The FBI’s deputy director lashed out Tuesday at Republican critics who said the bureau has become weaponized on behalf of President Biden and Democrats, insisting that the FBI is full of “the very best” people who try to apply the law equally.
Paul Abbate declined to explain the FBI’s decision-making behind first shielding a document alleging Mr. Biden accepted bribes while serving as vice president, then redacting damning details once the document was released to a select group of House lawmakers.
When Republicans questioned those decisions, he said they were made within the “parameters” of the FBI’s procedures and he bristled at the accusation that the bureau is being harder on former President Trump.
“There are not two standards of justice, there is only one,” he told the Senate Judiciary Committee.
He was appearing as part of a hearing in which senior intelligence community officials begged Congress to renew key spying powers under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Republicans said the FBI’s actions, including the decision to open the now-discredited investigation into Mr. Trump in 2016, have soured Americans on the bureau and could doom the chances to renew Section 702.
“When I go home to Texas, people ask me ‘Should we abolish the FBI,’” said Sen. Ted Cruz, Texas Republican.
He said the FBI is showing “an unlimited hubris” in the way it has handled the dual cases of Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump.
The former president’s Florida home was raided as FBI agents went looking for classified documents Mr. Trump took with him when he left office.
He now faces a federal indictment under the Espionage Act.
That follows a multi-year effort by the FBI to probe Mr. Trump on discredited accusations of conspiring with Russia to subvert the 2016 election. Multiple investigations have concluded the FBI never should have opened that probe.
Mr. Biden, meanwhile, has also been found to have kept classified documents from his time as vice president, but his offices didn’t face the same kind of raid and the fact of his document retention was kept secret until after last year’s midterm elections.
Now Mr. Biden faces questions raised by congressional Republicans over an FBI source who alleged the then-vice president took multi-million dollar bribes to intervene in Ukrainian affairs at a time when his son was on the board of a Ukrainian energy company.
The FBI belatedly acknowledged it had a document detailing the information from that source, but has refused to say what it did with the information. After nearly facing a contempt of Congress citation, the FBI agreed to show the document — which is not classified — to a select group of House lawmakers.
But the document had critical redactions. Among them, according to Sen. Charles E. Grassley, Iowa Republican, is the fact that the source claimed to have 17 audio recordings, including two directly with Mr. Biden.
Mr. Abbate told senators on Tuesday he didn’t know if there were, in fact, recordings, but defended the decision to limit what Congress saw.
“We often redact documents to protect sources and methods,” he said. “The document was redacted to protect the source, as everyone knows, this is a question of life or death, potentially.”
When Mr. Cruz demanded senators also be given access to the document, and to the recordings, Mr. Abbate would not commit. He said he would take the matter to his superiors.
Sen. Josh Hawley, Missouri Republican, said those sorts of answers further dent the FBI’s case for renewing the Section 702 snooping powers.
“Why would we reauthorize it, given your track record of abuse and illegal and improper surveillance and political targeting? Why would we do that?” he said.
Mr. Abbate acknowledged the abuses, said they were “unintentional” and promised fixes have been made.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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