The FBI was not trying to protect now-President Donald Trump or his 2016 campaign by assigning an informant to report back about Russian activities, Rep. Ron DeSantis said Thursday, taking issue with Rep. Trey Gowdy's assertions that the agency acted properly with its investigation.
"The way the FBI and potentially other agencies did that was not trying to protect then-candidate Donald Trump," the Florida Republican told Fox News' "Fox & Friends."
"If you had a problem with somebody on the periphery of the campaign, the obvious thing to do is to go brief the campaign and brief Donald Trump."
If the person was "some tangential figure," Trump would have then removed that person from the campaign, DeSantis said.
"Instead, they deployed this informant to spy on the campaign and he was trying to manufacture contact with [George] Papadopoulos, with Sam Clovis, you know, with these people. And he was doing it over and over again. He may not have been the only one."
When the government is "deploying surveillance powers, counterintelligence powers, against an opposition party's campaign, that is not normal," DeSantis added. "I think that is not what Americans want the FBI to be doing."
All the information has not been received to show that the informant, identified as Cambridge professor Stefan Halper, was the only informant that was assigned, said DeSantis, and in a recent briefing about the informant, "they did not provide the documents that [Rep.] Devin Nunes asked for."
"We need to know, what was the FBI doing?" said DeSantis. "Were they directing people like this professor and potentially other people? Why all this robust activity focusing on the campaign as a whole? They did not conduct themselves to only focus on one tangential figure."
Instead, the FBI "really looked at the campaign," he continued. "You have to also ask yourself, why for months and months have they stonewalled Congress about the answer? If in fact the FBI was doing what every American would want them to do, wouldn't they want to be glad to tell that story to Congress so the American people had all the facts?"
DeSantis said he also believes then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper has been "all over the map" on the issue, and that scrutiny needs placed on former CIA Director John Brennan to determine if he had a connection with the FBI's informant.
"These guys have not been straight shooters," said DeSantis. "I think one of the best things about the Trump administration is you have cleared out people like Brennan and Clapper and you have much more competent people in charge."