Congressman Calls For ‘Purge’ Of DOJ And FBI Ranks From The ‘Deep State’

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Rep. Francis Rooney (R-FL) on Tuesday said the Department of Justice and FBI are “off the rails” and need to “purge” their ranks.

“I’m very concerned that the DOJ and the FBI, whether you want to call it deep state or what, are kind of off the rails,” Rooney said on MSNBC. “People need a good, clean government.”

“Do you think people don’t have a good clean government?” MSNBC’s Hallie Jackson pressed. “There are those that look at comments like the ones that you’re making and say Republicans are working to essentially try to discredit the Department of Justice and thus discredit the Russia investigations. Is that not what you’re doing?”

“No, I don’t want to discredit them. I just, I would like to see the directors of the agencies purge it and say, look, we’ve got a lot of great agents, a lot of great lawyers here,” Rooney said. “Those are the people I want the American people to see and know the good work’s being done, not these people who are kind of the deep state.”

“Language like that, congressman, purge?” Jackson asked. “Purge the Department of Justice?”

“Well, I think that Mr. Strzok could be purged, sure,” Rooney replied, referring to FBI agent Peter Strzok, who was removed from special counsel Robert Mueller’s team in August after an inspector general investigation revealed that he sent text messages critical of Trump during the 2016 election.

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