FBI accused of being weaponized.

0:00 Speaker 1 With us today is Brian Fitzpatrick, an American politician, a attorney, and a former FBI agent. The only FBI agent to be a Congressman, and now he’s a member of the ways it means committee, one of the most important ones.

0:20 And he’s from the Pennsylvania’s first congressional district. Welcome Brian, Good morning John. How are you good? Now? You’re the only FBI agent in all of Congress. Tell us of all the things going on? Now? How long were you in the FBI?

0:37 Speaker 2 I was in for fourteen years. I started right here in New York City, made the best office in the bureau. We take a lot of pride in our the flagship office of the New York office here and served here for several years, and then worked down at headquarters, and then traveled and was also assigned to Los Angeles, but

0:55 traveled in the interim overseas to several overseas assignments, include in Kiev, Ukraine, which was my last international son.

1:03 Speaker 1 So you were in Kiev while you remember the FBI of fourteen years ago? Yes? Wow? What what do you think is going on there? I mean, do you trust I personally, don’t trust any news. I’m getting from anywhere, right, Uh, what’s your pulse of what’s going on in Kiev.

1:24 Speaker 2 Well, obviously, the Ukrainians have put up an incredible fight. I think there’s a grand opportunity for them now as they’re about to launch on their counter offensive at a time when there’s incredible discord and disarray inside Russia itself has been you know, unfolded recently with the internal conflict, and I think that’s a crack and a sign of

1:47 the vulnerabilities of Vladimir Putin and his grip of power. He was deemed to be untouchable. He ruled that country and has ruled it with an iron fist. But what we’ve seen recently is there’s a lot of infighting based on how they’re prosecuting this war in Ukraine, a lot of internal division, and I think that bodes well for

2:04 the Ukrainians in the West, and that’s why I think it’s incredibly important that we continue to support our Ukrainian analysis, particularly now as there embarking on this counter offensive, to get the job done, and I think they absolutely can get it done.

2:16 Speaker 1 Understood, Now, you’re from Pennsylvania. What’s going on in Pennsylvania?

2:23 Speaker 2 Lots going on in Pennsylvania. Obviously it’s a swing state, so a lot of eyes are always on our state, both in the midterms and the presidential election. We have essentially a split delegation in you know, roughly the same number of Democrats and Republicans. I believe it’s nine to eight right now Democrats are Republican. As far as the

2:45 breakdown of the delegation, we have a very interesting Senate race coming up this year. Looks like it’s going to be Dave McCormick as a Republican nominee against incumbent Senator Bob Casey. So it’s going to be an interesting cycle for sure, as every cycle is in Pennsylvania.

3:03 Speaker 1 Understood, what else would you like to talk about the Congressman.

3:10 Speaker 2 Well, you know, I’m on the in addition to being on the Ways he means Committee, I’m on the House Intelligence Committee, you know, and having been assigned in Ukraine, we’re keeping and having keeping a very very close watch on that situation. And again, uh, stay tuned for further cracks in the Putin regime that are going to become

3:30 much more parent and much more public in the weeks and months to come. We’re responsible for monitoring the Chinese influence from alid Chinese influence the CCP throughout the world, including the threat they posed to the United States and John As you have mentioned, I’m currently the only former FBI agent currently serving in Congress, and it’s it’s coming

3:52 to time when the FBI has been really under attack from a lot of different directions. And one of the roles that I played as a former agent and current member of Congress serving on the House Intelligence Committee is to be a bridge between disparate groups that are taking different perspectives on the Bureau. Certainly, the Bureau has had

4:13 several missteps. I think everyone needs to be honest and upfront and transparent about that and they need to take steps to fix that. And on the other side of the coin, they’ve been subject to many attacks that are flat out not true. What I’ve been able to do and share with my colleagues I tell them what criticisms

4:30 are legitimate, which ones are not, and how we can go about fixing it. Because the one thing that regardless of the position people are taking on the FBI, the one thing I think and I hope everyone agrees, is that our country needs a strong, healthy, FBI to be safe and secure. It’s the chief law enforcement organization in

4:46 our country. They touch on both the criminal and the national security roles. The only agency really to do that to the extent that they do. And if the FBI is not being respected and is being deemed intimate in any way, that hurts the safety of all of us.

5:03 Because FBI agents, much like law enforcement across the board, they rely on the cooperation of the public. And if the FBI is not getting that public cooperation because people don’t trust them, that makes all of us less safe.

5:15 So what I’m trying to do is build be that bridge in Congress between my former agency, the FBI, and my colleagues in Congress, to make sure that my colleagues are getting the information that they need to conduct oversight.

5:27 And at the same time, my colleagues know about the patterns and practices and sensitivities of FBI operations in terms of like keeping identities of sources confidential to protect their safety and their ongoing reporting and things like that.

5:42 Speaker 1 Well, what’s been going on in the media is that the FBI is taking extensive orders in Washington, especially from the Department of Justice, which may be a little bit on the political side, and that’s the big criticism that I think has been going on.

6:04 Speaker 2 Yeah, well, the FBI, I mean, even though they phoned the Department of Justice, they’ve always conducted themselves independent. Yes, they do, on the especially on the criminal side, rely on the EJ to prosecute their cases. FBI agents, our law enforcement officers are not prosecutors, so they need that cooperation to do that. But at the same time, you know,

6:23 and this was certainly the case when I was an agent. You know, we pushed back against DJ all the time. If we were being directed to do something that we thought was not consistent with the Constitution or not not consistent with the best interests of the investigation that we were working, we would push back. Sometimes, you know, we

6:41 would escalate it to the higher rankings or the higher levels of the Bureau. So the agents need to do that. They need to remember that they too took a constitutional oath, everyone from the street level agent all the way up to the director, and they need to make sure that they know that in the responsibility they have. That being said,

7:01 you know, it’s also important that Congress exercise or oversight role to make sure we’re calling in members of the Bureau, members of the Department of Justice. Hopefully they don’t need to be subpoenaed. Hopefully they’ll voluntarily come in on their own and they answer our questions, including the point you just raised.

7:17 Speaker 1 Understood now a couple of other items. Am radio. AM radio has gotten a lot of publicity lately, and some of the motor companies General Motors, Ford, Mercedes want to get rid of AM radios, and FEMA was up the wall about it because AM radio reaches ninety seven percent of the American people and seventy million people a week,

7:50 you know, and nobody knows why exactly they wanted to do it. Was one issue was that they want to be able to put it through the electronics system and h and charge nine dollars ninety nine dollars ninety cents a month. But AM radio, if there’s a national emergency, it could be a security problem.

8:16 Speaker 2 Sure can uh sure can? I started down home onded security amount intelligence now and the Intelligence Committee. Anybody who’s advocating for such a scheme needs to think long and hard about it. National security is obviously the biggest risk, but oftentimes we got to you know, peel the layers back on the onion and figure out what’s motivating people

8:35 behind doing that. AM radio has been a staple in American life for generations. It’s educated the public in ways that they otherwise would not get from other sources of information, and it needs to be protected. So we’re gonna we’re gonna do our job on the legislative front. As you know, John, there’s bipartisan legislation. I’m the the co chair of the

8:56 Problem Solver’s Caucus. We’re the only bipartisan group in Congress. It’s a one to one ratio. There are currently thirty two Democrats, thirty two Republicans. Myself and Josh Gottheimer from New Jersey or the co chairs of that group, and it’s the only bipartisan group, and we’ve weighed in on this issue. The caucus members are co sponsors of this bill,

9:17 myself included, and we’re going to make sure we protect the HIM radio.

9:22 Speaker 1 Brian Fitzpatrick, thank you so much for coming in today, and God bless you and you being a law enforcement person. I am glad you’re in Congress and keeping your eyes open and Pennsylvania, keep your eyes open, make sure everybody gets an honest camp. Thanks appreciate, Thank you. Brian Fitzpatrick, the first district of first congressional district in Pennsylvania, and

9:50 God bless them.

9:51 Speaker 2 Mark, thanks, thank you,