Claims by Texas Republicans that the FBI is getting concerned in efforts to trace down and probably detain Democratic state lawmakers who fled Texas to cease a partisan redistricting effort is getting robust pushback from Democrats in Congress.
Democratic lawmakers are investigating how concerned the FBI is within the Texas redistricting battle, however lawmakers who’ve weighed in on the matter say that FBI intervention could be an egregious politicization of the nation’s prime legislation enforcement company.
Claims that FBI Director Kash Patel helps to trace down state-level Texas Democrats come after Senate Democrats obtained data that the Justice Division ordered 1,000 FBI personnel to return by means of 100,000 Jeffrey Epstein-related paperwork in March to flag mentions of President Trump.
Democrats say that if Patel is taking sides within the Texas redistricting battle, it could be a misuse and politicization of the FBI — one thing they warned about throughout Patel’s Senate affirmation proceedings earlier this yr.
“Shouldn’t the FBI be tracking down terrorists, drug traffickers and child predators? The Trump administration continues to weaponize law enforcement to target political adversaries,” Home Democratic Chief Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) stated in an announcement on social media.
Responding to a declare by Texas Sen. John Cornyn (R) that the FB I’ll assist discover Texas Democratic lawmakers who fled the Lone Star State, Jeffries stated: “These extremists don’t give a damn about public safety.”
“We will not be intimidated,” he declared.
Jeffries stated in a Thursday interview with ABC Information Dwell that the FBI lacks the authorized authority to intervene in a state-level political dispute.
“There would be no authority for the FBI to target Democrats from the Texas legislature in connection with an act that Democrats have taken that is authorized by the Texas Constitution,” he stated.
He stated the redistricting effort in Texas is “a clear power grab because Donald Trump and House Republicans are desperate to try to hold on to their thin majority in the House of Representatives.”
The FBI declined to touch upon Republican claims that the company was aiding Texas legislation enforcement in monitoring down Democratic state lawmakers who’ve taken refuge in Illinois and different states.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), a senior Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, known as out the Trump administration for abusing its energy and misusing legislation enforcement personnel.
“This ridiculous misuse of federal law enforcement for political ends should be rejected by any fair-minded person,” Whitehouse stated.
Whitehouse, the rating member of the Judiciary panel’s Federal Courts Subcommittee, stated in December that there was “a lot of quiet concern about Kash Patel” and the way he would lead the FBI.
“You really don’t want an FBI director who wants to use that position to try to direct, intimidate and control the American media, and you really don’t want one who comes in with an enemies list of his own that he wants to pursue without justification,” Whitehouse instructed MSNBC in an interview on the time.
Democratic lawmakers warned the FBI to step again from the Texas redistricting battle after Cornyn, the senior Republican senator from Texas, who faces a tricky major battle towards Texas Lawyer Basic Ken Paxton subsequent yr, urged Patel to assist observe down Texas Democrats and examine them for the potential crimes.
“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 stated in an announcement Thursday morning.
“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,” Cornyn stated.
Democrats known as the event a probably “dangerous” politicization of the FBI.
“The FBI should be working to keep our communities safe, not getting involved in the political thuggery of Texas Republicans. What legal grounds they could possibly have to play a role in this escapes me – but if they were to get involved, it would certainly set a dangerous precedent for the politicization of the Bureau,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) instructed The Hill.
Van Hollen sponsored an modification to the Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriations invoice for fiscal yr 2026 that might have blocked the Trump administration from spending cash to relocate the FBI headquarters to anyplace aside from Greenbelt, Maryland, the positioning chosen by the Basic Providers Administration in 2023.
The modification was initially adopted to the spending invoice however then stripped on a party-line Republican vote.
Democratic sources say the rising politicization of the FBI will possible turn out to be a difficulty within the upcoming September authorities funding negotiations.
Senate Majority Chief John Thune (R-S.D.) saved the Commerce, Justice, Science spending invoice out of a three-bill appropriations package deal that handed the Senate on Friday after Democrats objected.
Thune was doing occasions in South Dakota on Thursday and didn’t touch upon the most recent partisan back-and-forth of the FBI’s involvement within the Texas redistricting battle.
Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.) workplace didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Cornyn, who faces a tricky battle with Paxton that may resolve the way forward for his lengthy Senate profession, has spearheaded the push to carry the FBI into the political meals battle over Texas redistricting.
Democrats suspect Cornyn is leaping into the fray to win factors with the Republican base forward of subsequent yr’s major at a time that some polls present him trailing Paxton.
Cornyn despatched a letter to Patel Tuesday to “encourage” the FBI to “take any appropriate steps to aid in Texas state law enforcement efforts to locate or arrest potential lawbreakers who have fled the state.”
He argued the departure of state lawmakers from Texas was designed to “avoid legislative responsibilities” and a “violation of their oath of office.”
Cornyn stated he’s particularly “concerned” that Democratic legislators “solicited or accepted funds to aid in their efforts to avoid their legislative duties” and “may be guilty of bribery or other public corruption offenses.”
Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott stated on Thursday that “Texas DPS and the FBI are tracking down derelict Democrats.”
“They will be taken directly to the Texas Capitol,” he wrote in a social media publish on X.
Not Above the Regulation, a coalition of left-of-center activist teams, stated that Cornyn’s efforts to push the FBI into the Texas political battle threatened political rights and freedoms “core to our democracy.
“Federal law enforcement must never be weaponized as a political tool of the president or manipulated by state-level politicians to serve partisan agendas. Using federal agents to encroach on state matters sets a dangerous precedent that threatens the rights and freedoms of every Americans,” the group stated in an announcement.
The signatories to the assertion embody Lisa Gilbert, co-president of Public Citizen, Praveen Fernandes, vice chairman of the Constitutional Accountability Middle, Kelsey Herbert, marketing campaign director at MoveOn, and Brett Edkins, managing director for coverage and political affairs at Stand Up America.
