On Monday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis slammed federal law enforcement officials who were part of the FBI’s investigation into the Trump-Russia collusion hoax after, saying they manufactured a false conspiracy theory” to take down Trump.
DeSantis’ comments came in response to special counsel John Durham’s on the origins of the probe that found that the FBI had no evidence to support the investigation when it began 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
In 2018, then-Congressman DeSantis sent a letter to then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions and FBI Director Christopher Wray pushing for the criminal prosecution of many of those involved in the investigation, including 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.
According to Politico, the letter accused Comey of leaking classified information, Clinton of hiding campaign payments to the firm that produced the now-debunked Steele dossier, and Lynch of threatening someone who allegedly came forward with to dirt on Clinton. The report noted that DeSantis was one of “Trump’s closest allies in Congress.”
“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.”
