FBI Director Christopher Wray, who has been under attack from congressional Republicans, pushed back against critics in a new interview, saying the people accusing the law enforcement agency of bias are trying to gain a political advantage at the FBI’s expense. “I have found almost invariably, the people screaming the loudest about the politicization of the FBI are themselves the most political, and more often than not, making claims of politicization to advance their own views or goals, and they often don’t know the facts or are choosing to ignore them,” Wray said on the podcast “FBI Retired Case File Review.” Wray noted that when President Trump nominated him in 2017, no Republican senator voted against him. “It’s utterly bewildering to me that I or the FBI would be accused of bias against conservatives or any political party,” he said.
A number of Republican congressmen have threatened to cut the agency’s funding and reduce its legal authority over what they claim is a pattern of politically motivated decision-making in cases involving elected officials and President Biden’s son Hunter. On Tuesday, Wray appeared before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and was attacked by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) over the Hunter Biden investigation. Johnson accused the FBI of trying years ago to smear him and hurt his reelection bid. He complained that he wasn’t being given enough information about criminal investigations from the FBI and that he could not trust the information that the agency has shared with him. Wray responded, “The idea that I, as a Republican appointee and a lifelong Republican, is biased in the way that you are describing makes absolutely no sense." Wray said that defunding the FBI would be destructive and dangerous. He said. “Defunding, who does it help? … Violent gangs, child predators, Chinese spies and hackers."