BYRON YORK: Republicans and those ‘attacks’ on the FBI.

The news is filled with reports that Republicans in Washington are “attacking” the FBI over the Trump-Russia investigation.

The Washington Post recently compiled a collection of statements by GOP lawmakers under the heading, “Republicans launch attack after attack on the FBI.” The New York Times ran a news analysis headlined, “Trump’s Unparalleled War on a Pillar of Society: Law Enforcement.”

Those words have been echoed many, many times by various talking heads on television.

But have Republicans really been attacking the FBI? The bureau is a big organization — about 35,000 people. It does many different things. A more accurate way to describe what Republicans are doing is that they are condemning the FBI leadership’s handling of two of the most heavily politicized investigations in years — the Trump-Russia probe and the Hillary Clinton email investigation. All that proves is that when law enforcement wades into politics, it becomes the target of sometimes intense political criticism.

That is an entirely different thing from attacking the FBI as an institution or attacking the role it plays in government.

Well, I feel bad for the many honest agents that their leaders’ misbehavior reflects on the whole organization. But it does.