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<![CDATA[House Intel Committee]]>

Stefanik Holds Chris Wray’s Feet to the Fire on Hunter Laptop, Mar-a-Lago Raid

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On Thursday morning, FBI Director Christopher Wray was testifying before the House Intelligence Committee about threats to national security.

But House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (D-NY) put him on the hot seat about why he hasn’t complied with 50 requests from the House Judiciary Committee (which she also serves on) for all manner of information and documents related to FBI operations. Some of those requests have been pending for some time.

Stefanik let him have it, emphasizing that he is required to be accountable to Congress “and by extension the American people” and complying with the Committee’s oversight requests was just the “bare minimum” that they were required to do. She also chastised him for the FBI failing to provide a witness for Judiciary Committee hearing and asked him to commit to providing a witness before the next hearing on March 28.

Wray weasels around, deflects, and doesn’t commit to her, as he is required to, then saying vaguely that they would be “happy to work with her.” She presses him, he still wouldn’t commit, saying he would “work with you to make people available.” But Stefanik wouldn’t let him get away with his effort to avoid the question.

“That’s not a yes,” Stefanik highlighted, adding “for the American people, you’re having the FBI director refuse to provide a witness.”

“I’m not refusing to provide a witness,” Wray interjected after repeatedly failing to agree to provide witnesses. “I said I would work with you to make somebody available,” he insisted.

“Great, so somebody will be made available?” Stefanik asked again.

“Yes,” Wray finally responded.

“Thank you, that’s all I wanted,” Stefanik said. “A ‘yes.’”

Then, when she began to ask about the Hunter Biden laptop and the FBI’s reported effort to cast it as “Russian disinformation,” that’s when Wray showed what a weasel he truly could be.

She asked him if he believed the laptop story was disinformation. Wray wouldn’t answer, claiming there was an “ongoing investigation.” But the ongoing investigation is into Hunter Biden; there’s absolutely nothing that prevents him from commenting on whether he thinks it was disinformation or not. He was just using that as a dodge. I reported in 2022 on how Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed the FBI’s involvement in the suppression of the laptop.

Stefanik kept after him, asking if he thought it was disinformation, and then he played this game as though there was something about it he couldn’t reveal, “I don’t think there’s anything I can share on that in open setting.” Yeah, no, don’t even try.

But she wasn’t done with him, as he was still wiggling around the question.

“I don’t believe FBI personnel were in contact with Twitter about the Hunter laptop story specifically,” Wray responded. “I think there were people in contact with Twitter about Russian disinformation efforts.”

“Of which the Hunter Biden laptop story was included, according to the FBI,” Stefanik pointed out.

“I don’t know exactly what you’re looking at,” Wray said — again avoiding an answer.

“Were you aware that the FBI had Hunter Biden’s laptop since December 2019?” Stefanik asked.

“I can’t speak to exactly when we had a laptop available,” Wray said, refusing to answer even the most basic of questions that have nothing to do with the laptop’s contents or any investigation into them. Again, Wray hid behind the “ongoing investigation” excuse.

“And we have an ongoing investigation as well,” Stefanik reminded Wray.

Perfect response, reminding him that they have an investigation ongoing into the FBI’s actions and that he isn’t just going to be able to avoid this. It’s shameful that he would even play these games but just one more piece of evidence of how politicized the FBI has become.

Stefanik made very clear that his “stonewalling” was not “acceptable,” saying “the American people deserve answers.”

But then, Stefanik went after him on a big question — the raid against former President Donald Trump.

How bad is Wray? He objected to her even referring to the raid as a raid. This is how they want to deny all reality and the difference in how they treat cases based on politics.

He wouldn’t say whether he or Attorney General Garland signed off on the raid.

“Was their dissent at senior levels of the FBI about the conducting of the search warrant?” Stefanik probed.

“I can’t speak to internal discussions among the FBI or among the FBI and the Department of Justice,” Wray said, again refusing to answer.

“Even though it’s been reported in the Washington Post?” Stefanik asked, noting mainstream coverage of the goings-on inside the FBI.

“There’s lots of things reported in the media,” Wray said in again avoiding the question.

“I know — it leaked from your agency,” Stefanik quipped back in another hit at Wray’s ability to run the FBI.

More of this holding his feet to the fire, please. We need answers from him; we can’t have this failure to comply. Let them know that they’re being investigated, and there will be more if they don’t.

These folks think that we serve them, as opposed to the fact that they work for us. Every time Wray comes before Congress, he acts like he’s being put upon by their questions and that they don’t have a right to bug him.