Wednesday, July 12, 2023

Insane or Ridiculous, or Worse


He's not kidding. As you can see in the video affixed to the tweet below, Harriet Hageman, who in November of 2022 defeated Liz Cheney in the GOP primary, then went on to win election to Wyoming's at-large House seat, repeated the standard Republican charge against the Federal Bureau of Investigation and its director. At a congressional hearing, she came at Christopher Wray with

Mr. Wray, from the Twitter files, Missouri vs. Biden disclosures, the Durham investigation and report and exposure and collapse of the Russian collusion hoax, the American people fully understand that there is a two-tiered justice system that has been weaponized to persecute people based on their political beliefs and that you have personally worked to weaponize the FBI against conservatives. I asked Mr. Durham about this, to which he answered "I don't thing this can go too much further with the view that law enforcement, particularly the FBI or the Justice Department, runs a two-tiered system of  justice. The nation can't stand under those circumstances. Director Wray, what are you prepared to do to reform federal law enforcement in a manner which earns back the trust of the American people?

Hoax! Hoax! Hoax! Republicans continue to spread that lie as if they never read the Mueller report. Of course, there is a two-tiered system of justice, which Ms. Hageman should have at least contemplated with the George Floyd/black lives matter protest of the second half of 2020. 

There is a two-tiered system- albeit severely exaggerated three years ago- against blacks. There is a two-tiered system severely biased against the non-wealthy, traditionally underestimated and in the wake of those protests, completely ignored. And there is a two-tiered system, ignored by Democrats and Republicans, left, right, and center, which comes down hard on individuals charged with violation of municipal and state ordinances and laws while slapping the wrists of offenders charged with violating federal law.

Presumably, though, Hageman gave little thought to those points of injustice because she was focused on undermining federal law enforcement. "You have personally worked to weaponize the FBI against conservatives," the congresswoman told Director Wray, adding fuel to the obvious truism that simply switching out males for females will magically create a competent Congress and just society. In response, Wray noted

Well, first off, I would disagree with your characterization of the FBI and certainly your description of my own approach. The idea that I'm biased against conservatives seems somewhat insane to me given my own personal background.



Insane, yes, if Hageman actually believes it. And Wray is neither lying, exaggerating, or kidding. From a press release last August of Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island: 

In a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) today received confirmation from FBI Director Christopher Wray that the FBI sent tips that the agency had collected about Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh to the Trump White House without investigation.  The tips were collected through the FBI’s existing tip line as part of a supplemental background investigation after allegations of sexual misconduct emerged during Justice Kavanaugh’s 2018 confirmation process.  Wray also confirmed that the Trump White House directed which witnesses the FBI was permitted to interview.

“You reviewed them for purposes of separating from tip line traffic but did not further investigate the ones that related to Kavanaugh, correct?” Whitehouse asked in reference to the more than 4,500 tips collected by the FBI.

Director Wray responded, “Correct.”

When asked by Whitehouse whether the FBI took direction from the Trump White House as to whom the FBI could question, Wray responded that the agency did take direction from the White House since it was the requesting entity.

Following the exchange, Whitehouse posted to Twitter, “Here’s a thought:  nothing prevented Trump White House from using FBI tip line information to direct FBI investigation away from percipient or corroborating witnesses.”

Thee is no specific date it began. But from roughly the lead-up to the first impeachment hearings against President Trump, Republicans have run a scam in which they continually whine about non-existent persecution form federal law enforcement agencies. In return, Democrats have defended the Department of Justice and FBI, the Capitol police, federal courts, and.... well, you get the idea. 

It has gotten so out-of-hand that Democrats and the mainstream media even have defended Christopher Wray, who by almost any measure, has not been a effective head of the FBI.  The charge from Republican officials and conservatives in social media that Wray has discriminated on behalf of Democrats against them is farcical and a prime example of the disinformation undergirding the Republican Party of today. 



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