By Steve Neavling
Two former FBI agents accused the bureau of increased politicization during the first hearing Thursday of a U.S. House subcommittee examining the so-called weaponization of the federal government.
The Republican-controlled hearing also featured testimony from Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, who accused the FBI of harboring a political bias, Roll Call reports.
“It’s clear to me that the Justice Department and the FBI are suffering from a political infection that, if it’s not defeated, will cause the American people no longer to trust these storied institutions,” Grassley said.
Two former FBI agents, Thomas Baker and Nicole Parker, spoke during a second panel of witnesses and accused the bureau of increased politicization. Baker wrote the book, “The Fall of the FBI: How a Once Great Agency Became a Threat to Democracy.”
U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said the Trump administration is responsible for weaponizing the federal government, not the FBI. If the subcommittee was serious about the issue, Raskin said, it would investigate the Trump administration.
“The public is skeptical about this strange new venture, with this strange new name that’s being launched,” Raskin said of the subcommittee. “Because so many of the members involved have done everything they can to block the Jan. 6th committee’s investigation of the worst insurrectionary domestic violent attack on an American election.”
Raskin said the subcommittee was just a political stunt, pointing to remarks Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, made in August, when he said investigative efforts “will help frame up the 2024 race, when I hope and I think President Trump is going to run again. And we need to make sure that he wins.”
