FBI Director Christopher A. Wray is under fire as revelations about political bias at the highest level of the FBI have roiled the bureau. Several rank-and-file agents wonder how Wray can survive when it appears that he has lost control of the FBI.
Kurt Siuzdak, a lawyer who represents whistleblowers, remarked to The Washington Times, “How does this guy survive? He’s leaving. He’s got to leave.” The Times published a report detailing the political bias of Timothy Thibault, an assistant special agent in charge who was subsequently forced to resign.
But there have been other accusations against Wray that have nothing to do with political bias.
FBI whistleblowers talking to Congress about corruption and retaliation say in disclosures that Mr. Wray was often notified of the problems within the bureau but never took action to resolve them.
That includes recent whistleblower disclosures to House Judiciary Committee Republicans about agents being forced or coerced into signing false affidavits and claims of sexual harassment and stalking. It also includes fabricated terrorism cases to elevate performance statistics, as reported this month by The Times.
“[The FBI agents] are telling me they have lost confidence in Wray. All Wray does is go in and say we need more training and we’re doing stuff about it, or we will not tolerate it,” Mr. Siuzdak said.
Wray has been peddling that line for years. When the political bias of FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page came to light, he defended their work by praising their “professionalism.” Their private thoughts about Donald Trump in no way colored their approach to the job, Wray said.
As impossible as that seems, Wray was allowed to get away with it because the FBI was drawing on residual respect for the agency from its decades of work taking down mobsters, spies, and terrorists.
Now, the FBI has little respect left to draw on.
In response, the FBI released this statement to The Times:
“The men and women of the FBI work hard every day to protect the American people and uphold the Constitution. All employees are held to the highest standards of professional and ethical conduct, and we expect them to focus on process, rigor, and objectivity in performance of their duties. Allegations of misconduct are taken seriously and referred to the Inspection Division or appropriate investigative body. In reality, the FBI is comprised of 37,000 employees who do it the right way on a daily basis to keep our nation safe by fighting violent crime, preventing terrorist attacks and defending America from espionage and cyber threats.”
It isn’t so much that Wray has allowed retaliation against FBI whistleblowers or looked the other way when high-level employees of the bureau have been accused of misconduct. For Wray to allow Thibault to put his thumb on the scale in a presidential election and then not fire him until almost two years later should lead to his immediate dismissal.
But it won’t, because that kind of presidential courage is missing in the White House. And since the media won’t pressure Biden to fire Wray, he will remain until a Republican president sees fit to replace him.
Story cited here.
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