by Harold Hutchison
Republican Rep. Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, denounced a “massive abuse of power” and vowed to use congressional funding powers to get transparency from the Biden administration about the Aug. 8 raid on Mar-a-Lago during a Sunday appearance on Fox Business.
“For something of this magnitude, something unprecedented, you would expect the FBI and the DOJ to go to great lengths to insure they are conducting themselves with the highest level of professionalism, but they never notified our committee — which you would expect them to do if, indeed, there was a danger posed by the classified material that was in Donald Trump’s possession,” Gallagher told former Republican Rep. Sean Duffy of Wisconsin, who guest-hosted the show, adding that many committee members found out details of the raid from news reports based on leaks from the Justice Department.
“It comes amidst the backdrop of recent failures on behalf of FBI and DOJ leadership that really get to the heart of their credibility and the trust that Americans have in those is institutions,” Gallagher said, referencing past scandals involving the FBI’s investigations into former President Donald Trump.
Gallagher noted that the FBI launched its investigation into whether Trump colluded with Russia based on a dossier funded by Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.
“And as of yet, no one’s been held accountable, Sean. No one has been held accountable for that massive abuse of power,” Gallagher said.
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Gallagher also referenced Attorney General Merrick Garland’s October 2021 memo involving parents who spoke out at school board meetings and President Joe Biden’s Thursday speech in Philadelphia that labeled Trump supporters a “threat to democracy.”
Duffy noted the FBI and Justice Department had resisted past investigations.
“We’ve had extensive discussions about using a practice called fencing, which is basically you kind of draw appropriations or authorization fence around various pots of money in order to compel, whether it’s the FBI or the CIA or the NSA, to give you information that you are demanding. It’s a shame that you actually have to do that, but that is what’s necessary,” Gallagher said.
Gallagher said Republican investigations would go beyond alleged abuses by the Justice Department.
“No one’s been held accountable for the shameful surrender and ineptitude we saw on display in Afghanistan last year. Fauci hasn’t been held accountable for the multiple lies he told throughout the pandemic,” Gallagher said. “There are all sorts of areas where we have to go through each executive branch agency and start to demand basic answers, and until we have subpoena power and the willingness to wield it effectively, we’re not going to get those answers. So, we have to use that, we have to use the power of the purse more effectively to get basic transparency and, again, start to restore competence and trust in these agencies before it’s too late.”
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Harold Hutchison is a reporter at Daily Caller News Foundation.
Photo “Joe Biden” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 2.0. Background Photo “U.S. Department of Justice” by Sebmol. CC BY-SA 3.0.
