In between receiving flak from Republican lawmakers during a heated testimony before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, FBI Director Christopher Wray also touted what was at risk if funding gets pulled for the bureau.
House GOP members, largely led by Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, have made it a mission to increase oversight into the FBI over accusations that it has become “weaponized” against conservatives under the administration of President Joe Biden. Wednesday’s hearing was filled with accusations that the bureau has violated free speech rights on social media, attacked Catholic Americans and has sought to protect Biden and his family from the same legal scrutiny that former President Donald Trump is under.
Some conservative lawmakers have also called to “defund” federal law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, in light of Trump’s 37-count federal indictment over his handling of classified information after he left office. Wray said during his testimony on Wednesday, however, that removing funding for the bureau could have a grim impact on law and order in America.
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“We would have hundreds more violent criminals out on the street,” the director said. “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 Communist Party being left unaddressed, hundreds of ransomware attacks left unmitigated, and terrorist attacks, both jihadist-inspired and domestic violent extremists, not prevented that would succeed against Americans.”
Wray added that it is “not uncommon right now for a single FBI office in a single operation to seize enough fentanyl to wipe out an entire state.”
“We have close to 400, I think it is somewhere between 300 and 400 investigations into the leadership of the cartels trafficking that fentanyl,” he continued. “So you would have a significantly greater threat from the southwest border, from the cartels. So those are just a few things that would happen.”
Jordan was particularly vocal about restricting federal funding for a new FBI headquarters during his opening statements on Wednesday, and has proposed that the agency’s home be moved out of Washington, D.C. In a letter to the House Committee on Appropriations yesterday, Jordan instead proposed that the bureau take up shop in Huntsville, Alabama, at the FBI’s Redstone Arsenal Campus.
“Want to drain the Swamp?” Jordan tweeted Wednesday afternoon. “Start by moving the FBI out of Washington, D.C. Give the agency back to Real America.”
Wray did find refuge from some Democratic members of the House Judiciary Committee, who criticized their Republican counterparts for putting on a political stunt. Representative Jerry Nadler of New York, the top Democrat on the committee, said that Wray’s hearing was “little more than performance art” and accused GOP members of attempting to “protect Donald Trump from the consequences of his actions.”
Republican Representative Ken Buck, a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, also broke with members of his party to issue a thank-you to Wray, and noted that the director was first nominated to the FBI by Trump and was approved by a Republican Senate.
“According to Wikipedia, you are still a registered Republican, and I hope you don’t change your party affiliation after this hearing is over,” Buck told Wray on Wednesday.
Wray said during his testimony that he found it “insane” to accuse him of showing bias against the GOP, given his “personal background.”
Newsweek reached out to the FBI National Press Office Wednesday evening for comment on the hearing.
