(DCWatchdog.com) – According to U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, defunding federal law enforcement is the only way to focus public attention on its alleged violations.
Jordan believes the House Republicans are being forced to resort to the “power of the purse” to limit the FBI and the US Justice Department’s wrong actions toward the American people.
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“In the end, money always gets people’s attention, so what we’re going to have to do is say, ‘hey, FBI, you can’t use the American tax dollars for this kind of activity,'” the Ohio Republican told Fox News.
Jordan was reacting to last week’s House subcommittee hearing, in which three suspended FBI agents testified they had been punished for acting as whistleblowers after going to Congress with concerns over the January 6, 2021, probes amid other issues.
The House Judiciary Committee chairman pointed out that the House Republicans defunding of the FBI could come in the form of refusing money for the agency’s new facility.
“They want hundreds of millions of dollars in their construction budget for a new facility. No way should we approve that. That should be a given. No way we’re going to give you money for that,” Jordan said.
He noted the Founding Fathers had intended the House of Representatives as the body “where every spending bill, every tax bill has to originate,” and which decides how to spend taxpayers’ money.
“So we have to exercise our authority, the power of the purse, to limit what the federal government, what the FBI and Justice Department, are doing to the American people,” Jordan declared, as cited by Newsmax.
He added that the public had already learned much about the FBI’s actions thanks to the whistleblowers’ hearing and last week’s 306-page report by U.S. Special Counsel John Durham.
In it, Durham concluded that in 2016, the FBI had no reason to launch a criminal investigation into the debunked claims that former President Donald Trump’s then-campaign colluded with Putin’s Russia.
Yet, according to Jordan, little has changed in the federal agency since former director James Comey headed it.
“They took a dossier that they knew was false, and that became the basis to go get a warrant to spy on a presidential campaign and to spy on American citizens. I mean, you can’t do that in this country,” Jordan said.
He was referring to the debunked Steele dossier that claimed that Trump was colluding with the Russians, including because Moscow had “dirt” on him.
The House Judiciary Committee chairman pointed out that the reauthorization of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act – which the FBI used to spy on the Trump campaign – was due at the end of 2023.
“There is no way we’re going to support reauthorizing FISA in its current form, no possible way,” he stressed.
Jordan added Hillary Clinton could be investigated based on the Durham report.
“They not only didn’t investigate her like they did President Trump, they gave her campaign a defensive briefing. They should have done the same for President Trump because they literally had no evidence. So we’re going to talk with Speaker McCarthy on where we proceed from here,” the Ohio Republican declared.
House Republicans will have to use the "power of the purse" against the FBI and the Department of Justice to limit how they've been treating the American people, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan said Sunday. MORE: https://t.co/erXQil3OVI pic.twitter.com/cCLldBv8Lm
— NEWSMAX (@NEWSMAX) May 21, 2023
