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Gaetz: Attempt to Overthrow Trump is Biggest Political Scandal in US History

May 31, 2019

James Comey strayed from the FBI's mission, and turned the nation's primary criminal investigative into "a public relations organization," Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) said on the Todd Starnes Radio Show.

The Florida congressman said that Comey, during the twilight of his FBI directorship, had become more concerned with how the media would respond, than properly conducting an investigation.

"They're supposed to conduct investigations and make recommendations to prosecutors," Gaetz said. "They're not supposed to become political hacks and that's what you saw."

Gaetz said that Comey was "worried about leaking to the media how different reporters were going to write different stories that reflected on them" and that that wasn't how the FBI was supposed to work.

The congressman's comments came on the heels of President Trump's announcement last week that he had given Attorney General William Barr the authority to declassify any and all documents pertaining to the Russia investigation and the conduct by intelligence officials leading up to the 2016 election.

Gaetz praised the president's decision, and called it "the necessary precursor to make the rapid disclosure of information possible."

"We are now I think on the superhighway to getting the information out to the American people," he went on.

But Gaetz didn't just single out Comey's actions as a potential marker for an attempt to undercut the presidency of Donald Trump, he noted that Comey's work in the FBI could point to the Obama White House as ultimately responsible.

Fox Nation's Starnes also noted this, saying that there is "serious concern that the Obama administration was very active at at the highest levels in trying to thwart Donald Trump's presidency."

"When you hear the attorney general say that there were people that may have had their thumb on the scale, that's exactly what you're talking about," Gaetz replied "Remember these [FISA] courts that make decisions about who gets surveilled are in secret and there is no defense lawyer. It's just the government and the judge."

He said the attempt to overthrow the Trump administration is "the biggest political scandal I believe in American history."