Rolling Stone: “In early February, Republicans brought an FBI veteran to Capitol Hill whom they hoped would expose a ‘deep state conspiracy’ among Democrats and their accomplices in the intelligence community. The GOP witness was part of a network of ‘whistleblowers’ — funneled to congressional Republicans’ new Weaponization of Government panel by allies of Donald Trump — to reveal covert attacks on the former president and broad, anti-conservative discrimination.

“But before the interview was over, it was the GOP witness who was failing to answer difficult questions — and Democratic committee staff doing the asking.

“In the interview, the witness, former FBI supervisory intelligence analyst George Hill, had admitted he had little or no firsthand knowledge of alleged ‘deep state’ scandals. Instead, he brought baggage of his own: a history of inflammatory commentary on social media. Democratic staff had found a tweet in which Hill claimed former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had ‘blood on her hands.’ In a since-deleted tweet found by Rolling Stone, Hill wrote ‘Cancer! GO FASTER!’ in response to a tweet from Rep. Lauren Boebert claiming that President Biden had been diagnosed with cancer…

“The results have left Democrats gleeful and even some Republicans deeply unimpressed. A ‘dumpster fire,’ is how one Democrat with knowledge of the at-times combative interactions terms the proceedings. ‘Clearly there is room to grow and improve before [more] public hearings,’ a Republican familiar with the process tells Rolling Stone. But the work so far, the Republican says, has been ‘very much amateur hour,’ adding that airing this ‘stuff on live television would make us look like morons.’ (Sources spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly about the sensitive matters.)”