Florida Governor Ron DeSantis slammed federal law enforcement officials on Monday who were involved in the FBI’s 2016 investigation into alleged Trump-Russia collusion, saying that “manufactured a false conspiracy theory” to take down Trump.
DeSantis’ remarks come in response to special counsel John Durham’s 306-page report on the origins of the probe that found that the FBI had no evidence to support launching the investigation and found “sobering” differences in how the FBI approached the Trump probe compared to other politically sensitive investigations.
“The Durham Report confirmed what we already knew: weaponized federal agencies manufactured a false conspiracy theory about Trump-Russia collusion,” DeSantis wrote on Twitter. “It reminds us of the need to clean house at these agencies, as they’ve never been held accountable for this egregious abuse of power.”
The Durham Report confirmed what we already knew: weaponized federal agencies manufactured a false conspiracy theory about Trump-Russia collusion. It reminds us of the need to clean house at these agencies, as they've never been held accountable for this egregious abuse of power.
— Ron DeSantis (@RonDeSantisFL) May 15, 2023
When he was in representing Florida’s 6th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, DeSantis sent a letter in 2018 to then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions and FBI Director Christopher Wray pushing them to criminally prosecute many of the players involved in the investigation.
DeSantis pushed for criminal investigations into former FBI Director James Comey, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former Attorney General Loretta Lynch, former Acting Director of the FBI Andrew McCabe, FBI Agent Peter Strzok, and FBI Counsel Lisa Page.
Politico reported that the letter accused Comey of leaking classified information, Clinton of hiding campaign payments to the firm that produced the now-discredited Steele dossier, and Lynch of threatening someone who allegedly came forward with dirt on Clinton. The report noted that DeSantis was one of “Trump’s closest allies in Congress.”
DeSantis’ letter, which was signed by 10 others members of Congress, also drew attention to the federal law enforcement’s activities regarding former Trump aide Carter Page.
“With regard to the Steele dossier, we raise concerns regarding the presentation of false and/or unverified information to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in connection with the former Trump aide Carter Page warrant application to conduct surveillance through the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA),” the letter said. “Accordingly, we refer to DOJ all DOJ and FBI personnel responsible for signing the Carter Page warrant application that contained unverified and/or false information for possible violation(s) of: 18 USC 242 and 18 USC 1505 and 1515b.”