Republicans call for FBI reform: ‘Go at the one thing that everybody cares about — the money’

Republican lawmakers are calling for efforts to reform the FBI, including legislation that would pull back funds from the federal agency, following the release of special counsel John Durham’s report on the FBI’s investigation into former President Donald Trump’s alleged links to Russia.

Durham released the 306-page report Monday, nearly four years since the investigation was launched on the order of Attorney General William Barr in 2019.

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In the report, Durham criticized the FBI for causing “severe reputational harm,” noting its work was “seriously deficient.” Durham wrote that the FBI embraced “seriously flawed information” that fell short of the agency’s “own principles regarding objectivity and integrity.”

While speaking on Hannity, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) said the FBI has become politicized and Congress must consider its funding.

“The only way we can hold them accountable is to go at the one thing that everybody cares about — the money,” Jordan said. “We have to look at the appropriations. That’s the only leverage we ultimately have in Congress. We have to look at the power of the purse if we’re ever going to get control of these agencies who did this not just once, but multiple times.”

“We got to keep talking about it. We got to pass legislation if we can to deal with it,” the congressman said. “And then we have to look at the money, the appropriations, and say, ‘How can we direct these funds? How can we better position these funds? What can we do to stop this from happening in the future?’”

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told Jesse Watters Primetime that Congress must do more than continue to have reports released.

“There needs to be consequences,” Hawley said. “FBI leadership has clearly got to be changed. And Jesse, I’m of the mind we need to end the FBI as we know it. It needs to be broken up. I mean, clearly, it has become corrupt. The leadership is corrupt. You can talk to FBI agents in the field. I was just doing this just this past week. Great folks in my home state, all over the place, but they’re not served by this leadership. This leadership has become totally, radically politicized, and we have got to change it.”

“The Democrats tried to use the FBI to rig a presidential election and just about got away with it. They succeeded in getting the FBI to intervene. They succeeded in getting the FBI to lie to a court to get wiretaps. They succeeded in getting a presidential campaign, Donald Trump’s campaign, spied on,” Hawley continued. “I mean, it’s amazing that there is something like this in American history — I don’t know what it is. And that’s why I say there needs to be prosecutions. There needs to be accountability. And the FBI has got to be overhauled now top to bottom. It’s got to be completely reformed. It cannot go on like it is.”

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Trump reacted to the news of the Durham report, touting the findings.

“WOW! After extensive research, Special Counsel John Durham concludes the FBI never should have launched the Trump-Russia Probe! In other words, the American Public was scammed, just as it is being scammed right now by those who don’t want to see GREATNESS for AMERICA!” the former president wrote on the social media platform Truth Social.