Former FBI agent Thomas J. Baker says the politicization of the FBI started when former director Robert Mueller remade it as a counterintelligence agency.
"The ethics of an intelligence agency is different from a law enforcement agency," he told The Washington Times. "In a traditional law enforcement agency, agents live every day for the time to come when they get on the witness stand and say nothing but the truth. But an intelligence agency deals with lies and disruption. It's a whole different mindset between the two."
The FBI on Monday raided former President Donald Trump's Florida home in connection with classified materials he allegedly took from his time as president, a move many Republicans asserted was politically motivated.
"Nothing like this has ever happened to a President of the United States before," Trump said in a statement. "After working and cooperating with the relevant Government agencies, this unannounced raid on my home was not necessary or appropriate."
The search, he added, was a "weaponization of the Justice System, and an attack by Radical Left Democrats who desperately don't want me to run for President in 2024."
Other Republicans echoed that message. GOP National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel denounced the search as "outrageous" and said it was a reason for voters to turn out in November.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican who is considered a potential 2024 presidential candidate, said in a statement on Twitter that it was "an escalation in the weaponization" of U.S. government agencies. Kevin McCarthy, the House Minority Leader, said in a tweet that the Justice Department "has reached an intolerable state of weaponized politicization" and said that if Republicans win control of the U.S. House, they will investigate the department.
Baker said Mueller's reorganization following the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks led to heavy-handed tactics in politically charged cases.
"It opened the door," he told the Times, for Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, and other FBI players who pursued the Trump-Russia collusion narrative.
"When stuff happens, [current FBI Director] Christopher Wray talks about how they got rid of the bad apples, but no one is stepping and talking about the FBI's culture," Baker said. "They changed the culture, and these things are happening. We need to reform and recalibrate the culture."
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.