Presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has outlined his plan to shut down the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) if he is elected President of the United States. “56% of the bureau that are professional bureaucrats should be fired immediately,” he stressed, adding that 44% of FBI employees are special agents and intelligence analysts who “should be reassigned to serve under the narrow focus of other federal law enforcement agencies doing the same specialist work.”
’This Is Much More Practical Than It Sounds’
U.S. presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy outlined how he would shut down the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) if he is elected President of the United States in several posts on social media platform X.
“We need to cure the cancer that is the administrative-police state,” the presidential hopeful explained, adding that the FBI is among the “toxic” government agencies that he will shut down. Emphasizing that the bureau cannot be reformed, he wrote on X Saturday:
Shut down the FBI. And yes, this is much more practical than it sounds.
The FBI can’t be “reformed.”
The right answer is: Shut It Down.
Yes, the President can do it.
I will.
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) December 31, 2023
Noting that the FBI has about 35,842 employees, the presidential hopeful stated that “56% of the bureau that are professional bureaucrats should be fired immediately.” He added: “Just 44% of FBI employees are special agents and intelligence analysts — these 15,770 specialists should be reassigned to serve under the narrow focus of other federal law enforcement agencies doing the same specialist work.”
Ramaswamy then highlighted where some FBI specialists and analysts should be transferred to. Firstly, he said 821 should be reassigned to the U.S. Marshals Service to fight crimes against children, and 4,159 should be transferred to work at the Department of Defense’s Intelligence Agency.
Moreover, 4,663 should be transferred to the Department of Homeland Security to focus on national security and terrorism while 856 should be reassigned to the U.S. Secret Service to fight “political corruption,” the presidential candidate stated.
Furthermore, 2,555 FBI specialists and analysts should be transferred to the Department of Justice, “within a specialized sub-agency rather than a sprawling investigative bureaucracy,” the presidential candidate emphasized. They should be reassigned to focus on “civil rights, organized crime, violent crime, science and technology, including crime laboratory analysis across agencies,” Ramaswamy described. Lastly, 856 should join the Department of the Treasury and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) to fight “white collar crime,” he noted.
Ramaswamy recently unveiled his crypto policy. He has promised that if he is elected President of the U.S., he will ensure that innovative sectors, including crypto, are “liberated from the shackles of the unconstitutional shadow government.” He expects to rescind most, if not all, of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regulations that apply to cryptocurrencies.
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