The FBI Is Now Mainly A Weapon Against Republicans

What is the FBI’s main purpose now? Because outside of some great investigative work that gets little national attention, the bureau increasingly seems to be used as a federal weapon aimed primarily at Republicans, generally protecting Democrats while leaking any detail of ongoing investigations that could damage the GOP.

The latest example relates to an FBI investigation into a political ally of Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), during which allegations were made against Gaetz accusing him of having a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old girl, whom he allegedly paid to travel with him. The New York Times reported on the investigation, quoting three, anonymous “people briefed” on the investigation. Gaetz has denied the allegations. Maybe there’s something there and maybe there isn’t, but no matter the outcome, the way the investigation was reported appeared, at least in part, politically motivated.

RedState’s Bonchie addressed the problematic aspects of the Times’ recent Gaetz piece:

Really, it should bother everyone, no matter their feelings on Gaetz, that the FBI can just leak something like this, to attack someone in such a blatantly political way. When you are facing an anonymous allegation, you can’t respond to it in any effective manner. Just last night, the reporter behind the Times story appeared on Rachel Maddow’s show and countered Gaetz’s claim about the man he named, yet she did so offering no proof whatsoever. These games are rigged, and you aren’t supposed to be able to defend yourself.

This is the same tactic media outlets took during the FBI’s investigation into whether former President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign colluded with Russia to “steal” the election. That investigation ultimately found no evidence of such collusion, but that didn’t stop media outlets from publishing thousands of articles over a two-year period featuring quotes from “sources familiar with the matter.”

Again, Gaetz may or may not be guilty; that’s not the issue. The issue here is the FBI’s role in media leaks.  The bureau, Bonchie notes, hasn’t treated its investigation into President Joe Biden’s son Hunter in the same manner, with virtually no leaks or strategically placed anonymous sources speaking to the media.

We learned in December 2020 that the FBI had been investigating Hunter Biden since 2018, but allegedly paused the investigation because of a bureau policy against “overt” action that might impact the election.

During the Russiagate investigation, reporters spent years writing “bombshell” stories that turned out to be nothing but hype to keep the Left hungry and believing that someday soon, it would be proved that they didn’t actually lose the election in 2016 — it was stolen from them. After a two-year, multimillion-dollar federal investigation, we learned there was no evidence such “collusion” ever happened.

The FBI appears ready and willing to leak stories that are harmful to Republicans while neglecting their core mission of keeping Americans safe from serious threats. As The Federalist’s Joy Pullman wrote last week, while the FBI has spied on American citizens to find evidence that Trump and his associates colluded with Russia, or devoted outsized attention to investigating a garage-pull loop some people claimed was a tiny noose, it frequently failed to focus adequate resources on people suspected of planning to kill other Americans.

The Fort Hood shooter, the Boston Marathon bombers, the Pulse nightclub shooter, the Boulder grocery store shooter, the Parkland shooter, and many others were all known to the FBI prior to committing their acts of domestic terrorism. Yet, they slipped through the cracks, and Americans paid dearly for it. Instead of hearing about the FBI thwarting real domestic threats, we continue to hear more about the FBI’s role in leaks to the press, primarily at Republicans’ expense.

The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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