FBI Director Christopher Wray will face the GOP-led House Judiciary Committee for questioning in July, when he will likely be asked to answer for the agency’s alleged progressive weaponization against the Democrats’ political foes.
The hearing was confirmed to the Hill by an FBI spokesperson. The Justice Department, and within it the FBI, has come under fire from the House Republican majority for exercising its authority with prejudice against conservatives. Some examples cited by Republicans include the FBI’s targeting of pro-life activists and the DOJ’s targeting of parents, at the direction of Attorney General Merrick Garland, who protested radical curricula at local school-board meetings during the pandemic.
In February, GOP representative Jim Jordan, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, subpoenaed Wray for further inquiry into Garland’s memo that mobilized the FBI as well as federal and local law-enforcement agencies to probe and potentially prosecute parents who threatened school administrators. Then in April, Jordan subpoenaed Wray to speak to an FBI memo that suggested churches could be potential breeding grounds for white supremacy. The document looked into meeting with church leaders to consider “the warning signs of radicalization and to enlist their assistance to serve as suspicious activity tripwires,” the Hill noted.
Scrutiny of the FBI escalated last week when Trump-era special counsel John Durham released a report on the yearslong investigation into probes that alleged the former president colluded with Russia to rig the 2016 election. Durham found that the collusion claims were unsubstantiated and did not deserve prosecution. The FBI was accused of seeking to mislead Congress into believing there could be a conspiracy between the Kremlin and Trump, backed by the discredited Steele dossier. Durham’s report attempted to link some historical accountability to the FBI, suggesting that the agency did not have the grounds to pursue the investigation into the Trump campaign in the first place.
Republicans blasted the DOJ again last week after Hunter Biden secured a plea agreement, which some characterized as a sweetheart deal, involving two tax misdemeanors related to his failure to pay his taxes in 2017 and 2018. He will also enter a diversion agreement that will allow him to avoid prison time for lying on a federal firearms form and possessing a handgun as a user of illegal drugs in 2018.
Last week, the House Ways and Means Committee released testimony from two IRS whistleblowers who claimed the DOJ, FBI, and IRS interfered with the Hunter Biden tax probe. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy subsequently added that the House will open impeachment inquiries into Garland if the allegations prove true.
“The allegations point to a steady campaign of: unequal treatment of enforcing tax law; Department of Justice interference in the form of delays, divulgences, and denials, into the investigation of tax crimes that may have been committed by the President’s son; and finally, retaliation against IRS employees who blew the whistle on the misconduct,” the committee said Thursday.