House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) is talking with other Republicans about writing a report next year alleging “corruption” at the FBI, according to The Washington Post.
Citing people familiar with the plan, the Post reports the Nunes project would focus on information about the conduct of FBI officials in the course of the investigation into Russia’s meddling in last year’s election.
President Trump and his allies in Congress have stepped up their attacks on the FBI as a former leader of the bureau, Robert Mueller, continues his special counsel investigation of last year’s presidential campaign.
{mosads}Mueller, in December, brought charges against Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who is now cooperating with investigators.
Trump’s latest attacks on the FBI came on the morning of Christmas Eve, when he ripped into Deputy Director Andrew McCabe over reports that he is to retire soon.
McCabe has been a top target of Trump’s because he worked under former FBI Director James Comey, whom Trump fired in May. Trump, along with Nunes and other Capitol Hill Republicans such as Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), suggest the FBI was not aggressive enough in its investigation of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server.
McCabe’s wife, a candidate for Virginia’s state Senate at the time, accepted campaign donations from a political action committee tied to Hillary and Bill Clinton. This has led some Republicans, led by Trump, to ask if he is biased.
Democrats have noted that Comey essentially reopened his investigation of Clinton a little more than a week before Election Day 2016, before closing it again days before the election. Clinton believes this effectively cost her the election.
Nunes has also come under fire for partisanship from Democrats.
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the ranking member on Intelligence, accused him of doing the bidding of the White House with his repeated criticism of the FBI.
“And here I think, again, we are seeing some on our committee, including the chair, doing the work of the White House, doing the work of Steve Bannon,” Schiff said in an interview on MSNBC on Thursday.
Bannon is Trump’s former chief strategist.