(NewsNation) — The FBI has come under increased scrutiny from lawmakers, mostly on the right side of the aisle, following its raid of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in August.

Some Republican lawmakers have called for the FBI to be defunded and others have called it “corrupt” and accused it of acting on behalf of President Joe Biden.

That rhetoric from Republicans has been blamed by some for the increase in threats against the FBI from members of the public.

Former FBI Deputy Director John Pistole said he has never seen criticism leveled at the FBI from politicians at this level.

“They’re basing their claims or allegations on what I would say is unfounded information that I, in my time, did not see at all,” Pistole said. “I’ve briefed a number of times at the White House, testified on the Hill, and I did not see that during my tenure.”

Pistole said the FBI’s current director Christopher Wray has done about as good of a job as he can to hold up the integrity of the FBI in lieu of all the accusations and criticisms leveled against it.

“One thing Director Wray focuses on is letting the actions of the FBI speak for themselves as opposed to trying cases, if you will, in the public realm, as opposed to putting out press statements and saying, ‘Here’s all the dirt we have on this person because in this search we found X,Y and Z.’ They obviously follow the rule of law and the judicial process for what the rule should be and that is to try a person in the court of law with a presumption of innocence,” Pistole said.