Director Wray Assures House Republican He’s ‘Familiar’ With Court Ruling Eviscerating FBI Over ‘Colluding’ With Big Tech
Louisiana Republican Rep. Mike Johnson on Wednesday confronted FBI Director Christopher Wray for not even mentioning a court ruling that the FBI was part of “the most massive attack against free speech in United States history,” and asked him if he had read it.
Wray expressed that he is “familiar” with the stunning injunction out of Louisiana which has put a temporary prohibition on agencies like the FBI from directly coordinating with social media and tech companies on things like account bans and removal of posts.
After his lengthy opening statement touting the FBI’s reputation and work, and which like much of the rest of the hearing focused on the raid of Mar-a-Lago for classified documents in Donald Trump’s persistent possession, Johnson asked Wray about the court case and whether the Director had even read it.
“I am familiar with the ruling, and I’ve reviewed it with our Office of General Counsel,” said Wray.
When Johnson asked whether Wray was “deeply disturbed” by the ruling that the media has largely dismissed as judicial activism because the judge was appointed during the Trump administration, Wray answered only that they would comply with it.
Johnson went into a long description of the ruling, which he said found “the FBI engaged in a massive effort to suppress disfavored conservative speech and blatantly ignored the First Amendment right to free speech,” and the two then had a back-and-forth about whether the FBI focuses on “disinformation,” what the definition of the word is, and, despite saying he would not comment further, Wray disputed the court’s finding as “absurd.”
Wray’s contentious appearance before the House Oversight Committee began with chair Rep. Jim Jordan unloading on him over Hunter Biden, Mar-a-Lago, school board meetings and more.
REP. JOHNSON: And then July 4th, we had this explosive, explosive 155 page opinion from a federal court in my home state of Louisiana. It explains in detail that the FBI has been directly involved in what the the court says is, quote, arguably the most massive attack against free speech in United States history. The court ordered the White House, DOJ and FBI, among others, to immediately cease colluding with and coercing social media companies to suppress American speech. Of course, conservative speech in particular. Director Wray, I find it stunning you made no mention of this court opinion either in your opening statement today or in this lengthy 14-page report that you prepared on July 12th, which is eight days after the court ruling. Have you read the ruling, sir?
DIR. WRAY: I am familiar with the ruling, and I’ve reviewed it with our Office of General Counsel.
REP. JOHNSON: Are you deeply disturbed by what they’ve told you about the ruling, if you haven’t read it yourself?
DIR. WRAY: Obviously, we’re going to comply with the court’s order, the court’s preliminary injunction. We sent out guidance to the field and headquarters about how to do that. Needless to say, the injunction itself is a subject of ongoing litigation, and so I’ll decline to comment further on that.
REP. JOHNSON: But let me tell you what the court concluded, because it should be the first thing you think about every morning and the last thing you think about at night. They said that, quote, The court found apparently the FBI engaged in a massive effort to suppress disfavored conservative speech and blatantly ignored the First Amendment right to free speech.
Watch the clip above, via C-SPAN.
