Ric Grenell Calls House Judiciary Staffer to ‘Berate’ Them Over Jamie Raskin Letter
The top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jamie Raskin, sent a letter to the Trump administration about Andrew and Tristan Tate. Ric Grenell personally called a committee staffer to complain.
Ric Grenell speaks during a news conference in front of the Clark County Election Department. John Locher/AP
By
Reese Gorman
April 3, 2025 02:24 PM
When Democrats in Congress typically send letters to the Trump administration, they don’t usually get a response — at least not like the one that Special Presidential Envoy for Special Missions of United States Ric Grenell gave a staffer on Thursday.
The back-and-forth started when the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Jamie Raskin,
wrote a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and cc’d Grenell and Attorney General Pam Bondi.
After Raskin asked about the Trump administration’s role in bringing to the United States Andrew and Tristan Tate — who were
both on house arrest in Romania while awaiting trial on human trafficking charges — Grenell called a Judiciary staffer on Thursday from an unknown number.
Grenell, who did not dispute that he called the staffer, allegedly “berated” the House Judiciary Committee employee over the letter, according to a source with knowledge of the conversation.
“He said the letter was ‘fucking fake news’ and that ‘you’re going to ruin my reputation,’” the source said.
The source further claimed that Grenell said the letter’s research was “bad” and that a “simple Google search” could disprove Raskin’s claims.
Grenell — who the source said was “worked up” — told the staffer he was “going to go public” about the letter, the source said.
Asked for comment about the phone call, Grenell told NOTUS that, “Your characterization of this conversation is absolutely wrong.”
“I would never say what he said I said. I sent an email to him too. Why don’t you get that from him? I put my concerns in writing,” Grenell said.
(When asked to share the email, Grenell said, “Just get it from the guy who already briefed you.”)
The source with knowledge of the conversation read Grenell’s email to NOTUS. In it, Grenell asks the staffer if they “purposely leave out the fact that the entire Romanian government said they were NOT pressured on this issue??!” Grenell also denied ever meeting with the Romanian foreign minister and said he declined a meeting when the minister asked for one.
“When you push fake news like this, you only damage yourself,” Grenell concluded in the email.
Grenell also said NOTUS’ characterization of the conversation was “very typical of Jamie Raskin.”
“He loves to play the victim. And fundraise by creating drama. You are being used by him for his political games,” Grenell said.
“We have the political system we have because Raskin recklessly slings mud — and enjoys it,” Grenell added. “Everyone outside of D.C. sees it.”
Neither the White House nor the State Department immediately responded to a request for comment.
While Raskin’s letter wasn’t unusual, Grenell’s reaction was. Committees send hundreds of letters a year to the administration, with most never receiving a response.
Calling a staffer to complain about a letter is virtually unheard of, particularly when the administration official played such a limited role in the letter.
Raskin laid out how Trump officials “reportedly pressured the Romanian government” to lift travel restrictions so that the Tate brothers could come to the United States. And then, with the brothers back on U.S. soil, “Andrew Tate allegedly assaulted his girlfriend Bri Stern in Los Angeles.”
“Recent text messages reportedly between Ms. Stern and Mr. Tate also revealed that Mr. Tate repeatedly told Ms. Stern he wanted to hit and beat her, saying Ms. Stern deserved it,” Raskin wrote.
In February, the Financial Times
reported that the Trump administration was pushing Romania to lift the travel ban on the Tate brothers. And among Raskin’s questions Thursday was one asking about “the basis for the U.S. government’s involvement in encouraging Romania to lift the travel restrictions on Andrew Tate and Tristan Tate” and one asking “which U.S. officials communicated with Romanian officials regarding the Tate brothers, whether verbally or in writing, other than U.S. special envoy Richard Grenell?”
Grenell, a longtime Trump ally, is
under consideration to be Trump’s new ambassador to the United Nations after the president pulled Rep. Elise Stefanik’s nomination last week.
In the first Trump administration, Grenell was acting director of national intelligence and served as ambassador to Germany. He is also currently the Kennedy Center’s president and interim executive director.
