Ranking Member Raskin’s Statement on FBI Director Kash Patel’s Abuse of Decade-Old Investigative Files

Washington, D.C. (March 28, 2026)—Today, Rep. Jamie Raskin, Ranking Member of the House Committee on the Judiciary, issued the following statement after it was revealed that FBI Director Kash Patel plans on releasing a decade-old investigative file involving Rep. Eric Swalwell:

“The FBI is attempting to smear a sitting U.S. Congressman, candidate for governor, and vocal opponent of the president. What the hell does that have to do with law enforcement?  This is plain weaponization of the FBI for partisan political purposes.

“At the behest of the White House, Patel is wasting the resources of the FBI and perhaps violating the Hatch Act by ordering agents to spend hours preparing a political smear file for a personnel vendetta. Rank-and-file agents have objected to this gross abuse of the FBI.

“The abuse of government information is out of control. Trump has not only stolen top-secret government files, apparently for business purposes but used his office to harass and investigate his political targets. Whether it is manipulating a decade-old FBI file or years-old mortgage applications, Trump has shown he will abuse any government database he can get his hands on to fabricate charges against public servants or just smear his political foes in the media.

“These exploitations of public office and DOJ files to attack political opponents are in service of Donald Trump’s desperate effort to distract from the disastrous policy failures of this Administration, which is covering up for pedophiles, dragging the country and the world into a disastrous regional war in the Middle East, and inflicting skyrocketing gas and grocery prices on the American people.”

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