FBI director Christopher A. Wray is expected to face an extraordinary political storm on Wednesday when he testifies before Congress, with Republicans who once defended the agency now denouncing it as a weapon against former president Donald J. Trump and his supporters.
Mr. Wray, appearing before the House Judiciary Committee for the first time since Republicans won the House, is likely preparing for the worst. The committee, led by Representative Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio, says it will investigate “the politicization” of the FBI under Mr. Wray and Attorney General Merrick B. Garland.
Fueled by Trump, Republicans in Congress have taken an increasingly sharp tone in their criticism of the nation’s top law enforcement agency in an effort to damage the agency’s legitimacy and undermine its standing with the public.
That criticism once focused on the agency’s investigation into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia during the 2016 election. It’s now focused on other flashpoints: Mr Trump’s indictment in an investigation into his handling of classified documents ; the FBI’s role in the search of the former president’s Mar-a-Lago estate last August as part of that investigation; unfounded claims of a two-tier legal system favoring Democrats; and the Justice Department’s plea deal with the president’s son, Hunter Biden.
So far, the Republicans have provided no evidence that the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Mr. Wray are partisan, but they will try to unbalance Mr. Wray and cast doubt on his motives.
Here’s what to look for:
How will Mr. Wray react?
Mr Wray enraged Mr Trump, who viewed the director’s declaration of independence as disloyal. But Mr. Wray has testified before Congress, steadfastly defending the FBI as impartial and taking Twitter fire from Mr. Trump, who was president at the time.
Mr. Trump appointed Mr. Wray in 2017 after firing James B. Comey, who opened the Russia investigation as FBI director. Since then Mr. Wray under constant pressure from Republicans, who have simultaneously condemned lawlessness in Democratic-run cities while attacking the FBI’s role in political investigations.
In the past, Mr. Wray has responded to attacks by carefully parsing his words. In his opening statement, he is expected to vigorously defend the FBI and refuses to discuss open investigations, which is the policy of the Justice Department.
“The work that the men and women of the FBI do to protect the American people goes far beyond one or two investigations that seem to make all the headlines,” he would say, according to prepared remarks.
Republicans are at war.
Mr. Trump and his supporters — as well as a vocal group of former FBI officials who have aligned themselves with Republicans in Congress — believe the administration is trying to silence and punish conservatives and see the agency as a dangerous extension of those effort.
Case in point: In January, House Republicans voted to conduct a law enforcement inquiry, creating the federal government’s Select Subcommittee on Armaments.
Republicans have alleged that the FBI has urged Twitter to discriminate against both their party and conservative or right-wing protesters at school board meetings and abortion clinics. Those issues have proved powerful drivers for voter turnout in the party’s pro-Trump base.
The subcommittee is headed by Mr. Jordan, a close ally of Mr. Trump.
Mr. Trump and his supporters have promoted the idea that the search for Mar-a-Lago was designed to neutralize his electoral chances.
Mr. Trump and his allies were outraged by his indictment and the search of Mar-a-Lago in August, when FBI agents raided his residence and uncovered hundreds of classified documents.
The former president and his supporters have said Mr Trump released the documents, meaning there was no wrongdoing to begin with, and that the search was an example of an uneven application of justice.
But so far no evidence has emerged that the documents were released or that the search, which was approved by a federal judge, was inappropriate or politically motivated. In fact, the search came after Mr Trump repeatedly resisted the administration’s requests to return the material.
In recent weeks, Steven D’Antuono, the former top FBI agent who oversaw the documents case, testified behind closed doors for Mr. Jordan.
Asked if “anyone was motivated by animus” in the document review, Mr. D’Antuono replied no, according to a transcript of his testimony.
Hunter Biden reached a plea deal. Republicans hate it.
Under the Justice Department deal, Mr Biden agreed to plead guilty to misdemeanor charges of failing to pay his 2017 and 2018 taxes on time and to be sentenced to probation. The department also said it would not prosecute him for buying a gun in 2018 during a period when he was using drugs.
Republicans have attacked the deal, calling it too lenient, even as years of research by a Trump-appointed US attorney only found evidence to accuse Mr. Biden of the narrow tax and gun issues, rather than the broad international conspiracies that Mr. Trump and his allies.
That US attorney, David C. Weiss, who signed the agreement is also under fire. On Monday, Mr. Weiss refuted a key element of testimony before Congress by a US Treasury official who said Mr. Weiss had complained that he had been barred from filing more serious charges.
Republicans will argue that the Durham investigation showed that the FBI was politically motivated to continue its investigation into Russia.
A final report from Trump-era special counsel John H. Durham looked at the origins of the FBI’s investigation into possible ties between Trump’s campaign and Russia, but found no evidence of politically motivated misconduct.
Mr Trump and his loyalists had long insisted that Mr Durham’s investigation would uncover a “deep state” conspiracy designed to harm him politically, but Mr Durham never charged senior government officials .
Instead, Mr. Durham only two peripheral cases involving false statement allegations, both of which ended in acquittals, while he used his report to point out flaws in the FBI’s early investigative steps that he attributed to confirmation bias.
Yet Mr. Durham’s report continues to fuel Republican claims of bias, with some accusing the FBI of taking steps motivated by political favoritism. That charge will almost certainly resurface during Mr. Wray’s testimony.
Will Americans Trust the FBI?
Republicans have claimed the Justice Department is “armed” against conservatives, but allegations brought forward by aggrieved former FBI officials have failed.
Instead, Democratic investigators have found that those former FBI officials have dabbled in right-wing conspiracy theories, including the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, and received financial support from a top ally of Mr. Trump.
But the back-and-forth has an impact. Mr D’Antuono in his testimony refuted allegations of political bias and rejected calls to defund the agency – but expressed concern for the future
“In my opinion,” he said, “the more the American people hear about not trusting the FBI, it’s not a good day for this country.”
