First-term Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz slammed House Speaker Paul Ryan for being a "defender of the deep state" FBI and Justice Department instead of siding with his own caucus.
Gaetz, R-Fla., made the comments Wednesday hours after Ryan agreed with the assessment that the FBI did not plant a spy in the 2016 campaign of President Donald Trump.
"There is no defense today for Paul Ryan, siding with the FBI and Department of Justice against those of us in the Congress who are working for transparency and accountability," Gaetz said on Fox Business' "Lou Dobbs Tonight."
Ryan on Wednesday said he agreed with the assessment of Rep. Trey Gowdy, a career prosecutor, that the FBI acted appropriately in using an informant to check out allegations of Russian interference in the Trump campaign.
"Instead of our Speaker standing with us and putting the focus on the FBI's refusal to turn over documents so that we could perform our oversight duties, instead he was defending the FBI, and that's deeply frustrating to me and we need the Speaker to be an institutionalist for the Congress, not to be a defender of the deep state," Gaetz told Dobbs.
Both Ryan and Gowdy were briefed by the Justice Department and are getting crucified by their own party for choosing evidence over partisan gnashing of teeth.
"Speaker Ryan needs to step up, he needs to call for a second special counsel, and for goodness sakes, stop defending the FBI's collection of intelligence on the Trump campaign, when they refuse to give us the documents that show whether they broke the law," Gaetz said.
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