Rep. Jim Jordan, the chairman of the new House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government Subcommittee, recently appeared on Fox News Channel and said that, in the wake of John Durham’s report on the FBI and Russiagate, Republicans should use the power of the purse to limit the FBI.
That came when he appeared on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures” and told the host, Maria Bartiromo: “In the end, money always gets people’s attention … and so what we’re going to have to do is say, ‘Hey, FBI, you can’t use federal tax dollars, you can’t use the American tax dollars for this kind of activity.’ We’ve got to limit how they spend the money, maybe even limit them.”
Continuing, he added, “We have to use the appropriation, that’s the power that the founders wanted, the legislative branch, and in particular the House, where constitutionally every spending bill, every tax bill has to originate in the House. They wanted that body, which stands for election every two years, to be the body closer to the people deciding how we spend the money. So we have to exercise our authority, the power of the purse, to limit what the federal government, what the FBI, the Justice Department are doing to the American people.”
He then added that such a plan is already in the works, saying, “I think the first one will be coming out in a couple of weeks. We’ve been meeting with the appropriations staff, our staff on Judiciary Committee, to work on how we can limit money, American tax dollars being used in these ways and deal with the overall budget that the FBI and the DOJ is receiving.”
Jordan’s House Weaponization of the Government Subcommittee recently held a hearing on the FBI’s malfeasance and targeting of whistleblowers in which FBI Special Agent Garret O’Boyle, a whistleblower, spoke about what is going on inside the FBI and how it targeted him, saying:
Despite our oath to uphold the Constitution, too many in the FBI aren’t willing to sacrifice for the hard right over the easy wrong. They see what becomes of whistleblowers; how the FBI destroys their careers, suspends them under false pretenses, takes their security clearances and pay with no true options for real recourse or remedy. This is by design; it creates an Orwellian atmosphere that silences opposition and discussion. We know what is right to do, yet we too often refuse to do what is right because of the difficulty and suffering it incurs.
I couldn’t knowingly continue on this path silently without speaking out against the weaponization I witnessed even if it meant losing my job, my career, my livelihood, my family’s home, and now, even my anonymity. It’s up to members of this committee, current and former FBI employees, and indeed all Americans, to ensure that the weaponization of our own government against the people comes to an end; no matter the personal cost.
As James Madison prudently opined: “In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and the next place, oblige it to control itself.” The safeguards currently in place at the FBI are clearly inadequate and must be reworked to protect whistleblowers and others who are inappropriately targeted.
The FBI can extract whatever they want from me; I’m willing to bear that burden. I’ve sworn to defend this country from enemies both foreign and domestic, even if that means sacrificing my life. I’ve lived that oath out since enlisting in the Army, consistently saying, “here am I, send me.” My oath, however, did not include sacrificing the hopes, dreams, and livelihood of my family: my strong, beautiful and courageous wife and my four sweet and beautiful daughters, who have endured this process along with me.
In weaponized fashion, the FBI allowed me to accept orders to a new position halfway across the country. They allowed us to sell my family’s home. They ordered me to report to the new unit when our youngest daughter was only two weeks old. Then, on my first day on the new assignment, they suspended me; rendering my family homeless and refused to release our household goods, including our clothes, for weeks.
All I wanted to do was serve my country by stopping bad guys and protecting the innocent. To my chagrin, bad guys have begun running parts of the government making it difficult to continue to serve this Nation and protect the innocent. But I for one, will never stop trying. And I’ll never forget my oath.
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