When last we checked on this story, Texas Republican Congressman Dan Crenshaw was threatening to sue YouTuber Shawn Ryan over comments Ryan had made about Crenshaw, and Crenshaw had agreed to come on Ryan’s show to address the issues.
Guess what? Rep. Crenshaw appears to be pussing out by refusing to sign Ryan’s standard release form.
“I need to talk to you about the Dan Crenshaw situation. As many of you know, he sent me a cease and desist, threatened to sue me. I made a rebuttal. I invited him on the show. Then he challenged me. I accepted. I said, ‘Okay, perfect. January 2nd to come on this show, you have to sign a release form.'”
“Everybody that’s been on this show since around episode 10 has signed a release form. President Trump, J.D. Vance, Tulsi Gabbard, Joe Kent, lots of very important people, much more important than a congressman have signed that release form. Everybody that has been interviewed in the new studio has signed the exact same release form.”
“Dan and his attorneys, they don’t want to sign the release form. They want special concessions. We sent them that release form on December 26th. They then sent a bunch of red lines. We said we’re not making any special circumstances or modifying our release form for the congressman. I’m sorry, that’s not going to happen.”
“But we will make some special concessions for his protection on another document and send that over.” You know, I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that Rep. Crenshaw doesn’t need more protections than Donald Trump.
“Well, they have yet to sign either one of those documents. I have to have those documents signed to interview somebody. Everybody’s done it.”
“I talked to my attorney. I said, ‘I think this is what’s going to happen. They are going to wait until close of business on New Year’s Eve to send some type of a communication in hopes that we don’t get it because who the hell is checking their email at 10:00 at night on New Year’s Eve?’ Well, guess what?”
“We get an email at 10 o’clock at night from Dan’s campaign manager on New Year’s Eve, where the next day is a national holiday and nobody’s behind their decks. And the next day it’s game day. It’s interview time.”
“They said, ‘We’re booked. We’ve booked the hotel that you’ve recommended. Will somebody be there to pick us up?’ There was no mention of the release forms.”
“So, here’s what’s going to happen. They’re going to come here and they’re going to make a big stink on how I didn’t interview them and how I was scared to interview them or whatever, but they’re hiding behind the paperwork.”
“Dan, I am now redacting my invitation for you to come on my show. I gave you the opportunity to be a man. You didn’t take it.”
“I gave you the opportunity to speak to five and a half million people and prove to them that you are not insider trading. That’s a fucking gift. I might add, a gift that not very many people get, and you turned it down.”
“I’m not going to interview you now. I don’t play games.”
“This is what you do, Dan. You’re a bully. You bully people into submission. Anybody that scrutinizes you, you send them a nasty gram and you threaten to sue them. And that works. Unfortunately, it didn’t work on me.”
Assuming all this is true (and right now I have no reason not to believe it’s true), Rep. Crenshaw comes off looking even worse than he did before threatening to sue Ryan.
If Crenshaw doesn’t have anything to hide about his finances, he’s sure acting like someone who has something to hide…
Podcaster/YouTuber Shawn Ryan is one of those people that lies at the edge of the Mil-blogger/YouTubers I already watch, but never enough to have a tag for him before now. I recognize him from a Joe Rogan interview thumbnail and the disasterous interview Gavin Newsom had with him, but I’m not really familiar with his work. But it definitely got my attention that Texas Congressman Dan Crenshaw is threatening to sue him, a clash that probably has an added intensity since both are ex-Navy SEALS.
“On December 9th, 2025, I received a legal demand letter from lawyers representing Congressman Dan Crenshaw. They are threatening to sue me for defamation because of comments I made on my podcast about a message that he sent me.”
“They want me to remove content, issue a public apology, and stop talking about him. I’m not going to do any of that.”
“What I originally said a while back, I commented on my show about Congressman Crenshaw throwing an extremely expensive party and the fact that he seems to have become quite wealthy during his time in Congress.”
“I raised questions about how a congressman making $174,000 a year can afford that kind of a lifestyle. These are legitimate questions. And to be honest, I didn’t even mention Dan Crenshaw’s name in that initial conversation.”
“I just brought up the fact that he was having Steve Aoki, a major DJ spin at his party.” I honestly have no idea how much “top DJs” make.
“Multiple news outlets have reported on concerns about congressional insider trading and members of Congress, including Congressman Crenshaw, actively trading stocks while having access to non-public information that affects those very stocks. I’m not the only person asking these questions, but apparently I’m the one that got under Dan’s skin.”
Crenshaw then sent Ryan an Instagram that Ryan perceived to be threatening:
Hey Sean, you have the ability to contact your fellow team guy if you’ve got a problem with me or have questions about how I’m getting rich. Some of my boys at six told me about your indirect swipe at me. From the comment you made, it sounds like you have some beliefs that are based on trendy narratives instead of facts.
Eh, I think Ryan may be over-reacting here. To me the not read more like “What the hell?” than “I’m going to break your kneecaps.”
Ryan then plays a clip of Crenshaw talking about how he’ll kill Tucker Carlson if he meets him. Definitely injudicious on Crenshaw’s part, but not an actionable threat.
“Now his lawyers are claiming that my interpretation of his message is defamation. They say I accused him of threatening me with assault, which is a crime, and that I need to publicly apologize and remove the content from my show.” And here’s where Crenshaw screwed up. The congressman seems unaware of The Streisand Effect. This video already has three million views, so millions of people who previously unaware of the accusations against him have now heard them.
“Here’s my response. No, I’m publishing their full demand letter, along with my lawyer’s response, so that you can read both and decide for yourself whether my interpretation was unreasonable.”
“This is about whether a sitting member of Congress can use the threat of an expensive litigation to silence criticism. I asked questions about Congressman Crenshaw’s wealth. Those questions are fair game. He is a public official. He makes decisions that affect all of us. He trades stocks while having access to classified and non-public information.”
“If Congressman Crenshaw wants to sue me, he can. My lawyers are ready. And if he does, we’re going to use the discovery process to get answers to all the questions I originally asked, questions about his finances and how he affords the lifestyle he’s living on a congressional salary. I suspect that’s the last thing Dan actually wants.”
The upshot of all this is that Crenshaw is going to appear on Ryan’s podcast for an interview.
I should make it clear that I have no idea whether Crenshaw is crooked or not. His official reports don’t show vast wealth. He has two houses, one valued at $1 million, but that price may just be a side effect of the vast inflation of housing prices in the late Biden Administration. (At one point, my house, which I bought when I was making $46,000 a year in 2004, was theoretically worth around $800,000, but the market has cooled quite a bit since then.) I assume the other house is a rental income property.
I have heard accusations of Crenshaw accumulating wealth, but they came from 2nd Congressional District primary opponent Steve Toth, who said “While Dan Crenshaw votes with Democrats and threatens conservatives, he’s also somehow gotten rich off his government salary. I had no idea he’s actually a better trader than Warren Buffett. But not quite as good as Hillary Clinton.”
I sent the following questions to the Toth campaign:
I want to follow this race for my blog, but I asked two questions that I haven’t received an answer to:
1. Can you cite examples of Dan Crenshaw benefiting financially from his office?
2. Can you cite, say, ten bills where Crenshaw’s voting pattern was insufficiently conservative?
I sent those questions off twice, and have yet to get an answer…but did get put on his campaigns mailing list for block walking notifications.
There’s certainly some dissatisfaction with Crenshaw among conservative ranks, as exhibited by the nasty “Eyepatch McCain” nickname bestowed on him. But right now, I have to judge the corruption accusations against him “unproven.”
That said, threatening to sue a podcaster who merely referenced the rumors (and not even by name) is a foolish move that’s going to raise eyebrows.
