This op-ed has been adapted from the opening monologue of The Dan Abrams Show on Sirius XM, which you can watch in two parts above and below.
President Donald Trump announced on Sunday night that he was appointing right-wing podcaster Dan Bongino as deputy director of the FBI. His prime qualification appears to be owning the libs — and ending what many conservatives claim is the weaponization of the FBI.
Late last week at CPAC, Attorney General Pam Bondi spoke about the weaponization of the DOJ more broadly — claiming that it was actually “worse” than she had previously thought.
“That department had completely lost its mission of fighting violent crime,” Bondi said. “Look what they did to President Trump. Look at the weaponization.”
“The deep state is very real,” she added.
Now, I supported Attorney General Bondi’s confirmation. I have known, and liked, and respected her for years. And while I have had concerns about some of the positions she took, particularly in trying to help President Trump’s legal effort to overturn the 2020 election, the president gets to pick his cabinet. And the standard should be high to deny confirmation.
But this notion that the Biden DOJ was weaponized or politicized has become orthodoxy amongst Republican political leaders and even some independents.
But what if it’s all BS? Provably false?
It seemingly served as the only real qualification for Kash Patel to lead the FBI — that he was going to end the weaponization.
“This may be one of the scenarios that most uniquely qualifies me to take command at the FBI,” Patel said during his confirmation hearing last month. “Having been the victim of government overreach and a weaponized system of justice and law enforcement, I know what it feels like to have the full weight of the United States government barreling down on you.”
To be clear, I did not support Patel’s confirmation. But what if basically none of the arguments they have made about weaponization of former President Joe Biden’s DOJ are true? It changes everything. Suddenly the Patel appointment makes no sense, and there is no excuse to clean house at the DOJ.
When I make the statement that the Biden DOJ was not weaponized, I can just see the steam coming out of the ears of many on the right. But then when I produce the receipts, it gets a lot harder to justify the fury. And that’s what I’m going to do here — go through all the arguments, and show you why they don’t hold up.
There is now a so-called “Weaponization Working Group” in Congress to investigate former special counsel Jack Smith, who brought the federal criminal cases against Trump over his role in January 6th, and another on Trump’s obstruction of justice in connection with the mishandling of classified documents. And AG Bondi directed the group to examine “federal cooperation with the weaponization” in connection with the criminal
I was very much opposed to the local criminal case brought by Bragg. But that doesn’t change the reality that the supposed DOJ weaponization just isn’t backed up by the facts.
Let’s start with the numbers. I’ve done a deep dive on this, and by my count, there were 11 major Republicans nationwide who were either publicly investigated or indicted by the Biden Department of Justice. And during that same span, there were 12 major Democrats across the country publicly investigated or indicted by the feds.
Now, that in and of itself doesn’t prove the point, of course. But the fact that those numbers are roughly even offers context to start the conversation.
And let’s be clear — many if not all of those 12 Democrats also cried about the supposed politicization of the DOJ, even when it didn’t make sense. Most recently, former Senator Bob Menendez — who was sentenced to 11 years after being convicted on 18 counts of corruption-related offenses — made the weaponization argument after his sentence was handed down.
“This whole process has been nothing but a political witch hunt by the Justice Department, NSD, and prosecutor,” Menendez said.
And he isn’t
“I have done things as a prosecutor that a lot of other prosecutors have not done in this country,” Mosby told Joy Reid in 2022. “Whether that is holding police accountable when a lot of other prosecutors in this country would not do so, whether that is ending the war on drugs between a war on Black people and the city of Baltimore.”
Right… It was all about the Biden DOJ’s racism.
These political leaders are always the victims. Of racism, or politics, or anything but the actual crime being investigated or charged.
TJ Cox, a former democratic congressman from California, was charged in 2022 on 28 counts relating to wire fraud and money laundering. And he too claimed he was the victim of a political prosecution. This month, he accepted a plea deal in which he pled guilty to 2 of those counts. He will be sentenced in June
And Cori Bush, a former Democratic congresswoman from Missouri, who was investigated for alleged misuse of campaign funds, claimed that the investigation against her by the Biden DOJ was being powered by mysterious right-wing forces.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams? Same song.
Hunter Biden&
And even President Biden himself, when pardoning Hunter, claimed his own DOJ was politicized singling out Hunter.
“Raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice,” Biden said in January.
One after the other, they blame the system and claim it’s politics, not evidence or actions.
Now, while the subjects of the investigations complain on both sides, the broader criticism and whining has mostly been coming from the right.
Former FBI Director Chris Wray – who, let’s remember, was appointed by President Trump — pointed out at a Senate hearing in 2023 that as a lifelong Republican, the idea that he was leading a politicized FBI made no sense. And in another hearing in 2022, he responded to one of the talking points that the FBI had been targeting pro-life protestors pointing out that more of their investigations were actually on the other side.
“We have quite a number of investigations — as we speak — into attacks or threats against pregnancy resource centers, faith-based organizations and other pro-life organizations,” Wray told a Senate committee. “And you might be interested to know that since the Dobbs act decision, probably in the neighborhood of 70% of our abortion-related violence cases or threats cases are cases of violence or threats against pro-life organizations.”
You also hear many on the Right bring up the
Except that there were tens of thousands of people protesting on January 6. And only 1,600 of them got criminally charged — only those who went inside the capitol building or attacked officers.
There were thousands more who went past the restricted perimeter on the Capitol grounds, when the fencing and barricades around it were breached.. And they were not prosecuted even though they technically violated the law.
As for the summer of 2020 rioters, it was Trump’s AG Bill Barr who led the federal prosecutions. Thousands were arrested, and yes, some had charges dropped based on lack of evidence. In certain cases, maybe they shouldn’t have dropped the charges.
But an Associated Press comparison of charges against January 6th protesters and BLM rioters published in June of 2021 found: “in more than 300 federal cases stemming from the protests sparked by George Floyd’s death.. Dozens of people charged have been convicted of serious crimes and sent to prison.”
And “more than 120 defendants across the united states have pleaded guilty or were convicted at trial of federal crimes including rioting, arson and conspiracy… more than 70 defendants … [got]an average of about two years and 3 months behind bars..10 received prison terms of five years or more.” At
And that says nothing about any state charges that were filed. So the argument that, on the whole, the January 6th criminals were targeted while the summer rioters were not doesn’t fly either.
What about the DOJ supposedly targeting parents protesting at school boards? That is a consistent argument from leaders on the Right.
“The Biden administration wanted to go after parents, they needed a pretext to do it,” Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) said during a 2023 House hearing. “And, oh shazam, here comes a letter from the school boards association, and 22 days later they’re sending out a an email to agents around the country saying treat parents as domestic terrorists. Use this threat tag. Put that label on moms and dads.”
The main talking point Jordan is referencing is a letter from the National School Boards Association, issued in 2021, warning of threats to school board members and describing it as akin to “domestic terrorism.”
The NSBA later apologized for the language, but here is the most important point: The Justice Department never used that language, or endorsed it. In fact, Attorney General Merrick Garland said he disagreed with it. And an investigation determined that there was no direct or indirect evidence suggesting the administration requested the letter or specified, edited, or reviewed the contents of the letter before the letter was sent, or otherwise specifically requested
One of the parents cited in a report by house republicans suggesting she was improperly investigated came from a November 2021 meeting of the Brighton, MI school board — where the mom said, “we’re coming for you. Take it as a threat. Call the FBI. I don’t care. You’re all either going to be recalled or you’re all — we’re all coming for you. That’s what’s happening.”
Seems fair to ask questions there… no?
But finally, the biggest gripe is the prosecution of Donald Trump. This, they say, shows how the DOJ went after their political opponent. Of course, this completely ignores the reality that AG Merrick Garland initially refused to prosecute Trump for January 6th. He clearly didn’t want to do it, despite lots of complaining from the Left. And if he had done it when they had wanted in 2021, those cases would have been resolved well before the election. So if the goal was election interference, they really screwed it up.
What ultimately forced Garland’s hand wasn’t the left, it was the Trump lies about the classified documents at his home. To be clear, Trump never would have been prosecuted if he and his team didn’t lie about the sensitive documents he had at Mar-a-Lago. Unlike Joe Biden and Mike Pence who gave full access to search and
It was only then that Garland appointed a special prosecutor to investigate — and by the way, also a Republican, to investigate Biden too. Special counsel Jack Smith made the decision to prosecute for January 6th, not Garland. And it’s not comparable to anything Biden or Pence did.
But regardless of the legalities, Trump did do something wrong in his efforts to overturn the election and in lying about the documents. You can argue about whether he should have been charged at all. In fact, I was supportive of Garland for not charging Trump initially and argued with many on the left about it. But Jack Smith would have had a strong legal case at least on some of the charges.
And here is a larger point that is too often ignored: Every single FBI director in American history has been a Republican. One, James Comey, became independent. But the bureau has not had one Democrat as its leader. Not one. Ever.
The argument that the Biden DOJ was weaponized just isn’t supported by the facts. It’s BS. It was BS when the Democrats who
So spare us the victimhood, and just please focus on the future. Focus on trying to keep us safe. Focus on prosecuting bad guys. Not creating bogeymen to try to justify the unjustifiable.