Congress, Free Speech

My Wray or the Hard Wray: New Twitter Files Contradict FBI Director’s Testimony

Yesterday’s hearing with FBI Director Christopher Wray was another maddening experience of faux contrition and open evasion. Wray apologized for violations that have already been established by courts or Congress (often over the best efforts of the FBI). However, on ample public evidence of new violations, Wray continued to use his favorite testimonial trilogy to dismiss any questions: expressing (1) lack of knowledge, (2) ongoing investigations, and (3) promises of later answers or briefings. He did, however, hold forth in detail after Rep. Eric Swalwell asked him about FBI Family Day. Despite the near total lack of substance, Wray did make one surprising denial. He insisted that the FBI does not engage in censorship efforts, focuses only on “foreign disinformation,” and does not pressure companies to censor others. Those denials are not only directly contradicted by the recent 155-page opinion of a federal court and the Twitter Files, but a new release from the Twitter Files and journalist Matt Taibbi.

Wray said that “…The FBI is not in the business of moderating content, or causing any social media company to suppress or censor.” He then added that these companies are not under any pressure in making their own decisions whether to censor people or groups flagged by the FBI.

The statement is obviously false. The FBI maintained a large operation of agents actively seeking the censorship of thousands, as discussed in my prior testimony.

Taibbi, however, has released another example of how aggressive the FBI was with social media companies. In the latest Twitter Files release, there is one email exchange where Twitter “immediately” suspended accounts flagged by the FBI without investigation.

Taibbi explained:

“In one shot, you can see the FBI asks to remove three accounts, that gets forwarded to Twitter, Twitter immediately suspends them, the accounts. But more importantly, when there’s a glitch, and the accounts remain up, the FBI immediately writes back and says, what’s the deal? We just wrote to you, why is it still up? So, that shows the nature of the relationship basically that it’s not really a collaboration. It’s much more like somebody reporting to an authority.

… [W]hat happens in these instances in the ones that I was showing, they’re just forwarding names of accounts that they say are associated with foreign threat actors. It’s very vague. And Twitter is taking them down before they even investigate. In this case, they later determined that they couldn’t find anything connecting them to any bad actors. In fact, one of them was from Canada. And so, that’s the problem. If it’s not connected with a crime, they’re just asking to take accounts down because they don’t like the profile of them.”

We also have hundreds of emails that show the FBI and other agencies targeting individuals for a wide array of disinformation, misinformation, and malinformation. The latter category is truly Orwellian. It covers true statements that can be used for a misleading purpose.

The latest email does not suggest that the FBI was the passive, helpful agency portrayed by the Director. For most people reading the email, it sounds like it is my Wray or the hard Wray.

161 thoughts on “My Wray or the Hard Wray: New Twitter Files Contradict FBI Director’s Testimony”

  1. This situation requires boiling down to a nutshell so I’ll make it short. The head of the FBI says he didn’t know if there were FBI agents in the January 6 crowd. He is either incompetent or a liar. My mistake. He’s both. Gee, like two thirds of Americans agree with my assessment. Unlike the leftist thirty three percent on this blog.

    1. So the director of the FBI is supposed to know where each and every agent is at all times?

      1. Yes, and when he finds them acting contrary to policy such as FISA abuses he needs to fire them.

      2. Might as well ask, “So the Director of the FBI is supposed to be able to obtain information as to whether or not there were FBI agents acting undercover on Jan 6?”

      3. Perhaps the Director should come to know where his subordinate agents were after what we were told was an “insurrection” which nearly ended “are Democracy.” He could, perhaps, ask his subordinate agents, or – I don’t know – review the various reports and documents generated by the Bureau he heads?

        But I suppose he could continue to pretend “I wasn’t there so I don’t know” instead.

    2. This situation DOES require boiling down to a nutshell: Republicans are running scared because their frontrunner, a twice-impeached, twice-indicted former office holder who cheated to get into office, cannot beat the current POTUS, who has done a marvelous job of turning around the public health and economic mess he inherited from their frontrunner. So, they have to go after someone, anyone, to divert attention away from the fact that the evidence is overwhelming that their frontrunner is a crook. Therefore, it MUST be the case that the DOJ and FBI, who investigated and are prosecuting the frontrunner, are the REAL crooks. Oh, they tried to drum up BS about the allegedly “demented” current POTUS being the head of a “crime family”, but their “whistleblower” has disappeared (on the lam after being indicted before all of this happened), so they go after the head of the FBI.

      1. Gigi at it again.
        If brandon is doing such a wonderful job, why is his approval rating in the gutter, and why does 75% think the country is headed in the wrong direction?
        Answer that or please stfu

        1. How do I answer that? Because gullible people like you, who cannot think for themselves, who need to tune in to daily affirmation from alt-right sources who tell them lies, including that: 1. the US is in recession; it isn’t, but they keep lying about it; 2. fail to report that every month, for the last 2 years, inflation has gone down; also, that real wages are going up; 3. fail to report that the US has the lowest unemployment rate in 50 years; 4. constantly lie about a “Biden Crime Family”, even though they cannot produce any evidence; they harp about a “Hunter Biden Scandal”, but can’t prove anything other than failing to pay taxes–which have been paid; and lying on a gun permit. Hunter has pleaded, but they need something, anything, to keep attacking Joe Biden over, so they can’t shut up about it; 5. constantly lie and downplay the proof that Bideconomics is working: supply chain constantly improving after Trump’s ignorant trade war with China; 6. Play down the importance of the Infrastructure Act which will create thousands of good-paying jobs to build and rebuild long over due bridges, airports and roads; Republicans who voted against the Infrastructure Act brag to their constituents that they “brought” such projects to their home state; 7.. attack NATO and the EU, because Trump, who kisses up to Putin, went after these allies because they are preventing Russia from re-forming the Soviet Union. Joe Biden mended these relations; 8. lies about “open borders”– Under US law, migrants can come to the border and apply for asylum, and this is not illegal. Until immigration laws are changed, nothing can be done about it, other than to schedule them for hearings and make them prove their case. By any OBJECTIVE measure, Biden has been one of the most-successful Presidents in US history–so why the problem with public perception? Alt-right media and the massive ego and mendacity of Donald Trump, who just can’t stopy lying. He is being indicted because he stole classified documents, he used campaign funds to pay off a porn actress and will likely be indicted for demanding that Georgia and other swing states falsify election records to make it appear he won when he really lost. We cannot allow such crimes to go unpunished, so alt-right media constantly accuses the DOJ and FBI of being politically-motivated, and there are gullibles like you who believe this lie without ever considering the threat to democracy he posed if he had gotten away with these crimes. Just think–a candidate doesn’t like the outcome, so he has his VP refuse to accept the certified vote totals and gets states to falsify election results. Why don’t people like you see this for the totalitarian move that it was–to defeat the will of the American voters? There are still people who beleive the Big Lie, and that the Jan 6 invasion of the Capitol was done by FBI agents. Why do people believe such lies? Alt-right media.

          If Trump could have found a way to cheat to stay in office, Zelenskyy would be dead and Ukraine long ago taken over by Russia, Poland would either be overrun by Russia or fighting a war and losing citizens, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania would have been taken over by Russia, and we would be in or well on the way to WW III. We also would be in a full-on depression, too, and COVID would not be under control, either, because Trump failed to have any logistical plans for vaccine storage and distribution. All Trump did was divert money to Pfizer and other companies to develop a vaccine, but storage and distribution were not planned for. Trump tore up the pandemic playbook put together by the Obama administration in anticipation of Ebola. Unemployment would be rampant, and inflation would be high, due to Trump’s stupid tariffs. We would be in real trouble right now, if Trump could have gotten away with the plot on Jan 6 to deny certification of Biden’s victory–based on exactly what? All proof confirms that the Big Lie was just that–the product of a sore loser who had a platform that allowed him to lie about losing the election. And…who do people like you blame? Mike Pence, who had NO authority to refuse to accept the certified votes.

    3. “The head of the FBI says . . .”

      This exchange was a doozy:

      When asked about the Bank of America data they requested, he replied that he didn’t know anything about that.

      Then, a few questions later, he replied to another question about BoA: Everything we did with BoA was legal.

      When you lie for a living, it’s difficult to keep your lies straight.

  2. Funny, I don’t remember Feds influencing The NY Times, WAPO, or any other newspaper in the selection of opinion pieces or letters. Of course, that was back before journalism died out.

  3. Thank you for your continuing attention to our desperate problem with Federal censorship. What is needed in Congress is not so much your testimony but your help with framing questions for Congressmen who are otherwise unable to uncover information on their own.

  4. An outstanding picture of wray. Focus right on the face and eyes and it screams at you: “SWAMP”.

    1. There are fewer swamps in Florida and Louisiana – combined, compared to DC.

  5. Chris Christie has just been quoted as saying that he would keep Mr. Wray at the FBI, if he were elected president. So much for that vote of confidence.
    It would seem to me an Attorney General from one of the States would be a good choice to replace Mr. Wray. While also stipulating that they have some extensive, credible, in the field law enforcement work. Also the same might pertain to the US Attorney General.
    Sometimes you have to shed a whole layer or 2, or 3 of leadership in order to get down to some new and invigorated life in a moribund service or corporation. There are leaders there but they have to be brought forth and that is leadership also.
    Reportedly Napoleon (unverified) said that a Marshal’s Baton could be in any corporals backpack. Leadership can arise from anywhere, but you have to look, try it, keep it if it works, terminate it if it does not.
    Read about Vice Admiral Charles Lockwood and how he rebuilt an almost moribund submarine service in the Pacific during WW2. A near perfect example of leadership and rapid turnaround.
    Any new Republican Administration needs to use this approach. You have to use sense also. Feelings can be hurt but results count.
    Success does not just happen. It has to be driven by proper picks and leadership. Ruthless leadership when necessary. If non effective civil servants can’t be fired they then move them to a big building with lots of windows to stare out of and tedious tasks (similar to the Japanese window men). Early retirement can be liberally offered with no chance for return.
    There are plenty of good studies of of turnarounds but they require will, shrinkage, terminations and termination of product lines, so to speak. Return to the fundamentals of service and law enforcement.

  6. Am I wrong (please tell me I am) but isn’t Wray a Chris Christie stooge? And why would anyone not a Democrat rely on Christie’s recommendation on anything, except planning highway chaos in rush hour traffic? Seems to me that Trump on the ball would have minimized his years of DOJ/FBI misery had he steered clear of Christie and his cronies. Wasn’t that obvious after Hurricane Sandy, when Christie embraced Obama? Wasn’t that obvious when Christie nominated Romney in a Republican Convention speech that was 95% bloviating about Christie but ended with a footnote: “I support Mitt Romney.”

    Do Fat Men fly off radar?

    “When will they ever learn? When will they ever learn.”

  8. I have been seeing Maria Shiver on NBC Today more and more lately.
    https://www.today.com/mariashriver

    Since She is a part of the Kennedy family, I am wondering since Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is Running, that NBC has decided to support the RFK Ticket.

    Which brings me to consider Whom would be RFK’s Running-Mate:

    RFK & Hillary (!Surprise-Surprise! I’m Baaaack!)
    RFK & Newsom (O.M.G. This is my Ticket Outta California!)
    RFK & Marianne Williamson (Kamala Part II)
    RFK &Harris (NO)
    RFK &Buttigieg (Possible)
    RFK & Whitmer (Maybe)
    RFK & Bernie (Oh No!)
    RFK & AOC (Too Radical)
    RFK & Donald (No-Way)
    RFK & Hunter (Dude, are you High?)

    RFK & Who ???

    1. Wouldn’t any VP from Cali be out because both can’t be from the same state?

        1. Answer:

          It is preferred, but not legally required, that the running mate be from a different state from the presidential nominee, because each elector can vote for no more than one candidate from their own state. Running mates can also be chosen from swing states in order to boost a candidate’s chance of winning in the state.

          Running mate – Wikipedia › Running_mate
          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Running_mate

  9. So far we have a ridiculous argument over 1 social media platform, and the denial is strong and outrageous as we see here by the usual suspects.
    A big problem is a SLEW of social media platforms and the biggest honcho of all, Google, have already been outed as complicit in what the Twitter files exposed, but no one has done a thing save a single judge who will obviously be entirely ignored.

    “A communications highway had been built linking the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence with Twitter, Facebook, Google, and a slew of other platforms.”

    Matt Taibbi, twitter files deep dive personal eyes secret twitter archives on reporter.
    https://www.racket.news/p/meet-the-censored-me
    A SLEW OF PLATFORMS….
    I think the FBI and all the government censors are very pleased with themselves and their ongoing censorship.

  10. But where is the content of this latest email you cite becausue the direct to Taibbif forces one to sign up for his substack in order to access it.

    Sine you refereneced it why not post the content if not the complete email?

    1. For the same reason he does not post the US Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Federalist Papers, or the faculty directory of the many faculty at the many universities he discusses in his well cited and academic articles.

      OTOH, given your Gravatar profile of “@hawkeowl”, you could buy a computer or electronic tablet, purchase an account to an internet provider, learn how to use the internet and search for whatever it is that pangs you. Then again, your handlers should inform you that Turley’s commenters don’t suffer trolls fools gladly

      Your handlers are sending their bottom dwelling trolls these days

  11. Director Wray demonstrated extraordinary competence in double speak, double think, and avoidance of giving truthful, direct and substantive answers. Ta-da! Good for him. Give him an A+ for his performance. However, he did absolutely nothing to instill confidence in the tarnished reputation of the FBI’s leadership and the institution as a whole. One could argue that he further advanced the perception that the agency no longer trustworthy.

    1. The Republicans are useless. Why don’t they coordinate their questioning so that they can focus on one topic at a time moving from one to the next after they’ve completed each?

      Regarding the censorship, why did Republicans let him get away with saying they focus on foreign sources? This is false, and there is ample evidence of US accounts that the FBI “requested” be removed, including as most recently revealed at the behest of the SBU. Why didn’t the Republicans have a list of those to throw back at Wray when he disssmbled? Unprepared.

      Wray once again refused to answer questions about the presence of law enforcement employees and/or informants at the J6 event. Why don’t the Republicans subpoena this information?

      These sessions are mere theatre, where Republicans play at outrage but never use the available information or power they have to get a result. Pathetic.

      1. “The Republicans are useless. Why don’t they coordinate their questioning”

        Republicans have two objectives, but the main one is to put themselves in a favorable light for their constituents. That means their jarring questions obtain no answers as it is the next Congressman’s turn to perform.

        We must take the light off the individual Congressmen so that substantial investigations occur. We need a singular ‘prosecutor’ directing the questioning one topic at a time. Make Wray bring the agents that can answer the questions he can’t. Close the hearings to the public if those answers are classified. The hearings should be closed as needed to hear information that is classified.

        Finally, we need a Congress that is willing to do its job. Defund the FBI if the FBI doesn’t respect Congress’s authority. Threaten jail, pensions, etc., for those inappropriately withholding information.

      2. There are a few problems with Congressional oversight in this day and age. First, there is no neutral magistrate to arbitrate whether the question was improper (compound/irrelevant etc.), or whether the witness has fairly met the substance of the question. In a Court of law, the witness says “I can’t answer your question because of an ongoing four year investigation,” and the Judge says “that’s b.s. I direct you to answer the question.” If the witness refuses, the witness can sometimes be made to play “don’t forget your toothbrush.” Wray knows that there is no way for the Committee to make him answer any questions he doesn’t want to answer, and that Merrick Garland will in any event refuse to fulfill his oath of office and prosecute Wray for contempt. Wray’s character is such that he doesn’t innately feel like he has to tell the truth to those people even while under oath to do so, and as a consequence he won’t.

        Second, the coordinated media response can range from simply ignoring the questioning that doesn’t support the narrative (dynamic silence) to playing “look at these crazy Republicans harassing this nice man!” When the media wants to aid a narrative, it will allow the partisan Committee to hold its hearings during EST Prime Time and preempt its regularly scheduled programming in order to get what it wants before Ma and Pa Kettle.

        Ultimately, the Congress’s ultimate power is that of the purse. A committed GOP majority of one or both Houses must be prepared to slash the FBI’s budget to the bone in order to bring it to heel.

  12. Chris “Slow Walk” Wray lies like a pumpkin pie. He smiles for the cameras because he knows that the Democrats in the Senate have his back. Like Biden, he is totally protected and I’m betting is our next Biden nominee for the Presidential Medal of Freedom for “saving democracy”. Museum grade or Platinum Grade BS. Take your pick…..

    1. @skyraider1717: re: :”I’m betting is our next Biden nominee for the Presidential Medal of Freedom” Why not? .There’s already a precedent. It was given to draft dodger extraordinaire Bruce Springsteen by Biden’s boss.

  13. Wray claimed that the FBI “focuses only on ‘foreign disinformation’ . . .”

    Which means that:

    Joe, a U.S. citizen, once had an online exchange with @russia007. That makes Joe a potential peddler of “disinformation.” (We, of course, have no idea what that word means. But it sounds nefarious, doesn’t it?)

    Since we now have a plausible pretext, the FBI will monitor Joe’s opinions. And “request” that any be stricken that could maybe, possibly be interpreted (by someone) as disinformation. As a super-precaution, we’ll “request” his phone and bank activities. (After all — Putin.)

    (For you conspiracy theorists: The FBI’s monitoring of Joe has *nothing* to do with his criticisms of the Administration’s policies.)

    Weasels gonna weasel.

    1. Indeed – I don’t see where in the FBI’s warrant controlling the communications between foreign persons and even foreign governments and the U.S. population is to be found. Can the FBI block my access to BBC America if the FBI doesn’t like some characterization made by the BBC? iT’s fOReIgN DIsInfORmATiOn!

  14. Project Protect Hillary at all cost ! (Hillary = Machiavelli)
    He deserves an Oscar Nomination for this year’s Best Supporting Actor,
    But my money’s on Merrick Garland for the Best Actor Award.

  15. He then added that these companies are not under any pressure in making their own decisions whether the censor people or groups flagged by the FBI.

    The next question to Wray should have been.

    Director Wray, Under what enumerated constitutional power do you send send such requests flagging accounts?

    Even the Republicans aren’t bright enough to pin Wray down on his Constitutional authority. I would love to have someone like Dershowitz drill down hard on the FBI’s enumerated power.

    This bull of hiding behind ‘request’, needs to be put down once and for all.

    1. “This bull of hiding behind ‘request’, needs to be put down once and for all.”

      Exactly!

      The FBI is not a suggestion box. It’s a law enforcement agency.

      In reality, that “request” means: The government wants you to disappear.

      1. Law enforcement is often best conducted via suggestion and open communication. This is what community policing is all about.

        Great policing involves knowing the community in which you operate. Why can’t a law enforcement agency foster open communication and collaboration?

        In fact, I would go so far as to say that a law enforcement agency is NOT doing its job if its only interactions with civilians involve antagonistic encounters, such as arrests.

        1. “community policing”

          Aka: Soviet-style, friends-and-family spying — for the tyrants.

          1. Got it. That’s what you think community policing is. Perhaps you should read up on what how the law is enforced before making sweeping comments about how law enforcement should operate.

            1. “community policing”

              The Left’s MO is to put a smiley face on corruption and evil. How? By playing games with words. In this case, it morphs “censorship” into “community policing.”

              Why? Because Americans won’t swallow censorship. But if you coat censorship in community policing, they will swallow the poison.

              Just like you get your dog to take a pill by wrapping it in peanut butter.

          2. Sam, the same people that bring you Community Policing, brought you Reproductive health care, instead of killing babies.

            The Judge is clear in the ruling, he was shutting down everything that did not tough on “policing”. We know the trolls are lying when they fall back on policing.

        2. Which CRIME was the FBI investigating when asking twitter to ban speakers on its platform?

          It’s highly inappropriate and destructive to liberty for the police to go to your neighborhood and insinuate but not state that you’re a criminal so that people in your community refuse to associate with or do business with you. There’s a world of difference between Officer O’Boyle walking into the doughnut shop to ask if anyone has seen anything out of the ordinary and law enforcement first reviewing your political speech and then asking people not to associate with you on the insinuation that you’re a criminal.

    3. ” When we got into the Files, we were caught off guard. The content-policing system was more elaborate and organized than any of us imagined. A communications highway had been built linking the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence with Twitter, Facebook, Google, and a slew of other platforms. Among other things this looked more like a cartel than a competitive media landscape, and I had an uneasy feeling early on that publicizing this arrangement might create a host of unanticipated problems for everyone involved. ”

      https://www.racket.news/p/meet-the-censored-me

      The Twitter Files, completely blocked by mainstream media, I’m certain director wray has no idea what the twitter files means. If he does, there is an ongoing investigation so he cannot comment. Please inquire at the IRS who has been attacking the reporters who worked at Twitter exposing the secrets the FBI and company censors kept for many years.

  18. As he showed so convincingly and clearly yesterday, Christopher Wray is nothing more than a celebrity place holder for what an FBI director is expected to look and sound like. The FBI needs a strong quarterback, not a cheerleader who, when trying to act like a law enforcement official, trips over his own pom-poms. The FBI needs a strong police executive, someone who knows the work of a law enforcement officer and understands the culture and organizational challenges of the profession. The public, in turn, expects as a director someone who does not hide behind self-imposed rules intended to cover up mistakes but, instead, expects a director that tells the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. That person for certain is not Christopher Wray, the man given to us by Chris Christi, his mentor. Both are exactly what they appear to be: empty suits (one a bit larger than the other).

  19. what does Wray care…Republicans GAVE democrats many Trillions just last month. It isn’t like the DOJ or FBI are going to arrest themselves.

    The Russian Hoax was the biggest crime in US history!

  20. Everyone knows the DOJ and FBI are 100% corrupt for democrats…and that most of the leadership are fine with Democrats leading the country to ruin. The Rule of Law is quite dead in the USA.

    H.G. Wells book “Outline of History” describes the fall of empire after empire once the Machiavellian have centralized power.

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