WASHINGTON (NEWSnet/AP) — When Speaker Kevin McCarthy suggested recently he might stop the FBI from relocating its downtown headquarters to a new facility planned for the Washington suburbs, it was more than idle thinking.

The nod from the Republican speaker is elevating a proposal to upend the FBI in the aftermath of the federal indictment of Donald Trump over classified documents and the Justice Department's prosecution of his allies, including some of those charged in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.

The emerging effort to overhaul the nation’s law enforcement agency is rooted in increasingly forceful conservative complaints about an overly biased FBI that they claim is being weaponized against them.

Conservatives criticize the federal law enforcement on multiple fronts; among them, its work with social media companies to flag potentially dangerous postings, and a COVID-era memo from Attorney General Merrick Garland directing resources to combat violence against school officials.

As far as the future goes: McCarthy said he envisions decentralizing the FBI by spreading operations into the states.

“This idea that we’re going to build a new, big Pentagon and put all the FBI mainly in one place, I don’t think it’s a good structure,” McCarthy said Friday, panning a conservative-led proposal to relocate the FBI to Alabama.

“I’d like to see the structure of a much smaller FBI administration building, and more FBI agents out across the country, helping to keep the country safe," he said. "To me that’s better.”

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