House GOP slams FBI chief for colluding with Big Tech to censor Americans
By bellecarter // 2023-07-17
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Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Christopher Wray faced a barrage of allegations from House Republicans, who argued that the agency censored conservative opinions and comments on social media and for running what they called illegal scrutiny of U.S. citizens under a foreign surveillance law. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) opened the hearing, citing a federal court decision in Louisiana a few days earlier. The said ruling found the government suppressed First Amendment rights of people posting on social media platforms on the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic vaccines and mask requirements, under a policy the ruling compared to an "Orwellian Ministry of Truth." Co-owner of San Diego, California-based news outlet Trending Politics Collin Rugg shared a video of the House hearing, where Wray was explaining how communism works in Chinese companies. "Any company of any size in China is required by Chinese law to have what they call a committee, which is a cell inside the company whose sole function is to ensure that company's compliance with Chinese Communist Party orthodoxy. If we tried to install something like that in American companies. People would go out of their minds and rightly so," he struggled to explain. However, in the footage, Jordan immediately quipped, pointing out: "That's exactly what you did and the judge said it last week. Every week you were meeting with big tech companies saying, 'Hey, look at this. This violates your policy. Take this speech of Americans down.' You were doing the same darn thing." Moreover, the House Republicans also blasted Wray's administration for suppressing the story of the "laptop from hell" owned by Hunter, President Joe Biden's son, in 2020. "Are you protecting the Bidens?" asked Rep. Matt Gaetz. Wray responded, "Absolutely not. The FBI does not, has no interest in protecting anyone politically." CNN reported that the two got into a heated debate after the Florida representative alleged that the FBI has "the lowest level of trust in the FBI's history." "People trusted the FBI more when J. Edgar Hoover was running the place than when you are, and the reason is because you don't give straight answers," the congressman said. "Respectfully congressman, in your home state of Florida, the number of people applying to come work for us and devote their lives to working for us is over up over 100 percent," the FBI chief responded. Gaetz quickly clapped back saying, "We're deeply proud of them and they deserve better than you." "What a humiliating day for Christopher Wray," Rugg commented in the Twitter post.

FBI budget needs to be slashed, Jordan recommends

USA Today reported that on Tuesday, Jordan recommended slashing the agency's funding, including money for a proposed new headquarters building in the D.C. region. "The Committee and Select Subcommittee have received startling testimony about egregious abuses, misallocation of federal law-enforcement resources, and misconduct within the leadership ranks of the FBI," Jordan said in a letter to Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Kay Granger, R-Texas. To protect FBI operations or their "vested interests," Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Ca) asked Wray how the calls for defunding and dismantling the FBI would affect them. "We would have hundreds more violent criminals out on the street, dozens more violent gangs terrorizing communities, hundreds more child predators on the loose, hundreds more kids left at those predators' mercy instead of being rescued, scores of threats from the Chinese community party being left unaddressed," Wray claimed. Further coming to Wray's rescue, Democrats accused Republicans of trying to protect former President Donald Trump, who is in the middle of federal charges related to possession of national security documents after an FBI search of Mar-a-Lago 18 months after he left the White House. (Related: Top FBI official flips, says bureau’s search of Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate was rife with improprieties.) "For Republicans, this hearing is little more than performance art. It is an elaborate show designed with only two purposes in mind: to protect Donald Trump from the consequences of his actions, and to return him to the White House in the next election," the committee's lead Democrat Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York said Wednesday. "House Republicans will attack the FBI for having had the audacity to treat Donald Trump like any other citizen. The strategy is simple, really. When in doubt, Chairman Jordan investigates the investigators. The FBI dared to hold Trump accountable, so Republicans must discredit them at all costs," he further alleged. Bookmark FBICorruption.news for stories related to FBI's dishonest or fraudulent conduct.

Sources for this article include:

Edition.CNN.com USAToday.com
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