The Obama administration “weaponized” the federal government — including its surveillance apparatus — into a “criminal enterprise,” assessed Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) in a Wednesday interview on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Tonight with hosts Rebecca Mansour and Joel Pollak.

Gosar reflected on the findings of Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s report published on Monday. It details 17 instances of misconduct in the FBI’s application for surveillance warrants via the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) against associates of President Donald Trump’s first presidential campaign.

“When [John Durham] talked about the 17 irregularities … [he said] they are not adequately, at all, explained,” said Gosar, recalling U.S. attorney John Durham’s public disagreement with some of Horowitz’s conclusions. “So I wonder why he said it that way — because I bet you that’s exactly what turned this into a criminal enterprise. People like Clapper and Brennan, you know, this went all the way up to the White House. Remember Susan Rice making the comment. Well, this goes to the top. They want it done ‘by the book,’ trying to cover her tail.”

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Gosar continued, “This is a big deal. This is a really big deal, and especially with Durham. Durham would not have said that — he would not have said what he said — if he didn’t have the goods on somebody.”

Gosar remarked, “This was premeditated. This was conceived. This was done intentionally. That is a whole different football game because now, you have intent to this. This makes it extremely criminal because if what we ask with the FISA is to give up a little bit of our freedoms for some security, we got exactly what we deserved. We gave up freedom, and we got more of the same aspects, more intrusions on our liberties and freedoms by a government that was weaponized.”

“[Government] was weaponized under the Obama administration,” determined Gosar.

Democrats are “afraid” that Durham’s criminal investigation into the origins of the Obama administration’s ostensible investigation of Russian political interference will uncover criminal conspiracy, added Gosar. “That’s what they’re afraid of. That’s why I kept saying, over and over again, they’re doing this thing called impeachment and trying to catch this president every which way because they’re afraid of this report.”

Gosar concluded, “Durham and the attorney general can [convene grand juries and indict persons], and they will. That’s what’s going to be gripping the Democrats and this infrastructure that was placed in these areas in intelligence, in foreign affairs, in our justice system, like the FBI under the Obama administration. This always went to the top. I remind everybody [that] everything in America under the Obama administration was micromanaged to the White House. They knew.”

Breitbart News Tonight broadcasts live on SiriusXM Patriot channel 125 weeknights from 9:00 p.m. to midnight Eastern or 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Pacific.

Follow Robert Kraychik on Twitter @rkraychik.