By Allan Lengel
In 2003, President George W. Bush nominated Christopher Wray, a registered Republican, to be assistant Attorney General in charge of the Justice Department’s criminal division. Then in 2017, after firing FBI Director James Comey, President Donald Trump turned to Wray to replace Comey.
So, Wray pushed back Wednesday when he appeared before the House Judiciary Committee and was accused by Republicans of being biased against conservatives.
“The idea that I’m biased against conservatives seems somewhat insane to me, given my own personal background,” Wray said.
Wray, 56, spent the day on Capitol Hill fielding friendly questions from Democrats and contentious ones from Republicans, including the GOP chairman, Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who referred to the bureau as “Orwellian.”
Republicans accused Wray of hiding information and dancing around their allegations that the FBI has repeatedly violated personal liberties. They also pushed him to share information on internal personnel investigations and broader probes including Hunter Biden. But Wray repeatedly said it would be inappropriate to share information considering they were ongoing investigations.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) accused Wray of being “blissfully ignorant” when it came to alleged abuses of surveillance.
Jordan hasn’t hid his contempt for the FBI, going so far the other day as to suggest the agency move its D.C. headquarters to Alabama. Currently, authorities are considering moving to Virginia or Maryland.
Some Republicans talked about severely curtailing the FBI’s powers and cutting its budget drastically, particularly when it comes to surveillance of people.
“It would hurt American people, neighborhoods and communities all across this country — the people we are protecting from cartels, violent criminals, gang members, predators, foreign and domestic terrorists, cyberattacks,” he said. “The people it would help would be those same violent gangs and cartels, foreign terrorists, Chinese spies, hackers and so forth.”
Interestingly, the majority of FBI agents, like many others in federal law enforcement, tend to lean more conservative than liberal.
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