Open Society!" Rep. Gaetz tweets.
MUST WATCH: Democrat witness at the first @Weaponization Subcommittee hearing – who was defending the FBI – STUMBLES when admitting that he’s a partner at a lobbying firm that represents Pfizer, Google, George Soros' Open Society! pic.twitter.com/oKnza4gKDh
— Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) February 9, 2023
For context, Rep. Gaetz begins by asking Williams if suspicions of government weaponization would be cleared "if there wasn't such a revolving door between Department of Justice senior officials and lobbying."
Williams answers that "there are rules" about "what post-government employment can be." Gaetz counters that Williams is a principal at the Raben Group, who has a client in Pfizer. He also alludes to the notorious Project Veritas video in which a Pfizer official speaks of profiting from COVID-19. Additionally, the employee in the video is quoted as saying that "Pfizer is a revolving door for all government officials."
Furthermore, the Raben Group also has a client in Google, whom in response to the Twitter Files.
"We saw a statement come from the FBI where they said 'correspondence from Twitter and the FBI show nothing more than examples of our traditional, longstanding, and ongoing Federal government and private sector engagements," says Gaetz. "Are there such engagements between the FBI and Google?" he asks as a result.
Of course, Williams does not work directly for either Google or the FBI, yet his lobbying firm does, which is exactly the point Gaetz is making.
"I would think maybe one of the legislative initiatives we could pursue would be to tighten this revolving door that folks at Pfizer and folks at Big Tech seek to freely acknowledge, of which you seem to be the incarnate," added Gaetz.
Gaetz concludes by clarifying that "we come not to trash the FBI, but to rescue the FBI from political capture."
