Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) re-upped his call for Congress to leverage its power of the purse against the FBI in the wake of the Durham report.
As Chairman of both the House Judiciary Committee and the subcommittee on Weaponization of the Federal Government, Jordan has long accused the bureau of targeting anti-abortion groups and conservative activists at school board meetings. He argued Congress can use appropriations as leverage to pressure the FBI into reform.
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“We got to limit how they spend the money, maybe even limit them. Here’s a great example. They want millions of dollars hundreds of millions of dollars in their construction budget for a new facility. No way. No way should we approve that,” Jordan told Fox New’s Sunday Morning Futures.
The FBI is considering plans to relocate its headquarters, which is fixated in Washington, D.C., not far from Ford’s Theatre.
Last week, Special Counsel John Durham’s long-awaited report was released to the public, laying out a list of criticisms against the FBI over its handling of the Trump-Russia investigation.
The report concluded that the “FBI failed to uphold their important mission of strict fidelity to the law” with respect to the Russia inquiry and dinged the bureau for not reflecting on it whether “was being manipulated for political or other purposes” during the inquiry.
Initially, the FBI’s investigation against the Trump campaign was predicated on allegations from Australian diplomats that campaign operative George Papadopoulos suggested Russia might have damaging material on Hillary Clinton.
At one point, the bureau leaned on the controversial unvetted and unverified “Steele dossier,” which derived in part from political opposition research funding and alleged collusion between Trump and Russia, to obtain a FISA warrant to target former Trump campaign associate Carter Page.
Durham emphasized that the bureau “did not and could not corroborate any of the substantive allegations” in the file. He did not recommend any new charges in his report, and his inquiry only resulted in one conviction.
Jordan has repeatedly prodded the GOP to leverage funding against the FBI to induce behavioral changes.
“We had these whistleblowers who tell us about the retaliation they are getting from the FBI for simply telling Congress … the wrongdoing that was going on. Telling Congress about parents being targeted for going to school board meetings, telling Congress about pro-lifers being targeted,” Jordan said.
Some prominent Republicans, such as 2024 hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy, suggested the bureau needs to be defunded or abolished altogether.
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Another key finding in the Durham report is that the FBI had four inquiries revolving around both Bill and Hillary Clinton that were dropped ahead of the 2016 election. Jordan expressed interest in looking into having those mentioned in the Durham report appear before Congress to answer questions and said that “nothing is off the table.”
“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,” Jordan said. “Are there people that were highlighted in the Durham investigation and the Durham report that we need to talk to on the Judiciary Committee? We’re going to give that a good hard look.”
