Georgia Republican moves forward with attempt to defund FBI, DOJ

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Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene announced Tuesday she wants to take away power from the Justice Department.

“I’m introducing legislation to take the power to fund all DOJ Special Counsels away from the DOJ and giving the power to fund Special Counsels back to Congress. This is how we use the power of the purse to reign in the politically weaponized government,” Greene tweeted Tuesday.

Her tweets have received criticism from her constituents as well from social media users from other countries.

“Seditious traitor Margie is working so hard to dismantle the DOJ and FBI before they get the chance to indict her. So bloody obvious,” a woman in Canada responded.

Another response said:

Greene has made no secret of her dislike of the federal government, going as far as to tweet “Defund the FBI,” back in August of 2022.

Greene has claimed that the Justice Department has been politically weaponized, which was fodder for discussion at the Republican Primary Debate in Milwaukee.

During the Republican Presidential Debate in Milwaukee, Republican Presidential Candidate Vivek Ramaswamy echoed similar sentiments taking aim the federal law enforcement claiming the attack on former President Trump was “weaponized.”

“We’re skating on thin ice and we cannot set a precedent where the party in power uses police force to indict its political opponents. It is wrong. We have to end the weaponization of justice in this country,” said Vivek Ramaswamy.

Ramaswamy recently made headlines of his own for comments he made saying climate change and white supremacy are not issues in the United States, despite statistics that show otherwise.

The mission of the Department of Justice is to uphold the rule of law, to keep our country safe, and to protect civil rights. The Justice Department is composed of more than 40 separate nonpartisan component organizations consisting of more than 115,000 employees.

Critics of Greenehave said defunding federal agencies such as DOJ and FBI who protect our national security would put our nation at risk and that her comments are hypocritical as she recently introduced articles of impeachment against President Biden. She had also introduced legislation to defund special prosecutor Jack Smith’s federal investigation of Trump. Greene also tweeted Wednesday calling for impeachment of FBI director Chrisotpher Wray.

In the five years post September 11, 2001, the FBI has disrupted terrorist financing mechanisms while serving as the lead agency for preventing and investigating domestic terrorism, such as animal rights extremism, environmental extremism, and right‑wing and left-wing extremism.

As previously reported by the Wisconsin Law Journal, in the early 1940s, the FBI Milwaukee division investigated activities by Nazi agents and other wartime enemies in its territory. In September 1942, an investigation by Milwaukee FBI agents resulted in the denaturalization proceedings against Hans Behnke, Midwest secretary of a pro-Nazi group the Milwaukee Volksbund, and a member of the “Friends of the New Germany.”

By December 1942, the FBI Milwaukee Division arrested more than 100 “enemy aliens” in Wisconsin who posed a threat to national security; many were members of the Volksbund at Camp Hindenburg, Wisconsin.

During the 1960s and 1970s, the FBI Milwaukee Division was busy investigating anti-war activities, including the July 26, 1970, bombing at Camp McCoy and less than one month later, on August 24, 1970, a massive explosion rocked Sterling Hall on the campus of the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

In the 1980s, the FBI Milwaukee Division was primarily focused on combating organized crime — investigating the Milwaukee Mafia, including Frank Balistrieri, the leader of the La Cosa Nostra operations in Milwaukee, who was later convicted of skimming over two million dollars from Las Vegas casinos that were secretly owned by the Mafia.  More than 19 mob leaders were convicted in the course of these investigations, virtually eliminating the hierarchy of organized crime in Kansas City, Milwaukee, and Chicago. Balistrieri was the MOB boss of Milwaukee from 1961-1993. Balistrieri married Antonina Alioto, daughter of Milwaukee crime family boss John Alioto. One FBI investigation had included wiretapping of the Shorecrest Hotel, owned by Balistrieri’s son, Joseph.

During the 1990s, The FBI Milwaukee Division made international news for a case involving serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, arrested only after one of his victims escaped. Dahmer subsequently confessed to killing and dismembering 17 men and boys.