A highly influential Democratic law firm has allowed the FBI to operate a workstation at its Washington, D.C., office since the Obama administration.
The Washington Times reported on Friday that the FBI has maintained what’s known as a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility, or SCIF, at the firm, Perkins Coie, since 2012.
The site is “one of several secure sites the FBI has scattered throughout Washington at private law firms, cyber security businesses, and third-party vendors,” the Times noted. The stations “are designed for FBI officials and third parties to discuss and view sensitive materials without fear of spying or surveillance.”
The one at Perkins Coie is particularly noteworthy because it is the Democratic law firm that helped facilitate the phony and divisive Russia-collusion scandal that nearly toppled former President Donald Trump.
The firm worked for Hillary Clinton’s campaign in 2016. Using funds from the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee, the firm hired a private intelligence company that, in turn, hired Christopher Steele, a former British spy. Aided by Russian sources, Steele authored the infamous dossier that allegedly showed Trump being under the thumb of the Kremlin.
Although the Democrats and the liberal media seized on the dossier to portray Trump as a traitor, the dossier has since been thoroughly debunked and discredited.
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The Times reported, “The peculiar arrangement between the FBI and private businesses is shrouded in secrecy with both sides reluctant to talk. An FBI spokesperson declined to provide The Washington Times with a list of businesses that house SCIFs.”
A lawyer from another firm that represents Perkins Coie informed Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee about the FBI’s SCIF there last week. According to the Times, the FBI has had the workstation there since March 2012.
“The committee’s Republicans say it is a massive conflict of interest for the FBI to be entrenched inside a law firm that raked in more than $40 million in legal fees from Democratic candidates, political action committees, and other entities during the 2020 election,” the Times noted.
And one reason is its role in facilitating the Steele scandal.
U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican, sharply criticized the FBI’s cozy connection to the Democratic law firm.
“The fact that [FBI Director] Christopher Wray hasn’t shut down this workspace reinforces concerns that the FBI is in political cahoots with Democrats on an ongoing basis,” Gaetz, a Fort Walton Beach Republican and a member of the Judiciary Committee, told the Times.
“Perkins Coie is functionally the legal wing of the Democratic Party, having taken over $42 million from the DNC. I’ve spoken with former federal prosecutors on the Judiciary Committee and around the country. None have ever heard of such an arrangement.”
“Why does the FBI conduct business with the DNC’s law firm? What influence does this give the DNC over the FBI? We deserve answers, and we will get them,” Gaetz added.
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The Times reported that Perkins Coie is the lead legal representative for the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Leadership Council, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. The firm also represents “nearly every” Democratic member of Congress and served as chief legal counsel for the presidential campaigns of John Kerry, Barack Obama, and Clinton.
“Following the 2020 presidential election, Perkins Coie responded to scores of lawsuits filed by the Trump campaign seeking to overturn President Biden’s election win,” the Times pointed out.
Former FBI agents interviewed by the Times suggested that the FBI maintains the site because Perkins Coie is a top cybersecurity firm as well as a highly political one.
But, as the Times noted, “The former agents said they would be wary of placing a SCIF inside a law firm so stringently aligned with one political party.”
In an email to his constituents, Gaetz called attention to the Times’ article, saying, “I continue to leave no stone unturned in exposing the swamp’s efforts to protect the Clintons while spreading fake news about conservatives everywhere.”
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