Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene announced articles of impeachment Tuesday against FBI Director Christopher A. Wray, blaming him for leading an out-of-control agency she said has become President Biden’s enforcer against political opponents.
The two articles charge Mr. Wray with acting “in a manner grossly incompatible with democracy” and with overseeing attempts “to subvert freedom.”
Ms. Greene, Georgia Republican, cited an FBI office’s labeling of devout Catholics as “violent extremists,” the shocking raid on the home of a pro-life protester and the raid on former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home as examples of FBI overreach.
“Christopher Asher Wray, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, is impeached for facilitating the development of a Federal police force to intimidate, harass, and entrap American citizens that are deemed enemies of the Biden regime,” Ms. Greene wrote in her resolution containing the impeachment articles.
Impeachment is the process of charging a federal officeholder with high crimes or misdemeanors to remove them from office.
Ms. Greene also announced articles of impeachment against Matthew Graves, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. She accused him of having “totally subverted the justice system” through his prosecution decisions.
She said he has “refused to prosecute” two-thirds of arrests in the nation’s capital, while pursuing hundreds of cases against those present at the Jan. 6, 2021, mob attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The FBI declined to comment but the Justice Department issued a statement calling both men “dedicated public servants who have committed their careers to keeping our country safe.”
“Their work and their service are critical to the safety and security of our country and our nation’s capital,” the department said.
To be impeached requires only a majority vote in the House, but it takes a two-thirds vote in the Senate to convict and remove an official.
Ms. Greene’s resolutions come a day after a special counsel released a report faulting the FBI for its investigation into candidate Donald Trump, and then-President Trump, starting in 2016. Special Counsel John Durham concluded that the FBI allowed itself to be politically blinded in its pursuit of Mr. Trump.
Ms. Greene’s articles join other impeachment resolutions filed against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Backers have said that, while they believe he deserves impeachment for mismanagement of the border, they aren’t close to garnering enough votes to pass an impeachment resolution through the House.
It’s not clear that the Wray resolution will fare better.
Ms. Greene filed articles of impeachment last year against Attorney General Merrick Garland. That resolution gained just five co-sponsors and never saw action in the Democrat-controlled House.
Ms. Greene, in her new resolution against Mr. Wray, cited a memo that emerged from the FBI’s office in Richmond, Virginia, that equated Catholics who like to attend the traditional Latin mass to domestic terrorists. That document, which was later disavowed, cited the Southern Poverty Law Center as an authority for labeling groups as out of the mainstream.
Ms. Greene also pointed to the raid last year on the home of Mark Houck, a pro-life protester whom federal prosecutors charged with blockading an abortion clinic entrance. His defenders say that despite an offer to turn himself in, he and his family faced a traumatizing raid where agents rushed into the home with firearms. Mr. Houck was acquitted by a jury.
The congresswoman also said the FBI, while pursuing Mr. Trump, took actions that “shielded” Mr. Biden’s son, Hunter Biden.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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