At today's House Judiciary Committee hearing, Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ) made his case against the Biden-era FBI.
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NewsTranscript
00:00I will now recognize myself for an opening statement.
00:08First of all, I want to welcome everyone to the second hearing of the Subcommittee on
00:12Oversight.
00:13Today, we are continuing the important work we began in our first hearing, exposing the
00:18weaponization and politicizing of federal law enforcement agency against the American
00:26public.
00:27Next time, we'll be focusing squarely on the Federal Bureau of Investigation under the
00:31Biden administration, a bureau bloated by bureaucracy, a bureau that burned through
00:36billions, not millions, but billions of dollars in taxpayers' dollars to chase political enemies,
00:45a bureau that silenced dissent and trampled on our constitutional rights, all while real
00:51threats to our safety were ignored.
00:53This wasn't just a leadership failure.
00:56It was a betrayal of the American people and of the American trust.
01:02This hearing is more than oversight.
01:05This is about restoring trust.
01:07This is about standing up for every American who believes that government should protect
01:12them, not target them.
01:15Let me be clear.
01:16The FBI should be a shield for the American people.
01:20Instead, under the Biden-Harris administration, it became a sword to use against them.
01:27Let's start with parents, parents who spoke up for their kids, parents who voiced concerns
01:31about radical school agendas.
01:34What did they get in return?
01:37A surveillance file, a federal investigation for just trying to be a good parent.
01:44That's not law enforcement.
01:46In my book, and in most Americans' books, that's intimidation.
01:51Let's talk about people of faith.
01:53The Biden FBI branded certain Catholic Americans as, quote, radical traditionalists and potential
02:00domestic terrorists.
02:02They even discussed infiltrating churches by having parishioners spy on their own people
02:09by their own fellow parishioners.
02:12And it wasn't just Catholic churches.
02:15In 2021, the FBI raided a Hindu temple in the state of New Jersey, using overwhelming
02:21force, agents stormed sacred grounds, and listen to this, they held guns to the faces
02:30of the holy men.
02:32They disrupted religious life, all based on loose, untrue allegations, which are now thankfully
02:40unraveling in court.
02:43Our sacred places, our churches, our synagogues, our temples, our mosques, they should be sanctuaries,
02:51not scenes of government surveillance.
02:55Let's talk about free speech.
02:56The FBI knew Hunter Biden's laptop was real.
02:59They knew it.
03:00They colluded with big tech to frame it as Russian disinformation.
03:05They tried to bury the story from the American people.
03:09That wasn't law enforcement.
03:11That was raw political election interference.
03:16And all of this, the worst part of all, it wasn't free.
03:20It came with a price tag.
03:22In fiscal year 2024, and listen to this, the FBI spent over $6 billion, not million, billion
03:31dollars on intelligence, counterintelligence, and counterterrorism, all on American soil.
03:39More than half of its entire budget.
03:43But instead of using those billions to fight violent crime or keep our communities safe,
03:48the money was funneled into politically driven investigations and abuses of power.
03:53The waste did not stop there.
03:56$220,000 paid to Igor Danchenko, a key source behind the discredited Steele dossier, plus
04:04another $300,000 to that, planned before the FBI can finally close him as a source.
04:12Up to $1 million offered to Christopher Steele to try and corroborate, which he couldn't
04:17do, his own baseless claims.
04:20$200 million more secured for a new FBI headquarters, a reward in Greenbelt, Maryland, despite widespread
04:29public distrust and concern and strong opposition from the Judiciary Committee.
04:35And that is only scratching the surface.
04:37The FBI couldn't give us enough real numbers, and we're going to continue to pursue that
04:44and just find out how much this really cost us.
04:46For four long years under the Biden administration, Americans had to suffer through this.
04:53Groceries got more expensive, rent kept rising, families struggled to make ends meet, some
04:59working two or even three jobs just to stay afloat.
05:03And while they were scraping by, Americans working hard, trying to survive, the federal
05:10government was using their hard-earned tax dollars not to help them, not to protect them,
05:15not to make things better, but to surveil them and fund political hit jobs.
05:22People, people, and I'll use the vernacular, they're pissed off.
05:28They're tired.
05:29They're tired of it.
05:31And they have every right to be.
05:34They want the FBI focused on real threats, the southern border, cyber attacks, violent
05:40crimes in our neighborhoods, in our cities, foreign adversaries that are hacking our elections,
05:47not on chasing down somebody you don't agree with, not on chasing down a political opponent.
05:54All of this, all of this pointed to a clear conclusion, the Biden FBI picks and chooses
06:02its priorities based on politics, not on public safety.
06:07And ladies and gentlemen, that is wrong.
06:10And if it weren't enough, whistleblowers tell us about a corrupt bonus structure just to
06:15make it even worse.
06:16Bonuses for opening more cases, bonuses for inflating the numbers, bonuses for manipulating
06:22timesheets.
06:23Imagine being rewarded not for catching criminals, but for cooking the books.
06:29You couldn't make it up, but it's true.
06:34This is not a conspiracy theory.
06:36It's not a Republican talking point.
06:38It's not a political talking point.
06:40This isn't speculation.
06:42This is documented, well-documented abuse, verified by brave whistleblowers and confirmed
06:51by this Judiciary Committee.
06:54Some may say, and good question, well, what are you doing about it?
06:58I'm going to tell you, we're working to fundamentally reform the FBI from the ground up.
07:03We are drafting legislation to rein in abuse, cut waste, and refocus the Bureau on real
07:09threats to public safety.
07:12We're investigating every single dollar spent and every abuse of power uncovered.
07:17We are demanding accountability from those responsible and pressing for transparency
07:22at every single level.
07:25And yes, yes, we are exposing the truth, because as they say, the truth shall set you free.
07:34The first step to real change is making sure the American people know exactly what's going
07:38on.
07:40And that's what's being done to them with their own money.
07:41That's the cruel part of it, by their own government, the cruelest part of it.
07:47Director Cash Patel is leading a new FBI, one that returns to its roots, one that Americans
07:53can be proud of.
07:55He moved agents out of Washington, D.C., back into communities, back to fighting violent
08:01crimes as they should be.
08:03Attorney General Pam Bondi took swift and decisive action to dismantle the most politicized
08:09units within the Department of Justice.
08:12She redirected resources towards real law enforcement priorities, scaled back abusive
08:18practices, and made clear the DOJ's mission is to uphold the law, not to serve any political
08:27agenda, any political agenda.
08:30You know, it's the old saying, if it happened to us, it can happen to you.
08:34This isn't Republican.
08:35This isn't Democrat.
08:37This is just doing the right thing.
08:39They are rebuilding the Bureau from the ground up.
08:42They're doing it the right way, with transparency, with accountability, and with a focus on the
08:47Constitution of the United States of America.
08:51This is the FBI that the American people deserve.
08:55So today, we're going to hear from those who know the truth, former agents, former insiders,
09:03people who saw firsthand what went wrong and what we can do to fix it.
09:10Because you know, this isn't just about the past.
09:13It's about a better future.
09:14It's about restoring our faith in American institutions.
09:18It's about protecting our freedoms.
09:20It's about demanding that taxpayer dollars go to protecting Americans, not targeting
09:25them.
09:26The only way that we will understand where we are and where we want to go is by understanding
09:33where we were.
09:36It's about doing the right thing.
09:39I thank you, and I look forward to this testimony.