Bernie Kerik: ‘Not a Bad Idea’ to Scrap the FBI

Former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik told Breitbart News that dismantling the FBI is “not a bad idea” during a Wednesday interview on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Tonight with hosts Rebecca Mansour and Joel Pollak.

Pollak asked if the FBI is salvageable given political and partisan corruption at the bureau and broader Justice Department.

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“Do you think this is a redeemable situation, or do you really have to start over with the FBI?” asked Pollak. “I’ve written an article suggesting that the rot is so bad at the FBI that it’s almost impossible to believe they can get rid of it entirely.”

Kerik replied:

That’s a really good question. I’ve talked to some friends in the legal community, because it would be enormously hard to do, but I’m going to tell you something, it’s not a bad idea. It’s not a bad idea from this perspective. The agents themselves, the lower level level agents at the Department of Justice, there has to be a sort of retraining. You can’t suborn perjury. You can’t suppress evidence. You can’t extort false testimony from witnesses through intimidation and threats. This is stuff that we’re seeing now constantly all the time.

If a cop [or] civilian gets on the stand and lies under oath or a cop suppresses evidence, he’s going to prison. Prosecutors can do it, and they get away with it. That’s at the lower level. Now, we see at the highest levels, the same kind of conduct and worse. That’s bad. So somebody’s got to reevaluate the goals and objective of the Justice Department and the FBI, and they may have to create performance measures and create an accountability system to ensure that people are being held accountable for violations of their own policies, their own ethical rules, or for criminal conduct.

“We have a political system that has weaponized our criminal justice system for selective and political prosecutions,” assessed Kerik. “Members of Congress are basically using our criminal justice system to target their critics [and] target their opposition.”

“There is no greater threat to our government than a country that uses its criminal justice system to selectively and politically prosecute people,” said Kerik. “This isn’t Russia or China or Iran. That’s exactly what happens over there. It’s not supposed to happen here.”

Breitbart News Tonight broadcasts live on SiriusXM Patriot channel 125 weeknights from 9:00 p.m. to midnight Eastern or 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Pacific.

Follow Robert Kraychik on Twitter @rkraychik.