On July 12, FBI Director Christopher Wray declined to answer a lot of questions from House Judiciary Committee Republicans on Capitol Hill – and a few from Democrats, too. His recalcitrance can be explained in different ways, some of which are more legitimate than others. A few Republicans, perhaps understandably, became extremely irate with the Donald Trump-appointed Biden administration official. However, Wray, to his credit, made no attempt to justify the way in which the FBI investigated the now-debunked Trump-Russia conspiracy theory of 2016. In fact, he conceded that the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane counterintelligence operation to probe that hoax was flawed, mishandled, and violated Bureau procedures. Still, Wray wasn’t at the helm during that time, and so those mistakes reflect upon his predecessor, James Comey.
There are three reasons an FBI director won’t provide a direct and detailed response to a question from a federal lawmaker. In a public hearing, Christopher Wray can’t divulge details that would compromise national security or an ongoing investigation or a criminal case. Also, just because he’s the director of the FBI doesn’t mean that he has firsthand knowledge of everything his agency is doing. He hasn’t read every memo or every interview transcript; he doesn’t know exactly how each of the Bureau’s 56 field offices handles every investigation, and he hasn’t seen every piece of evidence or intelligence his agency gathers.
A third and more unsettling reason Wray might not want to answer a query presents itself when he is being asked about actions that appear to go well beyond the Bureau's constitutional limits.
Christopher Wray in the Hot Seat
Such was the case with questions on the surveillance or monitoring of so-called “radical traditional” Catholics or the apparent targeting of conservative parents outraged by the “gender identity” ideology being taught to their children. Christopher Wray certainly appeared to struggle in his responses to these and, despite the evidence, denied that such people were being targeted by the FBI.
On the subject of Crossfire Hurricane, though – which was run under Comey’s stewardship – the director openly conceded that serious mistakes were made. Referring to Special Counsel John Durham’s report on the opening of Crossfire Hurricane, Wray acknowledged, “My understanding is that Mr. Durham found that it did not have a proper basis to elevate it to a full investigation but that he thought an assessment or a preliminary inquiry was appropriate.” Assessment and preliminary inquiry are the first two steps normally taken by the FBI in counterintelligence operations. In the case of the Trump-Russia conspiracy theory, the FBI skipped those phases and immediately opened a full investigation. Wray also admitted that he thought there were “significant failures with respect to exculpatory information.” He further acknowledged that Durham found the FBI did not interview all of the key witnesses.
Christopher Wray (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Durham’s investigation discovered abuses of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), including an instance of an FBI attorney altering the contents of an email that was submitted as part of a FISA warrant. Christopher Wray stated: “Certainly, there were violations that were totally unacceptable and, in my view, cannot be allowed to happen again.” The director also agreed that it was improper to submit uncorroborated evidence as part of a FISA warrant application – which the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane team did.
Conservatives could hardly be blamed for continuing to question Wray’s loyalties and motivations. His biggest problem is that, even if he is genuinely attempting to run the FBI as an apolitical agency, so much damage was done under his predecessor that he will likely be trying to dig his way out of this deep hole of distrust for as long as he remains in his current position – which may be only another 15 months if any Republican wins the 2024 presidential election, or any Republican except Chris Christie, who said he would keep Wray on if he gets elected.
Meanwhile, the mostly excellent agents of the FBI will continue to be viewed with suspicion by a large percentage of the US population because their leadership was, is, or at least appears to be politically loyal to one party and hostile to the other. Christopher Wray would have to pull off a miracle to change that perception anytime soon.
