House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte said Saturday that he believes there’s a small group of politically biased federal law enforcement officials, rather than a vast “deep state” of longtime bureaucrats.
“This is about a small number of people, we don’t know exactly how many,” Goodlatte, a Virginia Republican, told Fox News when asked if there’s a “deep state” of biased officials.
“I am very concerned that there were a number of people in key positions at the FBI who were taking sides,” he said.
President Trump and his supporters have alleged there is a so-called “deep state” of politically motivated officials. In January, he tweeted that “Deep State Justice Dept” failed to prosecute “Crooked Hillary Clinton” and top aide Huma Abedin for mishandling classified information while using a private email server.
Trump critics say talk of a “deep state” is conspiratorial and that the claim smears all federal law enforcement employees.
Goodlatte praised rank-and-file agents and said congressional investigators have received documents from the executive branch that have certain officials’ names withheld.
“We keep getting material that is redacted, that has names in it that are blacked out,” Goodlatte said.
“We need that material unredacted so we can find out the extent of what was going on in 2016, when the FBI in an astonishing manner conducted one investigation with regard to one presidential candidate and bent over backwards not to prosecute her and then conducted another investigation where they definitely were leaning into it with insurance policies and secret plans,” he said.
