FBI Director Wray Doesn’t Have a Leg to Stand on in Contempt Fight

The era of FBI prestige is over. The FBI killed it, and director Chris Wray seems to be the last one to know. As a result, he’s about to be held in contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena that he has no lawful basis to defy. That is a contemptuous act, regardless of whether Wray is engaged in a cover-up or earnestly concerned that House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer (R., Ky.) is eroding the bureau’s capacity to safeguard intelligence sources and methods.

The director has been watching Efrem Zimbalist Jr. reruns while much of the country reads the Durham Report, and the series of reports on FBI abuses compiled over several years by the Justice Department’s inspector general, and revelations of similar, serial FBI lawlessness generated by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Wray seems to think it’s still 1995, or 2005, or even 2015, when an FBI director could, with a measure of credibility, assure Congress that the bureau conducts politically fraught probes with competence and non-partisan rectitude, and lawmakers could then be expected to back down from making disclosure demands, fearing the public might decide they were obstructing the FBI’s good work.

About the Author

Andrew C. McCarthy

Andrew C. McCarthy is a senior fellow at National Review Institute, an NR contributing editor, and author of Ball of Collusion: The Plot to Rig an Election and Destroy a Presidency.

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The era of FBI prestige is over. The FBI killed it, and director Chris Wray seems to be the last one to know. As a result, he’s about to be held in contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena that he has no lawful basis to defy. That is a contemptuous act, regardless of whether Wray is engaged in a cover-up or earnestly concerned that House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer (R., Ky.) is eroding the bureau’s capacity to safeguard intelligence sources and methods.

The director has been watching Efrem Zimbalist Jr. reruns while much of the country reads the Durham Report, and the series of reports on FBI abuses compiled over several years by the Justice Department’s inspector general, and revelations of similar, serial FBI lawlessness generated by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Wray seems to think it’s still 1995, or 2005, or even 2015, when an FBI director could, with a measure of credibility, assure Congress that the bureau conducts politically fraught probes with competence and non-partisan rectitude, and lawmakers could then be expected to back down from making disclosure demands, fearing the public might decide they were obstructing the FBI’s good work.

About the Author

Andrew C. McCarthy

Andrew C. McCarthy is a senior fellow at National Review Institute, an NR contributing editor, and author of Ball of Collusion: The Plot to Rig an Election and Destroy a Presidency.