WASHINGTON (AP) – The FBI director will face some of his harshest criticism in Congress on Wednesday as he testifies before a House committee that is leading several investigations into claims that the law enforcement agency law unfairly targets conservatives.
FBI Director Chris Wray’s appearance before the House Judiciary Committee is expected to be controversial. Republicans are poised to aggressively question the director on several fronts, including the recent impeachment of former President Donald Trump, the ongoing investigation into President Joe Biden’s son and the push for a new FBI headquarters.
It’s just the latest sign of the new normal on Capitol Hill, where Republicans who have long billed themselves as champions of police and “law and order” are growing deeply at odds with federal law enforcement and the FBI, accusing the bureau of partial dating. back to investigations of Trump when he was president. The new dynamic has forced the Democrats into a new position of defense of these law enforcement forces that they have criticized for a long time.
Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, has been laying the groundwork for Wray’s appearance since House Republicans took the majority in January.
Republicans have held hearings with former FBI agents, Twitter executives and federal officials to argue that the FBI has been corruptly using its powers against Trump and the right. And they have formed a special committee on the “weaponization” of the government, also led by Jordan, to investigate the abuses.
Wray’s trip to Capitol Hill comes just weeks after the president’s youngest son, Hunter Biden, reached a deal with the Justice Department to plead guilty to minor tax crimes. Jordan and other Republican lawmakers called it “a sweetheart deal” and the latest example of a “two-tier justice system.”
Jordan and the leaders of the Oversight and Accountability and Ways and Means committees quickly opened a joint investigation into the Hunter Biden case, citing testimony from two IRS whistleblowers in the case who say the Justice Department interfered with her job.
Complainants’ claims are disputed. The Justice Department has denied the allegations and has repeatedly said that U.S. Attorney David Weiss in Delaware, the federal prosecutor who led the investigation, always had “full authority” over the case. Weiss was appointed to the job during the Trump administration.
Republicans have requested an interview with Weiss and other Justice Department officials, but they are not likely to come until the case is closed, according to department policy.
Wray is also likely to face questions about the charges against Trump, the same man who appointed him to lead the FBI after firing James Comey in 2017. The Justice Department has accused the former president of storing il ·legally government secrets at his Florida estate and then deny. to return them Trump has pleaded not guilty to 37 felonies.
Concerns about the FBI’s ongoing investigation into the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol are also top of mind for Republicans. Some say prosecutors have been too aggressive against those accused of trespassing on the Capitol.
With Republican criticism of the FBI at a high pitch, some of the party’s most conservative members are even pushing to cut funding for the department entirely. Jordan has yet to go that far, but he is looking to choke off funding for a new FBI headquarters.
In a letter to Rep. Kay Granger, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, Jordan wrote that the appropriations bills should eliminate any funding set aside for the planned relocation of FBI headquarters from Washington, DC, in the suburbs. Instead, he said Congress should look at moving the FBI headquarters out of the D.C. region.
“We also recommend tying FBI funding to specific policy changes, such as requiring the FBI to record interviews, that promote accountability and transparency at the FBI,” Jordan wrote in the letter Tuesday.
Another focus of Wednesday’s hearing will be the push to reauthorize a program under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, which gives agencies like the FBI broad powers to monitor and scrutinize communications foreigners located outside the United States.
The FISA provision known as Section 702 will expire at the end of the year unless Congress agrees to renew it. But members of both parties are frustrated with the program, citing revelations about federal officials abusing the system.
Regardless, Democrats on the Judiciary Committee are preparing a counteroffensive Wednesday to Republican rhetoric against the FBI, arguing that it is Republican lawmakers who are weaponizing Congress’s oversight power to appease their base and their party leader.
“For Republicans, this hearing is little more than stage art. It is an elaborate show designed with only two purposes in mind: to protect Donald Trump from the consequences of his actions and to return him to the White House in the coming election,” Rep. Jerry Nadler, the committee’s top Democrat, is expected to say in his opening remarks.
