(Headline USA) House Republicans released a report on Friday detailing whistleblower allegations of corruption at the highest levels of the Justice Department and FBI.
The 1,000-page report is “the first comprehensive accounting of the FBI’s problems to date, which undermine the FBI’s fundamental law enforcement mission,” the Republicans said. It features testimony from whistleblowers who described FBI leadership as “rotted at its core,” and alleged a “systemic culture of unaccountability” that has led to “rampant corruption, manipulation, and abuse.”
“The Federal Bureau of Investigation, under the stewardship of Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland, is broken,” the GOP report states. “The problem lies not with the majority of front-line agents who serve our country, but with the FBI’s politicized bureaucracy.”
One of the allegations in the report is that the FBI is actively seeking to “purge” employees with conservative views, and those who disagree with “woke” diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
The whistleblowers also claimed FBI leadership “is dragging the criminal side of the FBI down,” pulling resources away from investigating crimes and focusing the bureau’s attention on “political meddling.” For example, one whistleblower said he was “told that child sexual abuse material investigations were no longer an FBI priority and should be referred to local law enforcement agencies.”
“Americans deserve to have confidence that the enormous power and reach of federal law enforcement will be used fairly and free of any indication of politicization. The FBI has the power, quite literally, to ruin a person’s life — to invade their residence, to take their property, and even to deprive them of their liberty,” the report said.
“The potential abuse of this power, or even the appearance of abuse, erodes the fundamental principle of equality under the law and confidence in the rule of law,” the report continued.
“The FBI’s tremendous power is precisely why the people’s elected representatives in Congress must conduct vigorous oversight, particularly in light of allegations of abuse and misconduct made to date.”
