FBI Director Christopher Wray to testify before House Judiciary Committee on July 12
FBI Director Christopher Wray will testify before the House Judiciary Committee next month amid accusations by whistleblowers that the bureau mishandled the criminal investigation into Hunter Biden.
A source familiar with the situation told The Post that Wray will appear before the panel headed by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) on July 12 after lawmakers return from the July 4 congressional recess.
The Justice Department, and Wray’s FBI in particular, has been a lightning rod for Republican lawmakers, who have accused the bureau of being weaponized against conservatives and unwilling to investigate corruption allegations against President Biden.
Wray was recently embroiled in a multi-week subpoena battle with Congress over an informant document that outlines bribery allegations against the 80-year-old president.
The FBI director had initially refused to allow members of the House Oversight Committee to view the so-called FD-1023 form that alleges Biden accepted $5 million in bribes from a Ukrainian businessman as vice president.
But Wray relented and allowed lawmakers to look over the document after he was threatened with contempt of Congress proceedings.
Some have questioned why the FBI has not seemingly placed the same scrutiny on Biden over informant’s allegations as it did on former President Donald Trump over debunked claims of collusion between his 2016 campaign and Russia.
Wray will likely face questions from the Judiciary Committee related to special counsel John Durham’s four-year probe of the FBI investigation into the Trump-Russia collusion allegations.
Durham released a 306-page report on the findings of his investigation in May, which argued that the FBI “failed to uphold its mission” in investigating the Trump campaign.
Wray could also be asked about testimony to the House Ways and Means Committee provided by an IRS whistleblower involved in the investigation into the president’s son.
The whistleblower, Gary Shapley, alleges that the FBI “tipped off” Hunter Biden to a so-called “day of action” in December of 2020 meant to extract information from the first son.
Shapley told the panel that the night before, “FBI headquarters had notified Secret Service headquarters and the transition team about the planned actions the following day. This essentially tipped off a group of people very close to President Biden and Hunter Biden and gave this group an opportunity to obstruct the approach”.
According to Shapley, the first son’s attorneys refused to allow him to be interviewed after the bureau notified the Secret Service and the Biden presidency transition team.
Shapley also alleged that “the FBI tried to dictate” how many interviews with witnesses the IRS could do as part of its investigation into Hunter Biden, “so FBI management could reevaluate if they wanted to continue assisting.”
Shapley said he “learned the FBI case agent in Delaware had only recently moved back to his hometown of Wilmington with his wife and family and was concerned about the consequences for him and his family if they conducted these sensitive interviews and executed a search warrant of the President Biden guest house.”
Hunter Biden agreed to a plea deal with the Justice Department earlier this month on tax fraud charges that will likely spare him any prison time.
Wray may also face questions related to an FBI field office’s efforts to investigate “extremists” in Catholic parishes in the US.
In April, Wray was slapped with a subpoena related to a now-withdrawn Jan. 23 memo from the FBI’s Richmond, Va., Field Office titled, “Interest of Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists in Radical-Traditionalist Catholic Ideology Almost Certainly Presents New Mitigation Opportunities.”
The missive discussed meeting with church leaders to review “the warning signs of radicalization and to enlist their assistance to serve as suspicious activity tripwires.”
Wray has condemned the memo.
