Washington, D.C.— U.S. Congressman Andy Barr released the following statement on yesterday's FBI raid on former President Trump's Florida home:
“In 2016, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) doctored a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court application to wiretap a Trump campaign confidant and then weaponized the outlandish Steele dossier to launch a Special Counsel investigation of President Trump. The Special Counsel’s investigation dragged on for three out of the four years President Trump was in office, ultimately finding no criminal conspiracy between the Russian government and the 2016 Trump Presidential Campaign but proving to be a frequent talking point for Congressional Democrats during the 2018 midterm elections. Allowing this shameful episode of politicizing the FBI and the Department of Justice (DOJ) to repeat itself again four years later during this midterm election year would be another historic stain on these previously respected American institutions.
“It is through this context that we take in the news of the FBI and Biden DOJ’s unprecedented raid of former President Trump’s home, who also is a potential opponent to President Biden in the next presidential election. Based on the extraordinary circumstances of this action and their prior track record of unfairly targeting President Trump, the FBI and DOJ owe the American people far more information and absolute transparency on the details of this operation and its justification, if any. If they fail to provide this, Republicans in Congress must work tirelessly to extract answers from the FBI and DOJ through Congressional hearings and oversight to hold them to account.”