FBI Director Christopher A. Wray fought a barrage of challenges from Republicans over his bureau’s credibility on Tuesday, saying his agents do “the right thing in the right way.”
In several hours of congressional testimony, Mr. Wray pushed back against charges that his agency had squandered its good name with bungled or politicized investigations. From his vantage point, he said, things are good at the bureau.
“The FBI that I see every single day and that I hear about from all of them is an FBI that does the right thing in the right way, with rigor, with professionalism, with objectivity, with skill,” he said. “I will stack our workforce up against any, anywhere in the world, anytime.”
If critics are correct that the agency’s patina has worn off, he said, the FBI would be struggling to attract new blood. As it is, recruitment is strong.
“When it comes to perceptions of the FBI, the number of Americans all across this country applying to be special agents in the FBI has been going up — up — significantly over the past three years, at a time when I hear all the time law enforcement all over this country is having the opposite experience,” Mr. Wray told the House Homeland Security Committee.
The hearing was called to examine “worldwide threats” to the U.S., but Mr. Wray took pains during his opening statement to lay out the basic domestic law enforcement work his agents do.
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He said the FBI, working with other law enforcement agencies, averaged 50 arrests of violent criminals every day this summer. In August alone, he said, the FBI and partner agencies located more than 200 victims of human trafficking.
He said the FBI is involved in combating the smuggling cartels that sneak people and drugs into the U.S.
He defended a bureau buffeted by complaints over its handling of the August raid on former President Donald Trump’s Florida home, where agents searched for classified documents Mr. Trump had not turned over to the National Archives on his way out of office.
A recent federal trial highlighted the FBI’s use of unreliable or fabricated information from a Russian informant that the bureau used to justify its surveillance of the Trump campaign in 2016.
The Washington Times reported this year on an internal audit finding widespread rule-breaking by agents during sensitive investigations involving public officials, political candidates and religious or political groups.
Senior Republicans on Capitol Hill have dinged the FBI over Timothy Thibault, a former assistant special agent in charge at the Washington field office. They said Mr. Thibault skewed investigations based on politics, including a probe into Mr. Trump’s 2020 election challenges and suppression of accusations about President Biden’s son Hunter.
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Mr. Thibault left his job this summer.
Rep. John Katko of New York, the top Republican on the Homeland Security Committee, said the FBI has suffered from those revelations.
“I’m concerned about the overall state of the bureau and an increasingly partisan perception, right or wrong, of the bureau,” Mr. Katko said.
He said he worked with FBI agents when he was a federal prosecutor.
“Those agents, because they’re still friends, are heartbroken by their perception of the FBI today,” he said.
A few years back, Democrats who excoriated the FBI’s handling of the investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s secret email server, leaped to defend the bureau now that Mr. Trump is the one complaining.
“I am very worried just coming out of campaign season, the number of people who think that the FBI is a political tool, as we heard even raised in questions here today,” said Rep. Elissa Slotkin, Michigan Democrat.
Rep. Eric Swalwell, California Democrat, blasted Republicans’ “defund the FBI” mantra this summer and ticked off a list of areas where FBI agents combat serious crimes.
“If FBI was defunded, would that hurt or help child exploitation investigations?” he asked Mr. Wray.
“It would hurt,” Mr. Wray said. “We are literally arresting thousands of child predators and rescuing hundreds and hundreds of kids. So again, we need more funding for that, not less.”
“And if the FBI was defunded, would that hurt or help COVID fraud investigations for money that went into the communities during the time of COVID?” Mr. Swalwell asked.
“It would hurt,” the director replied. “I’ve been briefed by agents on cases involving, you know, violent gangs that have tapped into some of the COVID fraud money.”
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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