(Washington) The director of the US Federal Police (FBI) was hit by a flood of criticism from elected Republicans during a hearing in Congress on Wednesday, who accused his forces of working against conservative voices.
During a face-to-face meeting that lasted nearly six hours, Christopher Wray had to defend his services, which have become a favorite target of Republicans since Donald Trump became president, and since several investigations were launched. Former President.
For example, Republican elected officials have accused the FBI of sending undercover agents to incite supporters of Donald Trump to attack the Capitol on January 6, 2021, but “censoring” conservative views on social networks.
Mike Johnson, elected from Louisiana, criticized the federal police for going too far in an effort to encourage social networks to fight misinformation about the 2020 elections and vaccines against Covid-19.
“If this information came from conservative sources, the FBI was forced to take social media off the Internet,” Johnson said.
Mr. Wray has “personally worked to make the FBI a weapon against conservatives,” said Wyoming Republican Elected Official Harriet Hageman.
Such an allegation “is delusional to me, given my background,” responded Christopher Wray, himself a Republican voter and appointed to his post by Donald Trump in 2017.
The 56-year-old lawyer also called the allegation that the federal police planned the attack on January 6, 2021 as absurd.
“We are not asking social networks to censor information or remove information,” he defended himself. His firm contacts these firms only when it detects activity from accounts linked to foreign intelligence services, he said.
“The men and women of the FBI work tirelessly every day to protect Americans from dizzying threats,” from Chinese espionage to the dangers of fentanyl, Christopher Wray continued.
He also pointed out that the US Federal Police arrested more than 20,000 criminals and pedocriminals last year.
The flood of criticism from elected Republicans is seen by many pundits as an attempt by the opposition to undermine Joe Biden and the Democratic Party ahead of the November 2024 election.
