President Donald Trump sits with FBI Director Christopher Wray during the FBI National Academy graduation ceremony, Friday, Dec. 15, 2017, in Quantico, Va. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
If you’ve read any of my previous articles, you’ll know I’m not a fan of the current FBI Director. It has nothing to do with the President, who’s not even really relevant to the current complaints about the bureau, and everything to do with Wray’s apparent unwillingness to bring any meaningful reforms to his institution. You can read my critique of his response to the FISA abuse scandal here and the latest news about how the FBI has responded to the FISC recommendations here.
While the Iowa caucus debacle and the impeachment acquittal vote dominated the news today, Wray was testifying in front of the House with members like Jim Jordan and Louie Gohmert grilling him on his organization’s conduct and the lack of response to the FISA abuse scandal. It didn’t go well for the FBI Director.
Here’s some clips of the proceedings, starting with Louie Gohmert.
.@replouiegohmert wants to know if we could bring the FBI into the 21st-century and start recording testimony. That way they can’t just go back and change the 302’s like they did with @GenFlynn. pic.twitter.com/r5EsxE4r5W
— The Dirty Truth (Josh) (@AKA_RealDirty) February 5, 2020
Then Jim Jordan did his thing.
.@Jim_Jordan what took place in this report is way past constructive criticism. This was a major royal screwup. pic.twitter.com/m71DMhakqq
— The Dirty Truth (Josh) (@AKA_RealDirty) February 5, 2020
Wray is company man and nothing more. He wants to protect the FBI at all costs, even if it means largely ignoring a major corruption scandal that occurred during a presidential election. From the moment the IG report came out, Wray has managed to take the wrong positions time and again. He could barely be bothered to even admit his institution did anything wrong initially and his response since then has been to talk about having more training seminars.
None of that is going to fix the issue. The Woods Procedures were already in place. They weren’t insufficient, they were ignored because of bias. Instead of seeing a mass of firings and demotions related to what happened with the illegal Carter Page warrants, Wray has instead sat back and done essentially nothing. Even when the FISC finally made recommendations for how to tighten up the system, he wouldn’t even agree to follow them all.
I know Trump can’t make a move right now, as it’s a political mess he can’t afford at the moment, but the second he’s re-elected (if he’s re-elected), Wray needs to be gone and a real reformer needs to be put in his place. Trust in the FBI is at incredibly low levels and it won’t be restored until the public see these issues being taken seriously. Wray is not the man for that job.
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