July 12 (UPI) — FBI Director Christopher Wray appeared before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday for regularly scheduled oversight of the bureau as Republicans unleashed a flurry of criticism at him.
Wray, a Republican appointed to the position by former President Donald Trump, was questioned on topics ranging from a laptop believed to have belonged to Hunter Biden to allegations of anti-conservative bias.
Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., pressed Wray about allegations from an IRS whistleblower in the House Republicans’ probe into Hunter Biden.
“Are you protecting the Bidens?” Gaetz asked. Wray responded that the FBI “has no interest in protecting anyone politically.”
Gaetz said the public has lost trust in the FBI and accused Wray of not answering the panel’s questions, to which he shot back that the number of applicants to the agency from Florida is “up over 100%.”
“The idea that I’m biased against conservatives seems somewhat insane to me, given my own personal background,” Wray said.
Wray also shot down calls from some Republicans, including Rep. Jim Jordan, to defund the FBI, which he said would be “disastrous for 38,000 hardworking career law enforcement personnel and their families.”
“But more importantly, in many ways, it would hurt our great state, local law enforcement partners who depend on us every day to work with them on a whole slew of challenging threats,” Wray said.
Republican lawmakers questioned Wray about the removal of conservative content from social media platforms, though the FBI does not make decisions about content moderation.
New York Rep. Jerry Nadler, the committee’s top Democrat, said the hearing amounted to “performance art.”
“House Republicans will attack the FBI for having had the audacity to treat Donald Trump like any other citizen. The strategy is simple, really,” he said. “When in doubt, Chairman Jordan investigates the investigators. The FBI dared to hold Trump accountable, so Republicans must discredit them at all costs.”
Eventually, in the hearing, House Republicans brought up findings from John Durham — the special counsel who probed the FBI’s investigation into former President Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and Russia during the 2016 election.
“I consider the conduct that was described in the Durham report as totally unacceptable and unrepresentative of what I see from the FBI every day and must never be allowed to happen again,” Wray said.
The FBI director also revealed during the hearing that the bureau has created a new unit to investigate threats against FBI agents — which have grown to “unprecedented” levels since Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort was searched last year.
“I would not call it a raid. I would call the execution of a lawful search warrant,” Wray said.
Wray also said that about 70% of investigations opened by the FBI after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade were of violence against pro-life facilities rather than the other way around.