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Washington: FBI Director Chris Wray He defended the “real FBI” during a contentious congressional hearing on Wednesday, dismissing a series of grievances from angry Republicans who are highly critical of the bureau, threatening to defund some operations and demanding Department of Justice Unfair to political conservatives, including Donald Trump.
Ray declined to engage with specific questions about ongoing federal investigations, including those relating to former President Trump and Hunter Biden. President Joe Biden’s son recently reached an agreement to plead guilty to misdemeanor federal tax charges; Republicans derided it as a good deal.
In rants with Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee, Wray rejected the GOP’s assertion that the office favored the Bidens and said the idea that the office was involved in the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol was “absurd.” Referring to his own background, he has said that the idea that he harbors an anti-conservative bias is “insane”.
“The work that the men and women of the FBI do to protect the American people goes beyond one or two investigations that seem to grab all the headlines,” said Wray, who was nominated by Trump to lead the FBI after James Comey was fired in 2017.
The director explained the bureau’s crime-fighting work to dismantle drug cartels, get about 60 suspected criminals off the streets each day and protect Americans from an “amazing array of threats.”
He said, “This is it The real FBI. “
It’s the latest display of the new normal on Capitol Hill, where Republicans who have long described themselves as champions of police and “law and order” are vehemently at odds with federal law enforcement and the FBI, accusing the bureau of bias dating back to investigations of Trump when he was president.
This new dynamic has forced Democrats to take a stand in defense of the law enforcement agencies they have long criticized.
The committee’s chairman, Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, said he’s trying to stop what Republicans call the “weaponization” of the federal justice system, which they say is tilted against conservatives, including Trump and his allies.
Jordan opened the hearing by reciting a federal judge’s recent ruling against the government’s efforts to stop misinformation on social media and listing other complaints against the FBI over its treatment of conservatives.
But the committee’s top Democrat, Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York, said the hearing was “little more than performance art” by Republicans running what he called baseless investigations too wild to be true.
Ray has generally shied away from answering questions about the DOJ’s prosecution of Trump. The former president pleaded not guilty to 37 felony counts of mishandling classified information at his club and residence in Mar-a-Lago.
Wray said classified documents are required to be stored in what is known as a “segmented sensitive information facility,” or SCIF.
“In my experience, ballrooms, bathrooms, and bedrooms are not SCIF,” he said.
A separate Justice Department investigation is investigating efforts by Trump and his allies to reverse Biden’s election in the lead-up to January 6, 2021.
During a tense exchange with Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., Wray noted that the number of FBI applicants in Florida had increased by more than 100%.
“We are terribly proud of them, and they deserve better than you,” Gates said.
Typically measured, Wray became animated by a suggestion from Rep. Mike Johnson, R-LA, that the FBI would engage in suppressing a theory that the coronavirus pandemic originated via a leak from a laboratory in China rather than transmission from animals to humans.
“The idea that the FBI would somehow be involved in suppressing references to the lab leak theory is rather absurd when you consider the fact that the FBI was the one — the only — agency in the entire intelligence community that came up with the assessment that was more , pointing his index finger for confirmation.He later noted that the intelligence arm of the Department of Energy had come to a similar conclusion.
Representative Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., said she thought it was “sad, actually, that the majority are engaging in conspiracy theories in an attempt to discredit one of the major law enforcement agencies in the United States.”
Jordan is laying the groundwork for Warri’s emergence since House Republicans gained a majority in January.
Republicans have held hearings with former FBI agents, Twitter executives and federal officials to prove that the FBI is corruptly using its powers against Trump and the right. The Republican Party set up a special committee on “arming” the government, also led by Jordan, to investigate the abuses. Three commissions have opened a joint investigation into Hunter Biden.
Commenting on the proceedings were GOP threats to fire Attorney General Merrick Garland and withhold funds to enforce federal law as Congress is in the midst of preparing annual spending bills.
At one point, Rep. Thomas Massey showed a short surveillance video momentarily before officials found a pipe bomb outside the Democratic National Committee headquarters on Capitol Hill on the day of the Jan. 6, 2021 attack. Massey, R-K, demanded answers about the ongoing investigation.
“We fund your department, so you have to provide for that,” Massey said.
Republican criticism of the FBI stretches back years, but became more prominent during the Trump-Russia investigation, when the Justice Department investigated interference in the 2016 election.
Wednesday’s hearing focused on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, which gives the FBI and other agencies sweeping powers to monitor the communications of foreigners outside the United States. A provision known as Section 702 is set to expire unless Congress approves its renewal. Members of both parties are frustrated with the programme.
In underscoring the extent to which surveillance errors during the Trump-Russia investigation continue to obscure the FBI, Rep. Tom TiffanyR-Wisconsin, said he would allow the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to “sink” if there were no reforms.
Meanwhile, Wray acknowledged a difference of opinion over Garland’s 2021 memo that asked the FBI to coordinate with local law enforcement on threats against school boards. Republicans complained that this went too far in trying to control parents.
“I will tell you the same thing that I said to all 56 of our field offices once I read the memo, which is that the FBI is not in the business of investigating or policing speech at school board meetings or anywhere else,” Ray said.
Some more conservative GOP members are pressing to cut some funding to the FBI, and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy of California has questioned spending money to build a new FBI headquarters outside of downtown and in a Washington suburb. He said Congress should focus on FBI offices in the states.
Ray declined to engage with specific questions about ongoing federal investigations, including those relating to former President Trump and Hunter Biden. President Joe Biden’s son recently reached an agreement to plead guilty to misdemeanor federal tax charges; Republicans derided it as a good deal.
In rants with Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee, Wray rejected the GOP’s assertion that the office favored the Bidens and said the idea that the office was involved in the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol was “absurd.” Referring to his own background, he has said that the idea that he harbors an anti-conservative bias is “insane”.
“The work that the men and women of the FBI do to protect the American people goes beyond one or two investigations that seem to grab all the headlines,” said Wray, who was nominated by Trump to lead the FBI after James Comey was fired in 2017.
The director explained the bureau’s crime-fighting work to dismantle drug cartels, get about 60 suspected criminals off the streets each day and protect Americans from an “amazing array of threats.”
He said, “This is it The real FBI. “
It’s the latest display of the new normal on Capitol Hill, where Republicans who have long described themselves as champions of police and “law and order” are vehemently at odds with federal law enforcement and the FBI, accusing the bureau of bias dating back to investigations of Trump when he was president.
This new dynamic has forced Democrats to take a stand in defense of the law enforcement agencies they have long criticized.
The committee’s chairman, Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, said he’s trying to stop what Republicans call the “weaponization” of the federal justice system, which they say is tilted against conservatives, including Trump and his allies.
Jordan opened the hearing by reciting a federal judge’s recent ruling against the government’s efforts to stop misinformation on social media and listing other complaints against the FBI over its treatment of conservatives.
But the committee’s top Democrat, Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York, said the hearing was “little more than performance art” by Republicans running what he called baseless investigations too wild to be true.
Ray has generally shied away from answering questions about the DOJ’s prosecution of Trump. The former president pleaded not guilty to 37 felony counts of mishandling classified information at his club and residence in Mar-a-Lago.
Wray said classified documents are required to be stored in what is known as a “segmented sensitive information facility,” or SCIF.
“In my experience, ballrooms, bathrooms, and bedrooms are not SCIF,” he said.
A separate Justice Department investigation is investigating efforts by Trump and his allies to reverse Biden’s election in the lead-up to January 6, 2021.
During a tense exchange with Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., Wray noted that the number of FBI applicants in Florida had increased by more than 100%.
“We are terribly proud of them, and they deserve better than you,” Gates said.
Typically measured, Wray became animated by a suggestion from Rep. Mike Johnson, R-LA, that the FBI would engage in suppressing a theory that the coronavirus pandemic originated via a leak from a laboratory in China rather than transmission from animals to humans.
“The idea that the FBI would somehow be involved in suppressing references to the lab leak theory is rather absurd when you consider the fact that the FBI was the one — the only — agency in the entire intelligence community that came up with the assessment that was more , pointing his index finger for confirmation.He later noted that the intelligence arm of the Department of Energy had come to a similar conclusion.
Representative Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., said she thought it was “sad, actually, that the majority are engaging in conspiracy theories in an attempt to discredit one of the major law enforcement agencies in the United States.”
Jordan is laying the groundwork for Warri’s emergence since House Republicans gained a majority in January.
Republicans have held hearings with former FBI agents, Twitter executives and federal officials to prove that the FBI is corruptly using its powers against Trump and the right. The Republican Party set up a special committee on “arming” the government, also led by Jordan, to investigate the abuses. Three commissions have opened a joint investigation into Hunter Biden.
Commenting on the proceedings were GOP threats to fire Attorney General Merrick Garland and withhold funds to enforce federal law as Congress is in the midst of preparing annual spending bills.
At one point, Rep. Thomas Massey showed a short surveillance video momentarily before officials found a pipe bomb outside the Democratic National Committee headquarters on Capitol Hill on the day of the Jan. 6, 2021 attack. Massey, R-K, demanded answers about the ongoing investigation.
“We fund your department, so you have to provide for that,” Massey said.
Republican criticism of the FBI stretches back years, but became more prominent during the Trump-Russia investigation, when the Justice Department investigated interference in the 2016 election.
Wednesday’s hearing focused on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, which gives the FBI and other agencies sweeping powers to monitor the communications of foreigners outside the United States. A provision known as Section 702 is set to expire unless Congress approves its renewal. Members of both parties are frustrated with the programme.
In underscoring the extent to which surveillance errors during the Trump-Russia investigation continue to obscure the FBI, Rep. Tom TiffanyR-Wisconsin, said he would allow the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to “sink” if there were no reforms.
Meanwhile, Wray acknowledged a difference of opinion over Garland’s 2021 memo that asked the FBI to coordinate with local law enforcement on threats against school boards. Republicans complained that this went too far in trying to control parents.
“I will tell you the same thing that I said to all 56 of our field offices once I read the memo, which is that the FBI is not in the business of investigating or policing speech at school board meetings or anywhere else,” Ray said.
Some more conservative GOP members are pressing to cut some funding to the FBI, and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy of California has questioned spending money to build a new FBI headquarters outside of downtown and in a Washington suburb. He said Congress should focus on FBI offices in the states.
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