christopher wray – Michmutters
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FBI Director Christopher Wray is guiding the agency the wrong way, fast

Christopher Wray’s disingenuous testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday, before he left early on the FBI’s private Gulfstream 550 jet, speaks volumes about the need to defund the FBI — or at least dump its unctuous director.

Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley and his team of Republicans expected to have the chance to ask a second round of questions.

Grassley pleaded for just an extra 21 minutes.

But Wray took an early mark, dismissing the committee’s constitutional obligation to ensure he answers questions under oath to ensure the FBI complies with the law and is accountable to the American people.

What was so urgent that he had to leave after just three and a half hours?

Was he taking a long weekend in the Adirondacks where his family has a summer home?

It’s worth examining the exchange with Grassley in detail.

“We just heard a half hour ago about you having to leave at 1:30,” Grassley grizzled. “We were going to have seven minutes [each] for first round [questions and] three-minute second rounds. I’ve got seven people on my side of the aisle want their additional three minutes. Is there any reason we couldn’t accommodate them for 21 minutes?”

FBI Director Christopher Wray shakes hands with Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Sen.  Chuck Grassley
Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Sen. Chuck Grassley Grassley pointed out that Wray has a private jet and can leave any time.
AP/Manuel Balce Ceneta

Wray replied smoothly: “Senator, I had a flight that I’m supposed to be high-tailing it to outta here, and I had understood that we were going to be done at 1:30, so that’s how we ended up where we are.”

Grassley pointed out that the FBI director has a private jet at his disposal and can leave any time he likes.

“If it’s your business trip you’ve got your own plane. Can’t it wait a while?” I have asked
Wray replied, “To be honest, I tried to make my break as fast I could to get right back out here.”

Grassley, “You took more than five minutes.”

Wray laughed and the silence that followed only emphasized the disrespect to all senators, but especially to Grassley, the president pro tempore emeritus of the Senate.

Democratic chairman Dick Durbin came to Wray’s rescue, expressing his appreciation that it was Wray’s “third appearance in two years before this committee.”

And every appearance a waste of time, that simply showcased that Wray is a master of evasion. On some of the most serious questions of national security and the politicization of the FBI, Wray had nothing to say. Like Mister Magoo, he sees nothing.

no answers

Unlike most things on Capitol Hill these days, the politicization and repeated failures of the FBI are a bipartisan concern.

Director Christopher Wray
Wray refused to classify the flood of illegal migration at the southern border as a “national security threat.”
Getty Images/Alex Wong

In the short time they had with Wray, senators from both sides had urgent questions. Democrat Senator Dianne Feinstein and Republicans Marsha Blackburn and Grassley were concerned about the FBI’s botching of the Larry Nassar case. Why, when Nassar was convicted in 2016 of sexually abusing US gymnasts, did Wray wait until 2021 to fire one of the agents involved in slow-walking the case?

Grassley complained about a lack of transparency over why the Department of Justice had decided a jury wouldn’t convict FBI agents for their handling of the investigation.
Other Democrats were concerned about the FBI not investigating complaints about Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his Supreme Court confirmation hearing.

Wray had no answer, nor to questions about Afghan evacuees considered significant security threats after being brought to the US in last year’s bungled withdrawal from Kabul.
“I can’t sit here right now and tell you we know where all of them are located at any given time,” he said.

Wray refused to classify the flood of illegal migration at the southern border as a “national security threat.”

When asked what the FBI was doing to track down 56 suspected terrorists that have crossed the border this year he waffled about “sharing watchlist information” and “investigating any number of individuals.”

Hunter Biden
Wray also refused to agree with one senator’s assertion that Hunter Biden’s laptop was not “Russian disinformation.”
The Washington Post via Getty Images

He refused to admit that the Russia collusion hoax — in which the FBI treated seriously palpably false allegations that then-candidate Donald Trump was a Russian agent — was in fact a “hoax”.

He refused to agree with Sen. Blackburn that Hunter Biden’s laptop was not “Russian disinformation,” and didn’t respond to whistleblower allegations of an FBI coverup of derogatory information related to the Bidens in October 2020.

He refused to explain to Sen. Ted Cruz why the FBI had blacklisted patriotic historical American symbols such as the Betsy Ross flag, the Gadsden Flag and the Gonzales battle flag as “militia violent extremism” in training documents.

When Sen. Josh Hawley asked why the FBI was “snooping around the concealed carry permit records” of Missourians, he had nothing.

When Sen. Tom Cotton asked why no FBI agent had thought to enforce the law broken by abortion activists parading outside the homes of Supreme Court justices, Wray was impatient: “Our agents are up to their necks enforcing all sorts of laws.”

Christopher Wray
Wray is required to reimburse the cost of a coach class airline fare for personal trips.
Getty Images/Alex Wong

When the hearing ended at 1:30, Wray ambled over to Grassley to shake his hand. The microphones picked up some of the exchange.

Grassley, a courtly row-crop farmer from Butler County, Iowa, who has a shrewd Columbo-esque tendency to ask “just one more thing,” leaned forward: “I assume you’ve got other business.”

“Yeah,” Wray said.

And off he sauntered, minions in tow.

Grassley’s staff did not know where Wray was going after the hearing and FBI public affairs did not respond to an email Sunday by press time.

But the luxury FBI Gulfstream Wray uses was recorded on Flightradar24 making the one hour and 12 minute flight later that afternoon to bucolic Saranac Lake in the Adirondacks, which happens to be a favorite summer destination since his childhood, when he used to hike the High Peaks and fish for trout, according to the Adirondack Daily Enterprise.

Wray, 55, who attended the Buckley School on the Upper East Side and the private Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., graduated from Yale University, the alma mater of his father, Cecil Wray, who was Adirondack Park Agency Commissioner for 14 years.

The FBI’s Gulfstream made another trip to Saranac Lake on Thursday, June 2, returning to Washington, DC on Sunday, June 5.

turbulence

While there has been controversy over the FBI director commandeering a plane originally intended for counterterrorism use, Wray’s predecessor James Comey used it as his private conveyance as well.

The director is required to reimburse the cost of a coach class airline fare for personal trips, a significant discount on the several thousand dollars an hour it costs to operate the Gulfstream, which is considerably more convenient than Delta.

Wray ensured his testimony was useless, but if he did cut short his testimony to go on vacation at a time when his agency is under fire from all sides, then that is an act of disrespect and insubordination which requires a firm rebuke, or what is the point of Senate oversight?

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US

Alleged bias in Hunter Biden probe ‘deeply troubling’: FBI Director Wray

Allegations that biased FBI agents shielded first are Hunter Biden from criminal investigations are “deeply troubling,” FBI Director Christopher Wray was forced to admit Thursday under grilling from Republican senators — before cutting the Q&A short by claiming he needed to catch a flight.

The top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) noted that Wray wasn’t flying commercial and pleaded in vain for the FBI chief to reschedule the departure of his government jet.

But before leaving, Wray was pressed by Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) about whistleblower claims against Tim Thibault, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s DC field office, and FBI supervisory intelligence analyst Brian Auten.

Kennedy confronted Wray with allegations against the two FBI workers that Grassley revealed last month.

FBI Director Christopher Wray testifies during a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee at the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill August 4, 2022.
FBI Director Christopher Wray testifies during a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee at the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill Aug. 4, 2022.
Getty Images

“Isn’t it true that Mr. Thibault — Agent Thibault, excuse me — and [Auten] covered up derogatory information about Mr. Hunter Biden while working for the FBI?” Kennedy asked Wray point-blank Thursday.

“I want to be very careful not to interfere with ongoing personnel matters,” Wray replied. “I should say that when I read the letter that describes the kinds of things that you’re talking about, I found it deeply troubling.”

An image of Hunter Biden from his laptop.
Wray was questioned about alleged bias in agents’ probing of Hunter Biden.

Kennedy also cited to Wray a variety of Thibault’s social media barbs against Republicans, which resembled the anti-GOP attacks by FBI employees Peter Strzok and Lisa Page during the bureau’s investigation of possible Russian collusion with Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

Grassley’s July letter to Wray said Auten and Thibault allegedly were involved in “a scheme” to “undermine derogatory information connected to Hunter Biden by falsely suggesting it was disinformation.”

Auten “opened an assessment which was used by an FBI Headquarters (‘FBI HQ’) team to improperly discredit negative Hunter Biden information as disinformation and caused investigative activity to cease,” Grassley wrote.

“[V]erified and verifiable derogatory information on Hunter Biden was falsely labeled as disinformation,” Grassley wrote, citing unnamed whistleblowers.

Thibault, meanwhile, allegedly tried to kill off a valid avenue of investigation of possible Hunter Biden criminality.

Sen.  John Kennedy pauses for reporters as senators rush to the chamber for votes ahead of the approaching Memorial Day recess at the Capitol
GOP Sen. John Kennedy questioned Wray during the hearing at the Capitol Thursday.
AP

“In October 2020, an avenue of additional derogatory Hunter Biden reporting was ordered closed at the direction of ASAC Thibault… [when] all of the reporting was either verified or verifiable via criminal search warrants,” Grassley wrote.

“Thibault allegedly ordered the matter closed without providing a valid reason as required by FBI guidelines…. [and] subsequently attempted to improperly mark the matter in FBI systems so that it could not be opened in the future.”

Kennedy on Thursday cited some of Thibault’s social media messages and asked the FBI director, “Do you know how this looks to the American people?”

“I will tell you that what you’re describing is not representative of the FBI … where I see patriots working their tails off with tremendous integrity and objectivity,” Wray said.

Kennedy asked Wray to confirm whether or not Thibault was involved in the ongoing investigation of Hunter Biden for possible tax fraud, unregistered foreign lobbying and money laundering — but Wray wouldn’t directly answer.

“Did he or does he work on the FBI investigation of Mr. Hunter Biden?” Kennedy asked.

“The investigation that you’re referring to is going to — and I need to be a little bit careful because we’re talking about an ongoing investigation — is being run out of our Baltimore field office, working with the Delaware US attorney who’s a holdover from the prior administration,” Wray tried to deflect.

Sen.  Chuck Grassley listens as the panel hears from election officials and Justice Department officials about the rise in threats toward elected leaders and candidates, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2022.
Sen. Chuck Grassley’s letter to Wray last month concerning conduct by FBI agents was discussed during the Thursday hearing.
AP

Kennedy followed up, “So I’m confused, Chris, with your answer. Did he work, or does he work on the Hunter Biden investigation?”

Wray again avoided a direct answer, saying, “As I said, that the Hunter Biden investigation is being run out of the Baltimore field office.”

Thibault’s alleged social media activity included a retweet of a Lincoln Project message that called Donald Trump a “psychologically broken, embittered and deeply unhappy man” and tweet saying that he wanted to “give Kentucky to the Russian Federation.”

Hunter Biden recently cut the IRS to check for about $2 million in an acknowledgment that he failed to pay taxes on a windfall of foreign income. The funds reportedly were provided by Hollywood lawyer Kevin Morris, but it’s unclear what strings are attached and the repayment doesn’t prevent prosecution.

The first son’s overseas dealings gained significant attention this year when the Washington Post and New York Times in March belatedly verified documents from a former Hunter Biden laptop that were first reported by The Post in October 2020.

Hunter Biden leaves after President Joe Biden awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to 17 people during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House in July.
Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, was discussed during the Senate Judiciary hearing Thursday.
AP

Joe Biden’s involvement in his son’s business deals generally is murky and they continue to present conflicts of interest for the president.

Emails from Hunter Biden’s laptop indicate that his father, then vice president, attended a 2015 DC dinner with a group of his son’s associates from Ukraine, Russia and Kazakhstan. A photo depicts Joe Biden posing with the Kazakhstani group and one day after dinner, Vadym Pozharskyi, an executive at Ukrainian gas company Burisma, emailed the then-second son to thank him for the opportunity to meet his father. Hunter Biden earned a reported $1 million per year to serve on Burisma’s board while his father led the Obama administration’s Ukraine policy.

Russian billionaire Yelena Baturina, an alleged attendee of the 2015 dinner and the widow of a former mayor of Moscow, has not faced US sanctions this year in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, despite Biden sanctioning many other members of Russia’s elite.

In China, Joe Biden allegedly was involved with his son’s dealings with CEFC China Energy, which the Washington Post reported paid Hunter Biden and his uncle Jim Biden $4.8 million in 2017 and 2018. Former Hunter Biden business partner Tony Bobulinski says that he spoke with Joe Biden in May 2017 about the deal and a May 13, 2017, email says that the “big guy” would get a 10 percent equity stake in a corporate entity established with CEFC. Bobulinski alleges that the president was the “big guy.”

Also in China, Hunter Biden cofounded an investment firm called BHR Partners in 2013 less than two weeks after flying with his father to Beijing aboard Air Force Two. Hunter introduced Joe Biden to BHR CEO Jonathan Li in the lobby of a hotel in China’s capital. The fund is controlled in part by state-owned entities. Hunter Biden’s attorney Chris Clark said less than a week after President Biden’s November summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping that the first son divested his 10% stake in BHR Partners, but Hunter Biden and the White House provided no further details and online business records indicate that Hunter Biden still owns the 10% stake.

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