‘Perfectly Legitimate’: NBC Reporter Defends FBI ‘Spying,’ Calls Backlash ‘Right-Wing Propaganda’

On MSNBC’s Deadline: White House, host Nicolle Wallace once again referred to January 6 as an “insurrection,” repeating a label she’s used countless times to portray the day as an attack on democracy. During the segment, she accused Republican lawmakers and Trump allies of shielding their own while undermining law enforcement. Wallace and NBC News correspondent Ken Dilanian defended the FBI’s acquisition of congressional phone records — spinning the backlash as nothing more than right-wing propaganda. They cited a Fox News report about the bureau dismantling its “corruption squad” over records “swept up” in the January 6 probe.

Wallace said:

“Today, Fox News is reporting that the FBI fired and dismantled the entire corruption squad. Um, it was ostensibly, um, about phone records being swept up in the investigation of the insurrection on January 6th. But, um, they don’t just excuse their own. They destroy the law enforcement capability that might damage their own. What did they say about that, if anything?”

But the real insurrection wasn’t the actions of protesters at the Capitol. It was a calculated, multi-year campaign by Democratic leaders, former intelligence officials, and their allies in federal agencies and the media to undermine and overthrow the duly elected President, Donald J. Trump — a campaign that reached its peak during the events of January 6, when their narrative of “insurrection” became the final weapon to finish what years of investigations and smear operations had started.

Dilanian dismissed the phone records controversy as an “insidious triumph of right-wing propaganda”:

 "This was, Nicolle, an insidious triumph of right-wing propaganda because Chuck Grassley releases this redacted FBI document that shows that the FBI has, part of the Jack Smith investigation obtain the tolling records to and from records that are the property of the phone company and that are obtainable by a subpoena, not a not a warrant, not a court order, but a subpoena.

The FBI obtained those in the course of the investigating the insurrection. But Grassley puts that out. Right wing media explodes in rage and calls this spying on Republican senators. And by the time it gets to the hearing when sort of mainstream reporters like me are just trying to figure out what, what is this all about and what's the context here, uh, you have senators saying that they were wire tapped, which is just a fantasy. That’s not what happened.

What this was, was Jack Smith trying to figure out who Donald Trump was calling when he was trying to delay the certification, uh, this is according to my sources, uh, of the 2020 election. He was talking to members of Congress and it wasn’t just he has multiple cell phones, he goes through intermediaries. And there was a reference to this in the Smith report. He talks about, uh, Trump calling members of Congress and he also talks about consulting with public integrity about the proper way to investigate that and how to obtain documents.

So this is perfectly legitimate. These senators were not targeted, they were not under investigation. They were essentially witnesses in this investigation. But they’ve made it into this fake scandal. And now that it is having real world repercussions, because as you said, Kash Patel just announced not long ago that he’s firing FBI agents and disbanding a corruption squad. This is not the first corruption squad they disbanded, by the way. They had previously disbanded one in the Washington field office that, whose job was to investigate corruption in Congress, ironically enough. Uh, so, yeah, you’re absolutely right. This is these FBI agents are losing their jobs because they did what they were asked to do in a lawfully predicated investigation. And, another corruption squad, looking at public corruption, doesn’t exist. And a lot of people think that right now, no one in the FBI or the Justice Department is examining public corruption, unless it’s something that Donald Trump wants them to look at."

Wallace:

Right. And then even if it’s something that Donald Trump wants them to look at and they investigated and found nothing, a case is brought anyway seems to be what has been operationalized at the department.”

That exchange captured the mindset that defined Washington throughout Trump’s presidency. Democratic leaders and their allies went far beyond legitimate opposition. They orchestrated a relentless assault: FBI and DOJ officials spied on his 2016 campaign using flawed FISA warrants based on the Clinton-funded Steele dossier, riddled with unverified claims. They mishandled intelligence, leaked classified information to sympathetic media, and provided misleading testimony. The Democratic National Committee and senior operatives worked closely with sympathetic journalists to shape the narrative surrounding Russian interference — emphasizing unproven ties between Trump and Moscow while ignoring evidence that undercut their claims.

Before the 2020 election, this network — bolstered by Big Tech and elements of the intelligence community — systematically censored dissent, most notoriously the Hunter Biden laptop story. Fifty-one former intelligence officials publicly labeled it “Russian disinformation” just weeks before Election Day, giving platforms cover to throttle its spread and shield Joe Biden.

This cabal weaponized federal institutions against political rivals. The DOJ, FBI, and elements of the intelligence community launched meritless probes into Trump allies, conducted aggressive raids, and fed the press distortions. The Russia-collusion saga — debunked by the Mueller report, which found no conspiracy — set the template. The first impeachment over a routine Ukraine phone call, where no quid pro quo was proven, followed suit. The pattern was clear: a deliberate effort to delegitimize Trump, remove him from office, and block his return — all cloaked as protecting democracy.

Then, when those efforts failed, Democrats impeached Trump a second time — this time for “inciting an insurrection.” But that insurrection was against him. Wallace and Dilanian continue to defend the same narrative — that January 6 was an “insurrection” led by Trump, and that the FBI’s surveillance and subpoenas were perfectly justified in pursuing it. They claim anyone questioning them is spreading “right-wing propaganda.” But for millions of Americans, their defense doesn’t sound like truth-telling — it sounds like excuse-making for a system that spent years weaponizing law enforcement against Donald Trump and anyone who stood with him.

The only insurrection on January 6 was against the sitting president, Donald Trump. Democrats and their media allies called ousting him “saving democracy” — but their actions, culminating in Biden’s installation, marked the day democracy died, until voters reclaimed it in 2024.