{"id":1932761,"date":"2023-05-17T14:26:11","date_gmt":"2023-05-17T18:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/florida-congressman-calls-to-indict-fbi-agents-following-durham-report\/"},"modified":"2023-05-17T14:26:11","modified_gmt":"2023-05-17T18:26:11","slug":"florida-congressman-calls-to-indict-fbi-agents-following-durham-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/florida-congressman-calls-to-indict-fbi-agents-following-durham-report\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Congressman Calls to Indict FBI Agents Following Durham Report"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fflorida-congressman-calls-to-indict-fbi-agents-following-durham-report%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1932761&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47-->\n<p>Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) has suggested that the FBI should be defunded and its agents criminally indicted after special counsel John Durham concluded this week that the federal agency should have never launched an investigation into whether former President Donald Trump colluded with Russia during the 2016 election.<\/p>\n<p> Durham\u2019s 300-plus page report (pdf) asserted that the FBI rushed into the probe without having any evidence that officials from the Trump campaign had contacted any Russian intelligence officer.<\/p>\n<p> During an interview with Newsmax on Monday, Gaetz accused the FBI and Department of Justice (DOJ) of being politically biased in the probe, alleging the agency has become \u201cthe enforcement wing of the Democratic Party to play offense against Trump,\u201d describing its actions as \u201cvery ugly for the future of a democracy where the people make the choices.\u201d<\/p>\n<p> \u201cThe report takes great lengths to point out the number of times where Trump was targeted in a way no other American would be,\u201d Gaetz said. \u201cIn essence, the FBI has now become a disinformation and election interference enterprise here in our country. It\u2019s very damning for them, the Steele Dossier was nonsense, the probable cause standard even to originate an investigation \u2026 was never met, and you had a secret court that was lied to.\u201d<\/p>\n<p> \u201cI think we have to deauthorize, defang, and defund many of these authorities and entities and different task forces that actually converted the just and righteous act of protecting our country with the desire to have a particular political candidate win or lose,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p> The congressman also argued that if the probe had been driven by a GOP candidate\u2014or an operation to help a Republican candidate\u2019s campaign\u2014it wouldn\u2019t have concluded with just a report, but with \u201creal significant indictments.\u201d<\/p>\n<p> Gaetz went on to say that he\u2019s disappointed the report did not recommend any indictments in addition to the three people Durham already prosecuted, pointing out he believes more people should have been prosecuted as a result of the investigation.<\/p>\n<p> \u201cThe only indictment that Durham is able to cite here is the indictment of Kevin Clinesmith,\u201d Gaetz said, referring to the former FBI lawyer who doctored an email to state that a one-time Trump campaign associate was not a CIA asset when the associate actually was. Clinesmith has since pleaded guilty and received probation.<\/p>\n<p> \u201cAnd guess what? He\u2019s already back to practicing law,\u201d he added. \u201cGot his law license back, and practicing law here in D.C. now. Insufficient.\u201d<\/p>\n<p> FBI Responds The FBI responded to the Durham report hours after the DOJ published it on its website, acknowledging \u201cmissteps\u201d in its 2016\u20132017 investigation into the alleged Trump-Russia ties.<\/p>\n<p> \u201cThe conduct in 2016 and 2017 that Special Counsel Durham examined was the reason that current FBI leadership already implemented dozens of corrective actions, which have now been in place for some time,\u201d the FBI wrote in a statement. \u201cHad those reforms been in place in 2016, the missteps identified in the report could have been prevented.\u201d<\/p>\n<p> Meanwhile, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) echoed similar sentiments during an interview on Fox News\u2019 \u201cSean Hannity\u201d Monday night, agreeing with Gaetz that the FBI\u2019s funding should be cut, adding he believes there are \u201cdouble standards\u201d in the DOJ\u2019s treatment of Republicans and Democrats.<\/p>\n<p> \u201cThe only way we can hold them accountable is to go after one thing that everybody cares about\u2014the money,\u201d Jordan said. \u201cWe have to look at the power of the purse if we\u2019re ever going to get control of these agencies, who did this not just once, but multiple times,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p> In a post on Twitter Monday, Gaetz said the Durham report is an \u201cabsolutely DAMNING treatise on the weaponization\u201d of federal agencies against Trump, adding Monday\u2019s development \u201cshould be a clarion call for legislative reform.\u201d<\/p>\n<p> \u201cIn a proper world, Republicans and Democrats would be able to work together on this,\u201d Gaetz said. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t that long ago that the FBI was a right-wing organization, weaponized against civil rights leaders and others. And it was <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) has suggested that the FBI should be defunded and its agents criminally indicted after special counsel John Durham concluded this week that the federal agency should have never launched an investigation into whether former President Donald Trump colluded with Russia during the 2016 election. Durham\u2019s 300-plus page report (pdf) asserted that<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":124,"featured_media":1932762,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[543],"tags":[4967,3755,5408,11773,5591,5113,6937,3819],"class_list":["post-1932761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-epoch-times","tag-agents","tag-calls","tag-congressman","tag-durham","tag-fbi","tag-florida","tag-indict","tag-report"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1932761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/124"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1932761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1932761\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1932762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1932761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1932761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1932761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}