OPINION:
Christopher Wray’s time as FBI director is coming to an end. Like a smooth-talking detective who relies on the “good cop, bad cop” routine in a procedural drama, the top G-man is a master at pretending to be your friend while being anything but.
Donald Trump announced Mr. Wray’s replacement on Saturday, conveying the message that the services of the bureau’s top man will no longer be required next month. Mr. Wray had been elevated to the role as an easily confirmable replacement for Democratic activist James Comey in 2017. Unfortunately, Mr. Wray has failed to deliver on his promise to set a new course for an agency consumed by politics.
Mr. Wray also failed to provide oversight committees with relevant answers and responsive documents. On the other hand, when reckless media outlets were determined to promote a political hoax, Mr. Wray spared no expense spreading alarmism about “domestic extremists.”
In 2020, the FBI director dispatched no fewer than 15 special agents to Talladega Superspeedway to investigate a garage door pull-down after NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace suggested it might be evidence of a hate crime. That’s almost as many detectives as the Los Angeles Police Department assigned to investigate the Manson Family murder spree in the late 1960s.
The bureau hasn’t let up on its unprecedented nationwide dragnet, indicting 1,243 conservatives for trespassing at the U.S. Capitol nearly four years ago. Last Friday, a Florida man was charged with using “a deadly or dangerous weapon” on the west front of the Capitol. The lethal implement wasn’t a gun or a knife, as the terms imply. It was a large Trump 2020 banner.
While rambunctious sign bearers are being identified and captured using high-tech spy tools, the same FBI asserts it has no idea who planted pipe bombs outside the Democratic and Republican Party headquarters on Jan. 6.
We likewise know little about the men who attempted to assassinate Mr. Trump. The FBI brass seem willing to talk only when the discussion advances a political narrative favored by the current administration.
No wonder Mr. Trump wants new leadership in the form of Kash Patel, the former deputy director of national intelligence. If Mr. Patel were a Democrat, he’d be lauded as the first potential FBI director of color. Instead, his nomination faces opposition from those who don’t want change at the J. Edgar Hoover Building.
The most potent bullet point on Mr. Patel’s resume is the one outlining his service as chief investigator for then-House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes. The committee’s work ultimately exposed the Russia hoax that Hillary Clinton created and the FBI perpetuated — including on Mr. Wray’s watch.
Having seen behind the curtain, Mr. Patel won’t be fooled by the good-cop, bad-cop routines of those who would resist efforts to restore the bureau’s tattered reputation.
The nominee summed up his intentions at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February: “We are going to look back and say, we helped destroy the two-tiered system of justice that is targeting Americans illegally. We helped destroy and identify an intelligence community that has gone rogue to seize our right to vote with their lies and fake disinformation campaigns.”
Given the likelihood of internal investigations of FBI conduct, it’s likely hundreds of agents will scurry for the exits in the weeks ahead. That would be the first sign that real change is coming to the nation’s top law enforcement agency.
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