FBI Director Christopher Wray, 56, faced the House Judiciary Committee, let by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), answering questions by Republican about bias against conservatives, especially 77-year-old former President Donald Trump. Jordan wanted to ask Wray about giving a pass to 80-year-old President Joe Biden’s 53-year-old son Hunter, whose illegal business dealings led to income tax evasion charges by the IRS. Wray’s opening statement was a generic defense of rank-and-file FBI agents doing yeoman duty to protect the American public from financial, drug and other white-collar crimes, all appropriate for federal law enforcement. Wray knows that Jordan’s complaints don’t involve rank-and-file FBI agents but the upper brass of the FBI that investigated Trump and his 2016 campaign without probable cause in 2016, a pure case of political prosecution during hotly contested election.
Wray knows all about complaints against his predecessor, 62-year-old former FBI Director James Comey, who launched a highly controversial counterintelligence investigation into Trump and his 2016 campaign. Comey received former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s opposition research AKA the Steele dossier from 67-year-old former CIA Director John Brennan. Brennan received the Steele dossier from the late Sen. John McCain (R-Az.), who worked feverishly before his Aug. 25, 2018 death to prevent Trump from entering the White House. Wray knew that Comey and his former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe worked 24/7 against the 2016 Trump campaign. McCabe handled the FBI’s Hillary email investigation, where some 33,000 emails disappeared off her private server. McCabe found nothing wrong with Hillary deliberately deleting 33,000 emails.
Whatever happened in the past, Wray wasn’t prepared to talk about FBI’s lingering bias against Trump. “The work the men and women of the FBI do to protect the American people goes way beyond the one or two investigations that seem to capture all the headlines,” Wray said, diverting attention away from Trump. Wray refers to investigation of Trump that used Hillary fabricated opposition research, claiming Trump colluded with the Kremlin to win the 2016 presidential election. Wray knew firsthand when Trump fired Comey May 8, 2017 that there was no substance to appointing Special Counsel Robert Mueller to spend another 22-mnthis, $40 million on investigating Trump’s alleged ties to the Kremlin. All that Wray considers rank-and-file FBI agents doing their jobs to protect U.S. national security. Whether charging criminals with drug smuggling, hate crimes or Wall Street crimes, the FBI does its job.
Democrats on the House Judicary Committee have no problems with the FBI for going after former President Donald Trump. Wray talked a bout an FBI sting in Marion, Ohio, Jordan’s home district, for fentanyl and other kinds of drug trafficking. Wray talked about the FBI investigating hate crimes that led to charges in the May 25, 2020 death of George Floyd. Jordan was not impressed with Wray’s defensive attitude, not owing up to FBI’s past mistakes involving Hillary or Trump. “The Committee and Select Subcommittee have received startling testimony about egregious abuse, misallocation of federal law enforcement resources, and misconduct with the leadership ranks of the FBI . . . “ Jordan said. Jordan wanted Wray to know he’s urging the Judiciary Committee to cut FBI funding that is not essential to the FBI’s federal law enforcement mission to prevent unwarranted investigations.
Wray can’t own past mistakes of Comey and others in running the FBI before he took over the department Aug. 2, 2018. Wray took over promising to clean up FBI management at a time of great suspicion. Jordan wants Wray to account for changes in protocol to prevent politics from wrecking the department. “We recommend that the appropriations bills eliminate any funding for the FBI that is no absolutely essential for the agency to execute its mission,” Jordan said. Jordan wants to know why whistleblower Gal Luft, who implicated Biden in bribery scandal, is now subject to an FBI investigation. Wray denied that any of his top brass are biased against Republicans. “Just taking our top eight leaders as an example, they all come up through the bureau as line Agents,” Wray told Jordan, denying any political bias. Wray had no answer for what Comey did in the past.
Whatever happens at the Department of Justice and FBI in Trump’s prosecution for Mar-a-Lago classified documents case, Wray insisted there was no political bias at the DOJ and FBI. Wray had no explanation for why the FBI raided Trump Mar-a-Lago estate Aug. 8, 2022, taking boxes of White House packed materials, largely containing old junk. Yet the FBI handed the boxes to Special Counsel Jack Smith who’s charged Trump with 37 felonies for mishandling classified documents. Smith accused Trump of endangering U.S. national security, despite the fact that Biden has pushed the world to the brink on WW III in Ukraine. Calling the old docs a danger to U.S. national security, Smith shows his extreme prejudice against Trump. Until Wray admits to wrongdoing at the Bureau, he can’t begin to clean house where his predecessor did everything possible to sabotage Trump 2016 campaign.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
