News/Commentary

Hawley makes FBI Chief admit he cut legally required Senate hearing to fly private jet to vacation

November 18, 2022 | | Print Article

Senator Josh Hawley put FBI Director Christopher Wray on the spot during a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing, grilling the smug bureaucrat over his “indefensible” early departure from an August oversight hearing to jet off for a vacation in the Adirondacks.

The exchange went down on Thursday when the Missouri Republican put Wray on the spot on a day when he refused to answer questions about whether FBI agents disguised as supporters of former President Donald J. Trump were inside the Capitol on January 6, 2021, confronting him about media reports that the reason for his depriving GOP senators of an opportunity to conduct oversight wasn’t for business but rather his personal trip.

“Director Wray, let me start with you if I could,” Hawley began as Mitt Romney scurried away, “I think the last time that I got to visit with you was back in August, August 4 of this year, you were at the Senate Judiciary Committee, you remember that I assume?”

“We had to cut that hearing short, we were supposed to do two rounds of questions, “you said you had to be somewhere so we cut it short, Republicans were not able to ask a second round as we had been informed we would.”

“The press reported shortly thereafter that the reason that the hearing had to be cut short is because you were flying on a Gulfstream jet for a personal vacation in the Adirondacks,” he continued. “Please tell me that’s not accurate.”

https://twitter.com/philipletsou/status/1593295188444811266?s=20&t=wb-K6ysk3ewF54uDYGl7tQ

“Senator, the hearing was not cut short for my experience,” Wray replied, “We had agreed beforehand on the time and length of it and I was very surprised to find that anyone on the committee was surprised, as to how I fly, I am required, not only permitted but required to fly on an FBI plane wherever I go..”

“So you were going on vacation?” Hawley asked.

“I was, yes,” admitted the FBI boss.

“So you left a statutorily required oversight hearing in order to go on a personal vacation in the Adirondacks?” Hawley inquired.

Wray answered, “I took a flight to go visit my family as had been previously arranged in conjunction with the leadership of the committee,” as Hawley said, “no, no, no” and refreshed his memory as to the exact contest of his August remarks.

“The ranking member Chuck Grassley asked you during the hearing, ‘I assumed you must have other business,’ you said, ‘yes,’ he then said, ‘if you have a business trip, you’ve got your own plane can’t it wait awhile?,’ he then said, Chuck Grassley, ‘we only heard just half an hour ago that now you have to leave, we were going to have a 7 minute round followed by a 3 minute round, I’ve got 7 people on the aisle’ that included me, ‘who are waiting for this additional round, is there any reason we can’t accommodate them for 21 minutes?’ and you said, you had a plane to catch, you had somewhere to go and now we find out it was for vacation,” Hawley said.

After the hearing, Hawley tweeted a link to a New York Post story on how he had gotten Wray to admit to the truth.

Twitter users didn’t hold back in blasting Wray’s arrogance and dishonesty.

The smirking Wray knows very well that he will never face accountability under the current regime and he oozes arrogance, as was evident during his words with Sen. Grassley in August.

As if any more examples are needed of why public trust in the FBI as an institution has plummeted, the director just served them up.

Get the latest BPR news delivered free to your inbox daily. SIGN UP HERE

Chris Donaldson
Latest posts by Chris Donaldson (see all)

Comment

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

Latest Articles