Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday grilled FBI Director Christopher Wray over accusations the agency is politicized, telling him that the American people have lost faith in the bureau.
"All of our constituents are demanding that we get this situation under control and we have to do that," Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., told Wray. "This is about whether the very system of justice in our country can be trusted anymore … the American people that we represent are losing count of the scandals that are mounting."
Evidence is mounting, he added that the FBI is "being used as a political tool" against parents and the "homes of conservative political opponents are being raided."
"They've seen conservative states being targeted over their election, integrity laws, and conservative Catholics and pro-life citizens," Johnson said, adding that last week, a court in his state ruled against members of the Biden administration contacting social media companies to stifle free speech and asked Wray if he was "deeply disturbed" by the judge finding the administration was coercing companies to suppress speech, including reporting about the Hunter Biden scandals.
"Obviously, we're going to comply with the court's order, the court's preliminary injunction," said Wray. "We sent out guidance to the field and headquarters about how to do that. Needless to say that the injunction itself is a subject of ongoing litigation, so I'll decline to comment further on it."
Johnson wasn't finished.
"The FBI made the social media platforms pull that information off the Internet if it came from conservative sources," said Johnson, further questioning Wray on the meaning of disinformation that would be cited in such actions.
Wray responded, "What I would say is the FBI is not in the business of moderating content or causing any social media company to suppress or censor. That is not what the court has found."
Wray was also questioned by Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., about the FBI's investigation into the Jan. 6 protests at the Capital, particularly the pipe bombs that were left at the Democratic National Committee's facilities, and demanded to know why no response was given to a letter demanding answers.
"It's not an issue of classification," Wray told him. "It's an issue of commenting on ongoing criminal investigations, which is something that by longstanding department policy we are restricted in doing it. In fact, the last administration actually strengthened those policies."
He was shown a video of a suspect that may have been involved, but told Massie that he didn't want to speculate about a particular individual.
"You need to tell us what you found because we're finding stuff you haven't released to the public," said Massie.
Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., meanwhile, questioned Wray about Hunter Biden, beginning with a message where the president's son threatened a Chinese business partner and told him his father was there with him.
"You seem deeply uncurious about it, don't you?" Gaetz told him, then asked if he was protecting the Bidens, which Wray denied.
"You won't answer the question about whether or not that's a shakedown, and everybody knows why you won't answer it because to the millions of people who will see this, they know it is and your inability to acknowledge that is deeply revealing about you," Gaetz told him.
Gaetz also told Wray that reports indicate that "more than a million" illegal FISA (Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act) queries have come from the FBI since he took leadership, but Wray said he was not sure that Gaetz made a "correct characterization" of the inspector general's numbers.
"Let's now go to what the court said," said Gaetz. "The court said it was over 200,000 that have occurred on your watch … you should know how many times the FBI's breaking the law under your watch, especially. It's like over a million to not know that number and I'm worried about your veracity on the subject as well."
Wray also rejected Gaetz's accusation that he perjured himself in front of a prior Senate Judiciary Committee hearing over the exact numbers, because he didn't have the information.
"The FBI is broken so bad that people can go and engage inquiries that when you come before the Congress to answer questions, you're blissfully ignorant," Gaetz said. "You're blissfully ignorant as to the unlawful queries, you're blissfully ignorant as to the Biden shakedown regime, and it just seems like it gets into a kind of a creepy place as well … you preside over the FBI that has the lowest level of trust in the FBI's history. People trusted the FBI more when J. Edgar Hoover was running the place than when you are, and the reason is because you don't give straight answers."
Wray responded, "Congressman, in your home state of Florida, the number of people applying to come to work for us and devote their lives working for us is up over 100%."
Gaetz retorted, "We're deeply proud of them, and they deserve better than you."