Rep. Lance Gooden says after Durham, whistleblowers testimony, GOP set to spar with FBI over FISA reauthorization

House Judiciary Committee member Lance Gooden gives his takeaways from Special Counsel John Durham’s testimony before the committee earlier this week. The Texas Congressman says that Durham’s testimony left him with the impression that the “the FBI is really in a sad state. There is in fact, a two tiered justice system. And the FBI has a lot of rot that has not been fully taken out, and [Congress has] got a lot of work to do.” Gooden says, the FBI has repeatedly said that they have implemented reforms, commenting that he doesn’t believe that, and “the American people don't believe that.” Saying, “and what a sad statement on a once respected institution, that being the FBI. The American people have lost faith. There was in fact, no collusion, no coordination, no Russian involvement with the Trump campaign. And the the, the just constant lies that we've seen from the other side, in the effort to take down President Trump before he even took office. For it to finally come out many years later, is I think redeeming but also very sad. I am just so disappointed. And in what I saw this week, and what Mr. Durham has been working on, I'm actually also very frustrated that it took this long to come out. But nonetheless, it did. And here we are in 2023, talking about something that happened back in 2016 but it's where we are.” Gooden says, Congress will use its power of the purse, to impose change on a seemingly unwilling FBI, since the appropriations process is “number one tool at” their disposal. Gooden says, this was shown “in the debt limit fight a few weeks ago, we got some concessions from Joe Biden, through that process, and the appropriations is really the only tool that the the party has when they only control one level of government.” Saying the GOP will also look to “the FISA court device authorization is also set to expire this year. So that's going to come up and there'll be a fight in the House over that as well, I don't think you'll see a clean reauthorization that we've seen in years past, there's going to need to be some serious reforms put into place before before that happens.”

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