Trump ally and frequent cable news commentator Dan Bongino is expected to testify Wednesday in a high-profile House Judiciary Committee hearing on police brutality, according to a communication reviewed by POLITICO.
The combative Fox News personality was included on an informal list of witnesses sent to staff of committee Democrats last night. He was listed as one of the Republicans’ witnesses. A spokesperson for committee Republicans declined to comment, and Bongino did not immediately respond to multiple requests for comment.
The hearing will focus on police brutality, in the wake of the killing of an unarmed African American man, George Floyd, by a white police officer in Minneapolis. The officer, Derek Chauvin, was seen in a video pressing his knee on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes as Floyd begged for his life. Chauvin is facing multiple charges, including second degree murder. Two autopsy reports have called the death a homicide, and video of the killing set off massive, nationwide protests against police brutality. Some protesters have called for defunding police departments, along with a host of other proposed changes.
Bongino, formerly an agent in the U.S. Secret Service, is an outspoken defender of law enforcement. In a recent Fox and Friends appearance, he said defunding police was “catastrophic.”
“People will die,” he said.
Floyd’s brother, Philonise Floyd, is also expected to testify at Wednesday’s hearing, along with a number of other witnesses.
Bongino has called the video of Floyd's death "really, really tough to watch."
"When I was in the 75th precinct as a New York City Police Department [officer,] the golden rule was when the cuffs are on and the subject is controlled, the fight is over," he said in an appearance on the Fox News show Hannity on May 28.
He has also lobbed criticism at a number of committee Democrats over the years. After special counsel Robert Mueller testified to the panel about his probe of Russian election interference, Bongino tweeted that Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) “should resign in disgrace.” He called Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), another member, one of “the legendary liars in Congress.” And he called Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) a “[f]ailed human being.”
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