Merrick Garland tells GOP-led committee: Defunding FBI 'would be catastrophic'

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland warned a Republican-led committee on Wednesday that defunding the FBI would be "catastrophic" for the country.

During a House Judiciary Committee hearing, Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) asked Garland about the impacts of Republican threats to defund the law enforcement agency.

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"Defunding the FBI would leave the United States naked to the malign influence of the Chinese Communist Party, to the attacks by Iranians on American citizens and attempts to assassinate former officials, to the Russian aggression, to North Korean cyber attacks, to violent crime in the United States, which the FBI helps to fight against, to all kinds of espionage, to domestic violent extremists who have attacked our churches, our synagogues, our mosques, and who have killed individuals out of racial hatred," Garland cautioned. "I just cannot imagine the consequences of defunding the FBI, but they would be catastrophic."

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