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federal bureau of investigation
House Judiciary, Oversight Dems Want Answers on Potential Misuse of FBI
The FBI helping to locate Democratic state legislators who fled Texas to block GOP gerrymandering "raises serious questions about potential overreach and misuse of federal power," said members of Congress.
Aug 08, 2025
Democrats on key panels in the U.S. House of Representatives wrote to top Trump administration officials on Friday to demand answers about the potential misuse of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Texas legislators' gerrymandering battle.
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said Thursday that FBI Director Kash Patel approved his request for the bureau to "assist" with locating Democratic Texas legislators who fled to Illinois, Massachusetts, and New York to block a rigged congressional map that Republicans are trying to pass during a special session to appease President Donald Trump and help the GOP keep control of Congress next year.
Cornyn told radio host Mark Davis that Patel assigned FBI agents from two Texas cities, Austin and San Antonio, to meet his request. The senator also suggested that the state Democrats may be breaking the law by accepting money for travel—which came from Beto O'Rourke's political action committee, Powered by People, and the George Soros-backed Texas Majority PAC, according to The Texas Tribune—but neither Cornyn nor the director has provided details about FBI involvement.
Four Democratic leaders in the U.S. House want those details. Two members from Texas—Reps. Greg Casar and Jasmine Crockett—joined Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin (Md.) and Oversight Committee Ranking Member Robert Garcia (Calif.) for a Friday letter to Patel and U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, as the FBI is part of the U.S. Department of Justice.
Trump is reportedly deploying the FBI to hunt down Texas Democrats that are blocking Republican attempts to rig future elections. It’s a gross abuse of power. Oversight Dems and @democrats-judiciary.house.gov, led by @repcasar.bsky.social, @crockett.house.gov, and Robert Garcia, are investigating.
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— Oversight Dems (@oversightdemocrats.house.gov) August 8, 2025 at 11:12 AM
The congressional Democrats expressed "great concern about the abuse of federal public safety resources for completely political purposes and without a law enforcement rationale," and demanded information about the FBI's "involvement in efforts to locate or apprehend" Texas lawmakers "who are not accused of any federal crime but have chosen to break quorum during the current legislative session."
"Breaking quorum has occurred periodically in the Texas political process for more than a century," they noted. In this case, over 50 Democrats "left the state to counter President Trump's aggressive moves to consolidate power by redrawing congressional district lines in Texas to prevent being investigated by a Democratic majority" in the U.S. House.
Reports from the past 24 hours "suggest that the FBI is diverting federal law enforcement away from fighting terrorism, drug trafficking, and other federal crimes to instead harass and target Texans' duly elected representatives, and thus raise urgent questions about the legal basis, scale, and appropriateness of federal law enforcement involvement in a state-level political matter," the letter continues, calling on the Trump officials to reply to a list of 10 questions by August 21.
"Given the FBI's crucial role as a federal law enforcement agency, it is essential that its actions be guided by clear legal authority, political neutrality, and an appropriate respect for the autonomy of state legislatures and their members," the letter stresses. "The involvement of federal agents in a state-level political dispute raises serious questions about potential overreach and misuse of federal power."
Trump's effort to redo Texas' congressional map—a model that the White House is trying to push in other GOP-controlled states—and related concerns about FBI involvement come amid broader fears about how the president and his allies are impacting the bureau.
Multiple media outlets reported Thursday that the administration is ousting at least three top officials—former acting Director Brian Driscoll, Walter Giardina, and Steven Jensen—as part of what critics called a "campaign to weaponize federal law enforcement and replace highly experienced public servants with political hacks eager to carry out Trump's retribution agenda."
Raskin said in a lengthy Friday statement that "Patel's unceremonious firing of Brian Driscoll reflects the accelerating purge at the FBI of anyone who refuses to pledge their blind and paramount loyalty to Donald Trump over the rule of law and the Constitution."
"Instead of investigating and stopping child predators, the FBI is now redacting their names from the Epstein files," Raskin said, referring to records from the federal case against deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who was a friend of Trump. "Instead of hunting down terrorists and criminals, the FBI is tracking down state legislators standing up for voting rights."
"Instead of rewarding agents who love this country and keep their oath to the Constitution, the FBI is sacking them and replacing them with hacks and fanatics," he continued. "The firing of Mr. Driscoll and other career agents is a shameful affront to the rule of law and typifies the Trump administration's campaign to replace nonpartisan career law enforcement professionals with political loyalists and incompetent sycophants."
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FBI Purge Includes Official Who Tried to Protect Jan. 6 Investigators
"These firings are part of a broader campaign to weaponize federal law enforcement and replace highly experienced public servants with political hacks eager to carry out Trump's retribution agenda," said one coalition.
Aug 07, 2025
This is a developing story… Please check back for possible updates...
Amid accusations that U.S. President Donald Trump is turning the Department of Justice into his "personal weapon," multiple media outlets reported Thursday that his administration is ousting at least three top officials at the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The FBI purge includes Brian Driscoll, who served as acting director earlier this year; Walter Giardina, a special agent involved in the investigation of Trump's ex-trade adviser, Peter Navarro; and Steven Jensen, acting director in charge of the Washington Field Office, unnamed sources told outlets including The Associated Press, The New York Times, and Fox News.
Jensen was involved in investigating the Trump supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, and Driscoll—as head of the FBI before Trump's appointee, Kash Patel, was confirmed—resisted the adminsitration's demand that he turn over a list of agents who worked on probes of the insurrectionists, who were promptly pardoned when Trump returned to power.
Highlighting that battle over the list of agents, the AP detailed:
Emil Bove, the then-senior Justice Department official who made the request and was last week confirmed for a seat on a federal appeals court, wrote a memo accusing the FBI's top leaders of "insubordination."
Responding to Bove's request, the FBI ultimately provided personnel details about several thousand employees, identifying them by unique employee numbers rather than by names.
The three men were reportedly told to leave the FBI by Friday. According to Fox, one source described the removals as "retribution," and multiple people told the outlet that "more ousters are expected at the bureau by the end of the week, though the exact number of personnel included, or their roles at the bureau, are unclear."
The Times noted that "the fresh ousters reflect, in part, a long-running effort by senior Trump administration officials to dismiss agents and prosecutors who worked on cases related to the president. Those have included the investigation into his 2016 campaign's ties to Russia during his first term, the investigation into his handling of classified documents after he left office, the investigation into his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, and the investigations of rioters at the Capitol."
The Not Above the Law coalition's co-chairs—Brett Edkins of Stand Up AmericaPraveen Fernandes of the Constitutional Accountability Center, Lisa Gilbert of Public Citizen, and Kelsey Herbert of MoveOn—issued a statement blasting Trump and Patel.
The reported ouster "shows just how far they are willing to go to punish anyone who they deem disloyal," the coalition leaders said. "The end result will be an FBI that puts settling political scores ahead of combating crime and protecting our rights."
"These firings are part of a broader campaign to weaponize federal law enforcement and replace highly experienced public servants with political hacks eager to carry out Trump's retribution agenda," they added. "The message to remaining FBI personnel is chilling: Bend the knee to Trump, or you're next."
The reporting came on the same day that U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) announced that Patel approved his "request for the FBI to assist state and local law enforcement in locating" Democratic state legislators who fled Texas to block the approval of a gerrymandered map for the 2026 cycle sought by Trump.
Earlier this week, The Guardian spoke with scholars and former prosecutors who sounded the alarm about the president and Attorney General Pam Bondi, whom legal experts have accused of "serious professional misconduct that threatens the rule of law and the administration of justice."
The Department of Justice, which includes the FBI, "is now being used as a personal weapon on behalf of Trump to a degree that is without precedent," said Peter Shane, who teaches constitutional law at New York University. "Trump has a team of sycophants and enablers at DOJ. They're not behaving the way office holders sworn to uphold the Constitution are expected to behave."
Randall Eliason, a former federal prosecutor now at George Washington University, similarly told the newspaper that "Trump is using the Justice Department to target his perceived enemies and pursue his political goals."
"The guiding principle for any DOJ prosecutor has always been loyalty to the Constitution and the rule of law," Eliason added. "Under this administration, it appears that the primary job requirement for any DOJ prosecutor, up to and including the attorney general, is loyalty to Donald Trump."
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FBI Helping GOP Track Down Texas Democrats Denounced as 'Threat to Our Democracy'
"They're grandstanding. There literally is no federal law applicable to this situation—none," said the governor of Illinois, which is hosting some of the lawmakers trying to prevent GOP gerrymandering.
Aug 07, 2025
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn announced Thursday that the Federal Bureau of Investigation has agreed to help track down Texas lawmakers who left the state in a bid to block a new congressional map rigged to favor Republicans, sparking fears of a potential standoff between various law enforcement agencies or even illegal arrests by the FBI.
Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and his allies in the state Legislature are trying to force through the map for 2026 during a special session to appease President Donald Trump. After over 50 elected Democrats fled to Illinois, Massachusetts, and New York on Sunday, their GOP colleagues issued civil arrest warrants, and Cornyn sent a letter requesting federal assistance.
"I am proud to announce that Director Kash Patel has approved my request for the FBI to assist state and local law enforcement in locating runaway Texas House Democrats," Cornyn (R-Texas) said in a Thursday statement. "I thank President Trump and Director Patel for supporting and swiftly acting on my call for the federal government to hold these supposed lawmakers accountable for fleeing Texas. We cannot allow these rogue legislators to avoid their constitutional responsibilities."
The Texas Tribune reported that "a spokesperson for Cornyn declined to provide additional information about the specifics of the FBI's involvement, and the bureau did not immediately respond to a request for comment."
Responding in a statement, Christina Harvey, executive director of the progressive advocacy group Stand Up America, said that "the idea that the FBI would be weaponized to hunt down democratically elected lawmakers because they are standing in the way of President Trump's partisan political agenda should alarm every American."
"It's taking a page out of the authoritarian playbook to intimidate political opponents and force a vote on rigged electoral maps that would help MAGA Republicans cling to power," she added. "We stand with the brave Democratic lawmakers who are putting everything on the line to resist this partisan power grab orchestrated by Trump and Gov. Abbott, and we urge them to keep up the fight."
Lisa Gilbert, co-president of the group Public Citizen, said that "when politicians deploy federal law enforcement against state elected officials simply for opposing their agenda, they attack our system and put our American freedoms at risk. We stand with the patriotic legislators who are resisting this authoritarian overreach. This moment represents a deep-seated threat to our democracy as we know it."
Experts and elected officials, including Democratic Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, have emphasized that the FBI does not have the authority to enforce the civil warrants, and the Texas Democrats don't face any criminal ones. On Wednesday, News Not Noise's Jessica Yellin asked Pritzker about Cornyn's request to the FBI and Trump's comment that the agency "may have to" get involved.
"Well, they're grandstanding," the Illinois governor said. "There literally is no federal law applicable to this situation—none. They can say that they're sending FBI. FBI agents might show up just to—I don't know—again, to put a show on."
"But the fact is that, you know, our local law enforcement protect everybody in Illinois," he continued. "Our state troopers protect everybody in Illinois and anybody who's here in Illinois. And so, whether it's federal agents coming to Illinois or state rangers from Texas, if you haven't broken federal law, you're basically unwelcome, and there's no way that our state legislators here—the Texas state legislators—can be arrested."
Pritzker also stressed that the entire series of events "is really all about politics," explaining that Abbott is an "avid follower" of Trump, and Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is challenging Cornyn for his Senate seat, "so they're fighting, bickering over who can be tougher on this topic."
The gerrymandering battle has also generated at least one major threat of violence. Early Wednesday, a hotel in the Chicago suburbs where some Texas Democrats are staying had to be evacuated due to a bomb threat. Local law enforcement searched the building before allowing guests to return.
"All members are safe; everything is fine, and we are charting the course forward," Kendall Scudder, chair of the Texas Democratic Party, said after the evacuation. "It's going to take more than a couple of threats to try to scare Texas Democrats off of this course. It is essential to us and what we believe as Democrats that people deserve representation in our government, and we are moving full steam ahead."
Reporting on Cornyn's Thursday statement about the FBI, The New York Times noted that "several Democrats said that as of Thursday morning no federal agents had been seen or reported at their hotel, in St. Charles, Illinois."
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