'Are You protecting the Bidens'
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Sparks flew Wednesday as Rep. Matt Gaetz asked FBI Director Christopher Wray whether the bureau is running interference for the first family.
Gaetz (R-Fla.) opened his questioning during a House Judiciary Committee hearing by reading a WhatsApp message from July 30, 2017, in which Hunter Biden demanded money from a Chinese business associate.
“Sounds like a shakedown, doesn’t it, Director?” Gaetz asked.
When Wray declined to opine, Gaetz lit into him.
“You seem deeply uncurious about it, don’t you? Almost suspiciously uncurious. Are you protecting the Bidens?” the Republican asked in rapid-fire fashion.
“Absolutely not,” Wray countered.
“You won’t answer the question about whether or not that’s a shakedown, and everybody knows why you won’t answer it. Because to the millions of people who will see this, they know it is, and your inability to acknowledge that is deeply revealing about you,” Gaetz answered.
The message Gaetz highlighted was released last month by Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee.
“I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled,” Hunter Biden wrote to CEFC China Energy translator Raymond Zhao.
“Tell the director that I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand. And now means tonight,” the now-first son continued. “I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction. I am sitting here waiting for the call with my father.”
Rep. Wesley Hunt (R-Texas) also weighed in on the apparent “double standard” of the federal justice system when comparing classified documents investigations involving President Biden and former President Donald Trump.
Special counsel Jack Smith indicted Trump last month on 37 counts of improperly retaining sensitive intelligence material and lying about having done so to federal officials. Special counsel Robert Hur has yet to announce charges in his probe of Biden’s orbit.
“Here’s what the American people know and believe about the FBI today, sir,” Hunt told Wray. “If you are a Trump, you will be prosecuted. If you are a Biden, you will be protected.”
“I obviously disagree with your description of the two standards,” Wray replied. “In my view, at least under my watch, we have one standard. And that is we’re going to pursue the facts wherever they lead, no matter who likes it. And I add that last part because especially in sensitive investigations, almost by definition, somebody’s not going to like it.”
Hunt pointed out that some critics have seized on Trump’s indictment as proof of the notion that “no one is above the law,” but remained silent about former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s retention of classified material on a private email server.
“What about Hillary Clinton? And what about Joe Biden? And what about Hunter Biden, who is America’s favorite son?” he said. “Let me tell you something: I got a four-year-old daughter and a two-year-old daughter at my house. Hunter Biden, to me, is like glitter. He is on everything and you cannot get rid of him. And yet nothing is going to be done about this.”
Following the clash about Hunter Biden, Gaetz peppered Wray with questions about alleged abuses of the FISA surveillance system, particularly the number of violations.
“The inspector general said that in the 3.4 million of these queries, more than a million were in error. Do you have any basis to disagree with that assessment?” Gaetz asked.
Wray argued that he wasn’t sure that was a correct characterization of the inspector general’s findings, but added that he wasn’t sure about the exact number.
“Isn’t that a number you should know, how many times the FBI is breaking the law under your watch? Especially [when] it’s like over a million, to not know that number and I’m worried about your veracity on the subject as well,” Gaetz replied.
Gaetz then played a clip of Wray’s testimony before a Senate panel in which he told Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) that he didn’t believe FISA was part of the bureau’s Jan. 6 investigation.
The congressman then read a court document suggesting FISA had been used and grilled Wray about whether he perjured himself.
“I certainly didn’t perjure myself. At the time that I testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I didn’t have that piece of information,” Wray shot back.
“The answer is, the FBI is broken so bad that people can go and engage in queries that when you come before the Congress to answer questions, you’re like blissfully ignorant. You’re blissfully ignorant as to the unlawful queries, you’re blissfully ignorant as to the Biden shakedown regime,” Gaetz chided.
Gaetz contended that Wray’s lack of clarity had eroded public faith in the bureau.
“Respectfully, Congressman, in your home state of Florida, the number of people applying to come work for us and devote their lives working for us, it’s over, up over 100%,” Wray said.
“We’re deeply proud of them,” Gaetz quipped, “and they deserve better than you.”
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