An FBI whistleblower who testified to Congress in the spring says FBI Director Christopher Wray is a liar.
According to whistleblower Steve Friend, when Wray testified early Wednesday that the FBI never surveilled school board hearings for dissenting parents, he lied.
“The @FBI Director told @JudiciaryGOP that special agents did not conduct surveillance of school boards. He lied. The Joint Terrorism Task Force in my office did it. I testified about the details in May,” Friend tweeted later that afternoon.
The @FBI Director told @JudiciaryGOP that special agents did not conduct surveillance of school boards. He lied. The Joint Terrorism Task Force in my office did it. I testified about the details in May.
— Steve Friend (@RealStevefriend) July 12, 2023
What Wray specifically said during his testimony Wednesday to Congress was this: “The FBI is not in the business of investigating or policing speech at school board meetings, or anywhere else for that matter, and we’re not gonna start now.”
The problem is that Friend said the exact opposite when he was questioned by Rep. Matt Gaetz while testifying before Congress on May 18th.
Listen:
Below is a transcript of the clip:
Gaetz: “Mr. Friend, you ever been to a school board meeting?”
Friend: “Yes, I have.”
Gaetz: “Has the FBI ever sent you to the parking lot of a school board meeting?”
Friend: “Yes, they have.”
ADVERTISEMENTGaetz: “And in the parking lot of a school board meeting where the FBI sent you, you were taking down information regarding people’s license plates?”
Friend: “That’s correct.”
Gaetz: “It wasn’t the first time you’d been to a school board meeting, was it?”
Friend: “No, I went on my own as a private citizen.”
Gaetz: “As a parent?”
ADVERTISEMENTFriend: “Yes.”
Gaetz: “So there you were taking down the information of parents attending school board meetings on behalf of the FBI, and you’d been one of those parents at a school board meeting. How did that feel?”
Friend: “After I attended privately, my colleagues teased me that they were probably going to start investigating me.”
Gaetz: “You used to go after the worst of the worst, didn’t you? You went after people who looked at child porn, people who were sexually exploiting children, and then you were in the parking lot of a school board meeting taking down the information of parents. What happened to the cases that you were working to protect our communities from the worst predators that exist?”
Friend: “I was told they were not to be resourced, and then after I was suspended, they were handed off to local law enforcement.”
ADVERTISEMENTGaetz: “So the FBI just decided it was more important to have you in that parking lot of that school board meeting than getting the worst of the worst away from people that they could harm.”
So who’s telling the truth? Better yet, who’s lying? Critics for their part are certain that Wray is the liar.
Look:
Good morning to everyone expect serial liar Christopher Wray.
— Catturd ™ (@catturd2) July 13, 2023
Christopher Wray is a liar and a disgrace to the FBI and America !
— Rich Ruger AR-556 (@rich_556) July 12, 2023
Wray = liar extraordinaire.
Also his “ answers” are not answers, but deflections.— Anna (@annalee27737029) July 12, 2023
But this isn’t the only lie Wray reportedly told.
“The @FBI Director told @RepTroyNehls that no agents were reassigned from child exploitation investigations to domestic terrorism. Another lie. I was reassigned from child pornography cases and told those cases were going to be considered a ‘local matter,'” Friend revealed in another tweet.
Speaking on Fox News’ “Jesse Watters Primetime” late Wednesday, Friend said he hopes Republicans hold Wray accountable by holding him in contempt.
“I think that he doesn’t believe that the GOP is going to hold him accountable. That’s why he can stand there and hide behind the constant refrain of saying I can’t comment on an ongoing investigation, I can’t reveal sources and methods, or the new one that he broke out today, where objective evidence was brought of FBI malfeasance, and he will say, ‘Oh, we just don’t do that,'” he said.
“And quite frankly, it’s very disappointing that thus far he’s not been held in any contempt. And after today, where he lied now about two things that I have personal knowledge of in front of the Judiciary Committee, I hope there’s going to be some sort of perjury investigation,” he added.
Listen:
Asked to specify some examples of Wray perjuring himself, Friend said, “Well, he told the committee that no agents were removed off child pornography investigations to work on domestic terrorism, on Jan. 6th. That happened to me in the fall of 2021. That’s exactly what happened to me.”
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V. Saxena is a staff writer with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University. Saxena also contributes to BizPac Review.
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