FBI Director Wray Set to Testify to Congress—What to Expect From the Hearing
FBI Director Christopher Wray is set to testify before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday morning, where he is sure to be confronted with a host of pointedly hostile questions from Republicans.
One of the questions Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) is expected to ask during a likely lengthy and combative hearing is why since early in 2021 the FBI has evaded and sl0w-walked on many information and materials requests from the panel and frequently redacted into virtual uselessness the documents that have been provided to the committee.
GOP members may also demand Mr. Wray explain in detail his role in a program in which, according to judiciary investigators, the FBI “facilitated censorship requests to American social media companies on behalf of a Ukrainian intelligence agency infiltrated by Russian-aligned actors. In so doing, the FBI violated the First Amendment rights of Americans and potentially undermined our national security.”
The FBI chief may also be challenged to explain why he has not fired or otherwise disciplined multiple officials and agents who were promoted or were involved in the Russia collusion allegations against and investigation into former President Donald Trump during the 2016 election and for several years after his 2017 inauguration, even though two special counsels found no justification for the lengthy probe.
Other questions that can be expected to be fired at Mr. Wray by the panel’s 25 GOP members include the FBI’s involvement in the Department of Justice (DOJ) campaign against threats of violence at school board meetings, including by allegedly targeting parents protesting controversial sexual and racial curricula in public schools.
Republicans are likely to ask questions about the FBI’s unannounced raid on former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida concerning classified documents, and in particular why lawyers for President Joe Biden were warned ahead of time that the bureau would be coming to his Delaware residences and several offices for the same purpose.
It is also possible Mr. Wray will be asked to respond to congressional calls for his resignation or impeachment.
But one set of issues will likely consume far more of the hearing than any others—the growing allegations, including by an FBI informant and multiple whistleblowers within the bureau and the IRS, surrounding alleged influence peddling by Mr. Biden and his family and the bureau’s response such claims.
Mr. Wray may be confronted with demands that he explain the FBI’s apparent failure to do anything with the laptop belonging to the president’s son, Hunter Biden, that was left for months on end at a Delaware computer repair shop whose owner finally turned it over to federal authorities in 2019.
There will likely be questioned about Mr. Wray’s confrontation in May with House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) regarding the FBI director’s initial refusal to allow members of Congress to receive copies of an internal FBI memorandum, an FD-1023, describing a trusted bureau informant’s claims in that Mr. Biden was involved in a $5 million bribery scandal involving unspecified foreign interests when he was vice president.
The existence of the FD-1023 was first made public earlier this year by Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and Mr. Comer. House Judiciary members will likely focus Wednesday on an October 2020 briefing by FBI agents from the bureau’s Baltimore and Pittsburgh field offices on the informant’s allegations for members of Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss’ staff, the team handling the Hunter Biden investigation.
Gary Sharpley, an IRS whistleblower testified to the judiciary committee that he was never told about the FD-1023 despite the fact he was the official in charge of the federal tax agency’s investigation of Hunter Biden’s alleged tax evasion.
Mr. Wray could also be quizzed about his confession in November 2022 to having departed early from a Senate oversight hearing in August in order to board the official FBI jet for a flight to the Adirondacks to begin a vacation with his family.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) laid into Wray in the November hearing, quoting Mr. Grassley’s frustration with the FBI director not delaying his departure for 21 minutes in order to allow seven Republican senators to ask questions for three minutes each.
“I had had a flight that I’m supposed to be hightailing it to out of here [for],” Wray told the senators at the August 2022 hearing that he left early. At that point, Mr. Grassley objected and asked Mr. Wray to “wait a while,” Wray answered: “Sorry, to be honest, um, I’ve tried to make my [mid-hearing] break as fast as I could to get right back out here.”
A clearly agitated Mr. Grassley pointed out that Mr. Wray was late returning to the hearing room following the five-minute break.
