Rep. Brad Wenstrup says that trust in FBI is ‘waning’ in Congress amid Twitter Files

Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-OH) postulated that trust in the FBI is “waning” among members of Congress from both sides of the aisle.

Taking note of the recent Twitter Files report that the social media giant had “constant and pervasive” communications with the bureau, Wenstrup lamented how the FBI had become politicized in recent years.

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“The trust in our agencies, the FBI, and intelligence community is certainly waning even amongst politicians and to some degree on the other side of the aisle,” Wenstrup told Fox News. “I grew up watching a show called FBI where they went out and caught criminals. Now it seems like they’re more interested in hunting down opinions or even facts that they don’t seem to like, but the laundry list goes on.”

On Friday, journalist Matt Taibbi divulged how the bureau frequently flagged content for Twitter to review and noted that, at one point, there had been nearly weekly meetings between Twitter executives and officials at the Department of Homeland Security, the Justice Department, the FBI, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

“Between January 2020 to November 2022, there were over 150 emails between the FBI and former Twitter Trust and Safety chief Yoel Roth,” Taibbi said.

Taibbi has been reporting on the Twitter Files alongside journalist Bari Weiss and author Michael Shellenberger, all of whom have been given sweeping access to Twitter by CEO Elon Musk in a stated effort to boost transparency.

Critics have fretted that the FBI was encouraging censorship on Twitter. In the run-up to the 2020 election, the bureau warned social media companies about a Russian disinformation dump. With that in mind, Twitter suppressed the New York Post’s October 2020 story on Hunter Biden’s laptop — a move that became a rallying cry for conservative outrage over purported Big Tech censorship.

The FBI’s coordination with Twitter was not Wenstrup’s only gripe with the bureau. He rattled off a litany of grievances with the bureau, adding that it is often “stonewalling us” and officials “don’t answer our questions.”

“You know, the Inspector General had shown how the FBI abused the FISA court, we saw how the FBI aided and abetted the false Russian narrative — Russian collusion narrative. We saw them say that Hunter Biden’s laptop was misinformation. And clearly, it wasn’t and we know that now. It just goes on and on,” the Ohio Republican said.

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Republicans are poised to turn up the heat on the FBI once they regain control of the House in January. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), the likely next House Judiciary Committee chairman, has signaled his intention to investigate the bureau’s handling of its Hunter Biden investigations, its scrutiny of crisis pregnancy centers, and more.