Nicolle Wallace: Today the FBI Is in the Hands of People Who Are ‘Laser-Focused on Retribution on Behalf of Donald Trump’

Wallace: “A study in contrast today for the men leaving and going into the country’s top law enforcement agency. On the one hand, a send-off for a top FBI agent who tangled with the Trump Administration as Trump allies now take the helm, led by people who talk a whole lot more about retribution than the kinds of things that the FBI is known for, things like preventing terror attacks, cyber security, gang violence. The head of the New York field office, James Dennehy, left his office for the last time on Thursday. We showed you some of this late yesterday, to the sound of bagpipes and cheers. He says he was forced to retire after he pushed back against the Trump Administration’s demand that the FBI hand over the names of agents who worked on January 6th cases. Here’s what he had to say to his former colleagues.”

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DENNEHY: “There’s a motto in the Marine Corps called Semper Fidelis. Semper Fidelis means ‘always faithful.’ I’ll always be faithful to this country, to this organization, and most of all, I will always be faithful to you. And I appreciate you being faithful to me, to this office, and more importantly, our mission. So thank you, and I will be your best cheerleader on the outside. I appreciate it.”

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Wallace: “So, that man, loyal to the country and the Bureau, had to leave abruptly. And that abrupt departure moves the Trump DoJ closer to what they talk about doing, closer to what the far right and Trump’s allies have promised to do, a commitment said out loud to make dramatic revolutionary changes there, and to do what everyone who fears about the future of the rule of law in our country sees as a threat to the institution that serves essential functions to protect our national security and our justice system. There’s brand new reporting in The New York Times today about one of the men now in charge, the incoming deputy director of the FBI. He’s a former Secret Service agent, a podcaster and a right-wing media personality named Dan Bongino. That reporting reveals his intense interest with conspiracy theories about the FBI, however baseless, as long as they serve the narratives pushed by Donald Trump about a justice system seemingly weaponized against him. New York Times reports this: ‘Bongino’s precise plans for the agency remain opaque, but on recent podcasts he has said he would rid the agency of politicization and focus on crimes like drug dealing, despite the Bureau’s broad mandate to protect national security, investigate crimes and root out corruption by public officials at all levels. Bongino has frequently focused on FBI officials who, in his mind, showed disloyalty to Trump by pursuing investigations against him or his supporters.’ Here’s what he said after Trump was indicted in the classified documents case.”

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BONGINO: “We fire everyone who stood by. We don’t just fire the people who did this, everyone who stood by and did nothing while the Department of Justice and the FBI have been ravaged, ravaged by corruptocrats, everyone gets fired. Everyone. If you stood by and did nothing, that’s how.”

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Wallace: “Fire everyone. Never mind that the agents, all of the agents involved were simply doing their jobs, as their jobs were defined by their leaders. No wrongdoing has ever been found in that investigation, and the charges were only dismissed because Donald Trump won the November election. Not to mention that mass firings would hamper the critical functions of the FBI, the things it does every day. If anything, Bongino’s comments about the agency he is now in charge of, he now leads, reveals a contempt for the country’s top law enforcement agency.”

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BONGINO: “Ladies and gentlemen, the FBI is an absolute disaster. It is an abomination to the country. The corruption needs to be immediately defunded. The FBI should not — no longer exist as it’s constituted now. The mission should be divvied up. The money should be divvied up amongst other agencies that take their oath to the country seriously.”

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Wallace: “He said those things again about an FBI being led at the time by a hand-picked, a person handpicked by Donald Trump, Christopher Wray. But today, the FBI is in the hands of Mr. Bongino and other Trump allies who are laser-focused on retribution on behalf of Donald Trump.”