In early 2018, members of the House Intelligence Committee investigating the FBI’s malfeasance in the Russia Collusion hoax met with then Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. Kash Patel, then serving as senior aide to that committee, attended the meeting on behalf of the committee’s chair at the time, California Republican Devin Nunes.

Rosenstein had good reason to be worried about that investigation. In early 2017, he signed one of the FISA warrant applications the Justice Department used to spy on Trump campaign figure Carter Page. That warrant gave the FBI access to a wide swath of electronic communication between Page and the rest of the Trump campaign. Unfortunately for Rosenstein, it was based on false information provided by a subcontractor for the Clinton campaign.

Worse still, the FBI lied to the FISA court to get the warrant. Specifically, it accused Page of acting as a Russian spy when, in fact, he was considered a trusted and reliable source by the CIA to whom he regularly provided briefings after his visits to Russia. Page went so far as to offer to sit with the FBI for an interview to answer any questions. He published the offer in The Washington Post. The government is not allowed to invade the private correspondence of an American if it can reasonably obtain that information without snooping. But it lied about that offer from Page and claimed it could only get answers by spying.

According to Patel, in his meeting with Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general threatened to investigate the personal lives of congressional staffers if they didn’t back off their investigation. We’ve now learned that Rosenstein made good on his threat. The FBI’s stated purpose was to hunt down the “leakers,” i.e. whistleblowers, who revealed the FBI’s bad behavior to Congress. Unstated, but just as important to Rosenstein, was the benefit of finding information that could be used to discredit or pressure congressional staff members. That’s why Rosenstein made the threat, which he wouldn’t have made if plugging the leak was his only purpose. Patel recorded his version of Rosenstein’s threats in emails later shared with FOX News:

The emails memorialized a January 2018 closed-door meeting involving senior FBI and Justice Department officials as well as members of the House Intelligence Committee. The account claimed Rosenstein threatened to turn the tables on the committee’s inquiries regarding the Russia probe.

“The DAG [Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein] criticized the Committee for sending our requests in writing and was further critical of the Committee’s request to have DOJ/FBI do the same when responding,” the committee’s then-senior counsel for counterterrorism Kash Patel wrote to the House Office of General Counsel. “Going so far as to say that if the Committee likes being litigators, then ‘we [DOJ] too [are] litigators, and we will subpoena your records and your emails,’ referring to HPSCI [House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence] and Congress overall.”

The committee’s work directly led to the revelation that Hillary Clinton commissioned the hoax through her law firm. They simply followed the money backwards from Christopher Steele to his paymaster Fusion GPS. From there, the committee tracked the money all the way back to the Clinton Campaign.

The FBI and the Justice Department have fought a ferocious campaign to cover up the greatest scandal in the history of both agencies. FBI Director Christopher Wray, like Rosenstein, dedicated himself to obstructing congressional oversight and thwarting any external pressure to punish the wrongdoers. With the exception of a laughably light criminal punishment of former FBI attorney Kevin Clinesmith—who physically doctored an email from the CIA to perpetuate the lie that Page was a Russian spy—and a few firings which have since been reversed (here and here) by the Biden administration, Wray’s obstruction largely succeeded.

In order to do its constitutional job of overseeing the executive branch, Congress must be allowed to conduct its own investigations, access whistleblowers, and operate without intimidation. Rosenstein’s unpunished actions did real and lasting damage to Congress’ power to oversee these powerful agencies.

The business of the FBI (and the Justice Department) is to protect and defend the Constitution. That means respecting the separation of powers and not abusing their powerful surveillance tools to spy on their constitutional masters. If protecting the Constitution is the business of the FBI, Wray has driven it to moral bankruptcy.

Patel has made a study of the bad actors who abused their power to thwart the results of the 2016 election. Although some are pleased to call it an enemies list, this is a ridiculous mischaracterization. The congressional committee for which Patel served may have stopped the Russia Collusion Hoax from prematurely ending Trump’s first term. So naturally, he’s familiar with many of the individuals involved in the conspiracy. While the statute of limitations has likely lapsed for most or possibly even all of these figures, it’s still a victory for truth if Patel can expose their dark deeds.

We cannot allow Wray to be replaced by another “highly qualified” company man who will continue business as usual. Replacing him with a more suitable successor will require disruption. But this kind of change is exactly what is necessary for our political health.