Many in the Republican Party are fed up with what they perceive as partisanship within the FBI, and some are calling for the agency to be shut down.
The FBI raid on former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate provoked Republican lawmakers like Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Jim Jordan (R-OH).
Greene called for the agency to be defunded on the day of the raid. Jordan later told Fox News that he wanted Congress to defund the FBI and the Department of Justice (DOJ).
Some of their colleagues in the House have called for the outright dismantling of the FBI, including Reps. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) and Matt Gaetz (R-FL).
In May, Biggs wrote, “Defund and dismantle the FBI.”
While at the CPAC convention, Gaetz reportedly said, “We either get this government back on our side or we defund and get rid of, abolish the FBI, the CDC, ATF, DOJ, every last one of them if they do not come to heel.”
Vivek Ramaswamy, one of many trying to become the Republican nominee for president, said he believes the agency is unredeemable and should be done away with.
“I think the FBI as an institution should not exist,” Ramaswamy told USA Today. “I think that that is far more practical than it sounds. … I do not believe that an institution that entrenched in its culture and way of operating can be reformed.”
Marc Scholl, a former criminal prosecutor in New York, said that Congress could simply shut down the FBI, as nothing in the Constitution mandates the establishment of the FBI or any other federal investigative agency. He said Congress could also just give the FBI’s responsibilities to a different agency or limit the scope of its powers.
“For example, Congress could try to enact laws that deny the FBI authority to investigate tax crimes or weapons crimes or drug crimes — just as Congress could try to repeal crimes that it believes should not expose people to criminal consequences,” Scholl told USA Today.
Former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani also weighed in, telling USA Today that Congress could withhold enough taxpayer money that the agency would be unable to function.
Still, the discourse around defunding or shutting down the FBI has prompted considerations over what could replace it.
Ramaswamy discussed his proposal to “shut down the FBI and replace it with something new” during an appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press. He said, “[W]hen you have a bureaucracy whose culture becomes so ossified, every once in a while, you need to turn it over.”
The host, Chuck Todd, commented, “So you’re going to replace the FBI with a new FBI.”
Joan Meyer, a partner at the Thompson Hine law firm, told USA Today that the agency currently has over 37,000 employees with thousands of pending cases.
“They could set up FBI-2 but it would take years to re-staff and the cases would need immediate attention and qualified staff to handle. That would create quite a problem,” Meyer said.
Even the less extreme measure being considered by Republicans — defunding the agency to rein in its alleged abuses of power — would run into the FBI’s Democrat defenders, according to the Washington Examiner.
In May, a group of Democrats sent a letter to House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Kay Granger (R-TX) that strongly condemned calls to defund the FBI.
“We write to you today to reject dangerous cuts to critical public safety programs and propose alternative policies to ensure law enforcement personnel across the country have the tools they need to keep communities safe,” the lawmakers wrote. “The first duty of government is to protect the safety of its citizens. Therefore, Congress has a responsibility to sufficiently fund essential programs that empower law enforcement agencies to address the diverse set of criminal threats facing the communities we represent.”
