WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI director will face some of his harshest criticism in Congress on Wednesday as he testifies before a House committee conducting multiple investigations into allegations that the law enforcement agency law unfairly targets the Conservatives.
FBI Director Chris Wray’s appearance before the House Judiciary Committee is expected to be controversial. Republicans are prepared to aggressively question the director on several fronts, including the recent indictment of former President Donald Trump, the ongoing investigation of President Joe Biden’s son and the push for a new FBI headquarters.
It’s just the latest display of the new normal on Capitol Hill, where Republicans who have long cast themselves as champions of policing and “law and order” are increasingly at odds with the federal law enforcement and the FBI, accusing the bureau of bias dating back to investigations of Trump when he was president. The new dynamic has forced Democrats to take a new stance in defense of those law enforcement agencies they have long criticized.
Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, has been laying the groundwork for Wray’s appearance since House Republicans took a majority in January.
Republicans held hearings with former FBI agents, Twitter executives and federal officials to prove the FBI used its powers corruptly against Trump and the right. And they formed a special committee on the “militarization” of government, also headed by Jordan, to investigate the abuses.
Wray’s trip to Capitol Hill comes just weeks after the president’s youngest son, Hunter Biden, reached an agreement with the Justice Department to plead guilty to tax crimes. Jordan and other GOP lawmakers called it a “love deal” and the latest example of a “two-tier court system.”
Jordan and the leaders of the Oversight and Accountability and Ways and Means committees quickly launched a joint investigation into the Hunter Biden case, citing testimony from two IRS whistleblowers on the case who say the Department of Justice interfered in their work.
The whistleblowers’ claims are disputed. The Justice Department has denied their allegations and has repeatedly said that U.S. Attorney David Weiss of Delaware, the federal prosecutor who led the investigation, always had “full authority” over the case. Weiss was appointed to this position during the Trump administration.
Republicans have requested a meeting with Weiss and other Justice Department officials, but they are unlikely to come before the case is closed, per department policy.
Wray is also likely to face questions about charges against Trump – the same man who appointed him head of the FBI after he fired James Comey in 2017. The Justice Department has accused the former president of illegally store government secrets in his Florida estate and then refuse to return them. Trump has pleaded not guilty to 37 counts.
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 acted far too aggressively against those accused of violating the Capitol.
With Republican criticism of the FBI at a high pitch, some of the party’s more conservative members are even pushing to cut funding to the department altogether. Jordan hasn’t gone that far yet, but he’s looking to stifle 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 a planned move of FBI headquarters from Washington, DC, to the suburbs. Instead, he said Congress should consider moving FBI headquarters out of the DC area altogether.
“We also recommend tying FBI funding to specific policy changes — such as requiring the FBI to tape interviews — that will promote accountability and transparency at the FBI,” Jordan wrote in Tuesday’s letter. .
Another focus of Wednesday’s hearing will be the move to reauthorize a program under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, which grants agencies like the FBI sweeping powers to monitor and examine foreigners’ communications. located outside the United States.
The FISA provision known as Section 702 is due to 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 of federal officials abusing the system.
Either way, Democrats on the Judiciary Committee are plotting a counterattack on Wednesday to Republicans’ rhetoric against the FBI, saying it’s GOP lawmakers who are weaponizing Congress’s oversight power to appease their base and the leader. of their party.
“For Republicans, this hearing is little more than performance art. It is an elaborate spectacle designed with only two purposes in mind: to protect Donald Trump from the consequences of his actions and to send him back to the White House in the next election,” Rep. Jerry Nadler, the top Democrat on the committee, is expected to say in his opening remarks.