By Steve Neavling
FBI Director Christopher A. Wray fired back at critics in a new interview, saying those who accuse the bureau of bias are themselves the most political.
“I have found almost invariably, the people screaming the loudest about the politicization of the FBI are themselves the most political, and more often than not, making claims of politicization to advance their own views or goals, and they often don’t know the facts or are choosing to ignore them,” Wray said in a Wednesday episode of the podcast “FBI Retired Case File Review.”
Wray added that every Republican senator voted for him when President Trump nominated him in 2017 to be the FBI director.
“It’s utterly bewildering to me that I or the FBI would be accused of bias against conservatives or any political party,” he said.
Many Republican lawmakers, especially those loyal to Trump, have accused the FBI and Justice Department of targeting political opponents and taking it easy on President Biden’s son Hunter.
Trump himself has made the same claims for years, beginning when the FBI and DOJ began investigating his relationship with Russia. Since then, Trump has been indicted on numerous charges, ranging from his mishandling of classified documents to using campaign funds as hush money.
In response, some Republican lawmakers have threatened to defund the FBI.
“These calls for defunding or even dramatically limiting our funding would at best be shortsighted and reckless, and at worst be catastrophic,” Wray said. “Defunding, who does it help? … Violent gangs, child predators, Chinese spies and hackers.”
