Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), chair of the House Oversight Subcommittee on the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), threatened to make a criminal referral at a hearing on foreign aid on Wednesday.
“Based on this hearing and witness testimony, this committee will consider the investigation and recommendations for criminal referrals,” Green said at the start of the question.
The statement follows opening statements from several witnesses, including those who accused the USAID of supporting terrorists and accused them of not having adequate surveillance and engaging in “potentially criminal” activities.
“This committee should take action so that the Department of Justice acts on it and does everything. [in] Witness Greg Roman, executive director of the Middle East Forum, said in his opening statement that he will not only introduce Congressional powers to the appropriate authorities.”
Greene did not designate who the committee would consider investigating or referrals. But lawmakers have spent much of her remarks at a hearing that accused USAID of running Democrats, expressing concern about the way foreign aid is being spent.
“Democrat-run USAID will use the US taxpayer dollars, the federal government, to promote the radical agenda of countries where we are not giving money,” Green said in her opening remarks.
“Maybe we need to investigate whether USAID funds have returned to the Democratic campaign. Did it affect the election?” she later added.
During the hearing, Greene suggested that President Biden was using Uslaid to protect his son Hunter Biden and serves in the Obama administration, calling for the removal of Ukrainian prosecutor General Victor Shokin.
Greene repeated the frequent GOP talk points that Biden threatened to withhold USAID grants if Biden was not fired, claiming that the then-president did so as he was investigating the Ukrainian energy company Burisma.
“Is USAID supposed to be used as leverage by the president to protect his son?” Green asked a witness from Max Primorak, a senior researcher at the Heritage Foundation.
“No, we call it that corruption,” replied Primorak.
Biden threatened to withhold US aid if Shokin was not fired, but by that point, Shokin had no longer investigated Brisma and the international community had agreed to a push to expel prosecutors on corruption charges.
During Green's closing remarks, she once again came up with the prospect of a detective introduction.
“What we hear today is that USAID is being used as a tool by Democrats to brainwash the world with globalist propaganda to force change in administrations around the world,” Greene said.
“But if USAID funded the terrorist attacks that led to the death of Americans, Greene continued.
Democrats have denounced the cuts on USAID and claim they will roll back progress globally.
