WASHINGTON – Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), whose congressional oversight of the FBI has raised serious concerns about its operations, grilled FBI Director Christopher Wray about the agency’s record at today’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.
Before the committee gaveled in, Grassley on a call with reporters characterized Wray’s testimony as an opportunity for the FBI to show the American people its work and begin restoring public trust. He urged a productive hearing with multiple rounds of questioning, recalling Wray cut last year’s hearing short to catch a flight for vacation. Regretfully, Wray left today’s hearing following just one round of questioning.
Today was the first time Grassley addressed Wray in person after releasing the FBI 1023 document alleging the Biden family’s involvement in a foreign bribery scheme. Grassley asked Wray about that investigation, as well as the FBI’s refusal to provide Congress data on sexual misconduct within the agency and an anti-Catholic memo that originated from FBI’s Richmond field office. Full video and excerpts are below.
Grassley is scrutinizing the FBI’s handling of allegations from a trusted agency source, detailed in this 1023 document, implicating then-Vice President Biden and his family in a foreign bribery scheme. At today’s hearing, the senator honed in on the procedural steps the FBI has taken to get to the bottom of the allegations. Amplifying Grassley’s concerns the FBI has not used standard investigative practices, Wray said he wasn’t aware of the 1023 – which was serialized on June 30, 2020 – until “much, much, much more recently than anything around 2020, that’s for sure.” Grassley will remain laser-focused on ensuring the FBI does its job and investigative due diligence.
Reported Sexual Misconduct Against FBI Employees:
Grassley in October 2022 demanded the FBI produce information pertaining to protected whistleblower claims of sexual misconduct against its female employees. Soon after, Grassley made public internal FBI records corroborating the whistleblowers’ disclosures. The agency has yet to provide the data Grassley requested, despite confirming to the Associated Press it would. Today, when Grassley grilled Wray about the FBI’s failure to respond to Congress about these serious sexual misconduct claims for over a year, Wray committed to getting answers. “I will follow up with you about your letter.”
An FBI memo surfaced earlier this year tying Catholics to violent extremist views. In August, Grassley led his Senate colleagues in pressing Wray on the contents of the memo, as well as his misleading House and Senate testimony claiming the memo was the work of a single FBI field office. Today, Grassley pointed out portions of the memo that revealed involvement from at least two other FBI field offices, conflicting with Wray’s prior testimony. Despite this evidence, the director doubled down on his assertion the memo was the product of only one FBI office. The director couldn’t answer Grassley’s question as to whether he reviewed the anti-Catholic Richmond memo before his congressional testimony.
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