The Show Trial of the Century?

[Michie]

The FBI needs reform but House Republicans are staging a witch hunt, argues the former senior aide to the 1970s Church Committee​

Over the summer, as Republicans appeared poised to retake control of the U.S. House of Representatives, a right-wing interest group called the Center for Renewing America released a report with a provocative declaration: “A Partisan, Weaponized FBI Must Be Broken Up.”

The report read like a wish list of what the Republican Party would do if it returned to power — from slashing the bureau’s budget to pressuring the president to fire its director. But the starting point would be a special investigation, modeled after the strongest challenge the FBI has ever faced: the investigative committee led by Sen. Frank Church in the 1970s.

This caught my attention, and not just because I’ve spent decades as a scholar of the FBI and the U.S. intelligence community. I was the senior aide to Church during his momentous probe, helping to uncover a culture of lawlessness at the bureau and interviewing some of its worst perpetrators under oath. The public hearings penetrated the secrecy that had allowed the FBI and other government agencies to spy on Americans and violate their rights, sparking new laws and major reforms. I understand how the power of such a committee can be used for good.

I also know how dangerous this power might be if used for partisan purposes, which, unfortunately, now seems imminent. Since Republicans won control of the House of Representatives in November, their calls for a new Church-style committee have grown louder. Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, perhaps best known for the Select Committee on Benghazi circus, is soon to become chair of the House Judiciary Committee. Before his party has even taken over control of the House, Jordan has already sent letters to the Department of Justice and FBI requesting documents and threatening new congressional probes. He and other Republican lawmakers have spent months interviewing self-styled FBI whistleblowers and collecting other testimony.

Continued below.

The Show Trial of the Century?

The FBI needs reform but House Republicans are staging a witch hunt, argues the former senior aide to the 1970s Church Committee

newlinesmag.com

 

[Wolseley]

The country clearly needs a healthy, effective FBI that retains the public’s trust. This is why, as the Church Committee showed decades ago, congressional oversight remains key.

I have absolutely no doubts whatsoever that the FBI needs to be investigated, fumigated, aired out, reformed, and cleansed. But the "congressional oversight remains key" part is a laugh riot joke. Congress is a bigger cesspool than the Bureau is, and filled with more idiots and criminals than J. Edgar ever dreamed of employing. Putting Congress in charge of policing the FBI is like putting jackals, hyenas, wolves, and pumas in charge of keeping the foxes out of the henhouse. It's ludicrous.

 

[SavedByGrace3]

Strip them of power. Hold trials for treason. Find out what the white house and congress had to do with it. Prison for them all.

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