So says The New York Times who reports info collected then sent to Right Leaning Trump people and Republican Lawmakers….
This after ‘house cleaning’ the bureau of those involved in investigating Trump….
The F.B.I. has had many missions in the more than half-century since its founding director, J. Edgar Hoover, died. It has chased spies, foiled terrorist attacks, ushered in a modern era of innovation and decreased crime rates.
But under its current chief, Kash Patel, the bureau has added payback to its portfolio. Agents now scour the F.B.I.’s vast holdings to root out negative information about those who once investigated President Trump, according to current and former officials, lawmakers and lawyers representing some of those targeted.
Administration officials say it is an essential task in ending what they denounce as the “weaponization” of law enforcement by Democrats. Critics say it is little more than using federal law enforcement to carry out a partisan opposition research operation.
Almost from the moment Mr. Patel took over the bureau in February, F.B.I. personnel have been poring over case files, internal Justice Department correspondence and other sensitive materials to find documents intended to expose and discredit federal law enforcement officials who investigated Mr. Trump and his allies.
The material appears to be coming from at least three streams. There is the bureau’s production of files in response to longstanding inquiries by Republicans on Capitol Hill; documents Mr. Patel’s team has found through self-generated searches; and self-described whistle-blowers, including at least one from the F.B.I., who have passed on sensitive documents from Trump investigations, including grand jury information that by law is supposed to remain confidential.
It is not clear how wide-ranging this effort is, or how closely Mr. Patel is coordinating with those outside the bureau. But one of those overseeing the searches was Mr. Patel’s former deputy, Dan Bongino, who worked with a handpicked group of agents and supervisors known internally as the directors’ advisory team, according to current and former officials.
Mr. Patel trumpeted his dismantling of the F.B.I. unit that worked with Mr. Smith — what he called “the corrupt CR-15 squad that had been caught blatantly weaponizing law enforcement and politically targeting individuals.” He provided no evidence that agents’ investigative work was motivated by political animus, and at least one high-profile member of that squad is contesting his dismissal.
The material, once gathered, has typically been distributed through various channels to Trump-allied media and to Republicans on Capitol Hill, including Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the Republican chairman of the Judiciary Committee.
Much of it has related to Arctic Frost, the investigation the F.B.I. led into efforts by Mr. Trump and others to overturn the 2020 presidential election. That inquiry ultimately formed the core of the election interference case brought in Washington by Jack Smith, the special counsel who twice indicted Mr. Trump and is a frequent target of the president’s calls for retribution….
…
Under President Joseph R. Biden Jr., Justice Department officials had an uneasy, at times fraught, relationship with congressional Democrats, with both sides refusing to turn over investigative materials related to their concurrent investigations into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
That has changed. In a Jan. 9 cover letter accompanying a fresh batch of documents related to Mr. Smith, Patrick Davis, a former Grassley aide who now runs the Justice Department’s legislative affairs office, said his goal was “to uncover the Biden administration’s weaponization of law enforcement against its political opponents.”
Bureau officials have described these disclosures as laudable and as long-delayed acts of transparency intended to reveal efforts by the Biden administration to turn the justice system against Mr. Trump and those around him.
Ben Williamson, an F.B.I. spokesman, said that any suggestion that the bureau’s disclosures were “manufactured, planted or cherry-picking” was false….
Note….
President Trump plainly has a sore spot of the ‘Bureau’ that has been on his case since he first became President….
Instead of walking away from the past investiagtions and charges?
He is eeking to ‘avenge’ and go after those who did their jobs until Alito and Co. gave Donald ‘some’ immunity for his sins….
Of course it is “ political.”
And to a large extent,blatantly so.
I mean Kash Patel?
If Trumps hatchet man Stephen Miller calls the FBI,what do you think he would say?
Uh try”yes sir!”
Agree on Patel whose qualifications was being a Trump supporting ‘Hater’