An FBI whistleblower accused Director Christopher Wray of scrambling to rebrand himself as a non-partisan, law and order man just as House Republicans are preparing to investigate how the bureau has allegedly been “weaponized” against conservative Americans under his watch.
Steve Friend, an eight-year agent who was suspended indefinitely after complaining about internal FBI policies and then came forward to GOP lawmakers, leveled the claims in a column for Uncoverdc.com. Friend wrote that his column was prompted by one Wray wrote for Fox News in which he decried urban lawlessness and widespread contempt for law enforcement.
“Where was Wray’s focus in 2020 when violent anarchists attempted to establish an ‘autonomous zone’ in Seattle, rioters attacked a federal courthouse in Portland, and looters burned businesses in Minneapolis?” Friend wrote. “Instead, in recent years the FBI devoted large swaths of its $10 billion budget to investigate Christians praying outside abortion clinics, parents speaking loudly at school board meetings, and citizens expressing election fraud concerns on social media.”
Wray is in a “precarious situation,” according to Friend, because the House Judiciary Committee has formed a separate panel on the “weaponization of government,” and appears to have the FBI in its crosshairs. Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) has been one of Wray’s harshest critics and will now have subpoena power to probe alleged FBI malfeasance.
In recent weeks, a landmark lawsuit brought against the federal government by the attorneys general for the states of Louisiana and Missouri and internal Twitter communications released by Elon Musk have revealed that the FBI actively pressured the social media platform to censor conservatives. It even paid Twitter $3.4 million to act on its requests, which legal scholars say was likely a violation of the Constitution. Wray’s FBI has dismissed critics as “conspiracy theorists.”
The FBI also allegedly pushed Twitter and Facebook to suppress the New York Post’s bombshell reporting on Hunter Biden’s laptop just prior to the 2020 presidential election, used false information to get warrants to spy on members of former President Trump’s campaign, and spurred a Department of Justice investigation of Trump based on a discredited dossier commissioned by Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. Wray has headed the bureau since 2017, when he was appointed by Trump.
Friend also questioned the FBI’s role in the plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, its August raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home, and its failure to apprehend the January 6 pipe bomber.
A poll taken in August found that 68.3% of Republicans and almost half of independents believe the Department of Justice and the FBI are “too political, corrupt, and not to be trusted.” Those numbers could get even worse for Wray’s agency once Jordan’s committee starts holding hearings and calling witnesses.
“We had now dozens of whistleblowers from the FBI come to us, FBI agents, come to us and tell us just how political things are at that particular agency, so yeah, we know it’s going on, and frankly, the American people have common sense,” Jordan said in a Wednesday appearance on Fox Business Network’s Varney & Co.
Jordan mentioned as the most recent example the contrast between the FBI’s treatment of Trump and President Joe Biden, who just this week was revealed to have allegedly hoarded classified documents at his home and an office he used. Not only did the bureau not raid Biden’s home, the Department of Justice did not even reveal the matter until weeks after the November elections, prompting accusations of political bias.
“The GOP is poised to launch congressional investigations into the FBI’s rampant politicization, corruption, and abuse,” Friend wrote. “Wray seeks to rebrand himself as a stalwart of nonpartisanship and devotion to law and order in the eyes of conservative news consumers anxiously anticipating bombshell revelations from forthcoming House Judiciary Committee hearings.”
“These are the futile efforts of a desperate man clinging to a leadership position he has proven so ill-equipped to fill,” Friend added.