{"id":1590390,"date":"2022-08-05T08:01:44","date_gmt":"2022-08-05T12:01:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1590390"},"modified":"2022-08-05T08:02:12","modified_gmt":"2022-08-05T12:02:12","slug":"grassleys-questioning-of-wray-suggests-biden-scandal-is-the-tip-of-the-deep-state-iceberg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/grassleys-questioning-of-wray-suggests-biden-scandal-is-the-tip-of-the-deep-state-iceberg\/","title":{"rendered":"Grassley\u2019s Questioning Of Wray Suggests Biden Scandal Is The Tip Of The Deep-State Iceberg"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fgrassleys-questioning-of-wray-suggests-biden-scandal-is-the-tip-of-the-deep-state-iceberg%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1590390&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Sen. Chuck Grassley\u2019s questioning of FBI Director Christopher Wray during Thursday\u2019s Judiciary Committee hearing, when considered in conjunction with the details provided by FBI whistleblowers, is suggestive of an even bigger Hunter Biden scandal.<\/p>\n<p>Last week, Grassley revealed that \u201cmultiple FBI whistleblowers, including those in senior positions,\u201d claimed the \u201cWashington Field Office assistant special agent in charge Timothy Thibault and other FBI officials \u2026 \u2018falsely portray[ed] as disinformation evidence acquired from multiple sources that provided the FBI derogatory information related to Hunter Biden\u2019s financial and foreign business activities, even though some of that information had already been or could be verified.\u2019\u201d The whistleblowers also told the Iowa Republican senator that \u201cin August of 2020, FBI supervisory intelligence analyst Brian Auten opened an assessment, which was used by a team of agents at FBI headquarters to improperly discredit and falsely claim that derogatory information about Biden\u2019s activities was disinformation, causing investigative activity and sourcing to be shut down.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Grassley further revealed that \u201cthe FBI headquarters team allegedly placed their assessment findings in a restricted access subfolder, effectively flagging sources and derogatory evidence related to Hunter Biden as disinformation while shielding the justification for such findings from scrutiny.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In revealing news of the whistleblowers\u2019 claims, Grassley did not further detail the sources of the derogatory information. However, in questioning Wray during Thursday\u2019s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, four exchanges proved intriguing \u2014 and potentially insightful.<\/p>\n<h2>1. Was a Second U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office\u2019s Evidence Buried?<\/h2>\n<p>After using his opening statement to review the whistleblowers\u2019 allegations, Grassley asked Wray whether \u201cwhen the FBI receives a potential criminal investigation relating to a matter subject to information and prosecution by a U.S. attorney, is it the FBI\u2019s standard practice to share that information with the relevant U.S. attorney\u2019s office?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Wray replied in the affirmative, noting that it is his expectation that when a particular U.S. attorney\u2019s office and the related relevant FBI field office have the lead on an investigation, if other U.S. attorneys\u2019 offices come across information that is relevant to that investigation, those tips and leads will be passed on to the lead office.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>This line of questioning ran parallel to The Federalist\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/07\/28\/doj-may-have-obstructed-important-biden-corruption-investigations-out-of-pittsburgh-and-delaware\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reporting<\/a> last week that noted that while the U.S. attorney\u2019s office in Delaware pursued its investigation of Hunter Biden\u2019s foreign business dealings, then-Attorney General William Barr had directed the Pittsburgh U.S. attorney to review material purporting to show Hunter Biden\u2019s involvement in criminal business dealings in Ukraine.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>While little is publicly known about the work of the Pittsburgh U.S. attorney\u2019s office, shortly after Biden\u2019s election, the New York Times ran a hit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/12\/11\/us\/politics\/hunter-biden-justice-department-pittsburgh.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">piece<\/a> on former Pittsburgh U.S. Attorney Scott Brady, presenting him as a Trump partisan, purportedly based \u201con interviews with five current and former law enforcement officials and others with knowledge of F.B.I. interactions with the Justice Department.\u201d Among other things, the Times reported that Brady sought \u201cto take aggressive steps,\u201d including having the FBI interview a list of potential witnesses. The Times\u2019 unnamed sources claimed that in response to the Pittsburgh U.S. attorney\u2019s investigation, FBI agents \u201cfound ways to ostensibly satisfy Mr. Brady.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Revisiting the Times article and the claims of these unnamed sources in light of the whistleblowers\u2019 claims <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/07\/28\/doj-may-have-obstructed-important-biden-corruption-investigations-out-of-pittsburgh-and-delaware\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">suggests<\/a> FBI headquarters either improperly withheld information or presented inaccurate information to the U.S. attorney\u2019s office in Pittsburgh and possibly also Delaware. And now, Grassley is questioning the FBI director on how evidence from one U.S. attorney\u2019s office should be handled when another office is running lead. That question seems suggestive of the possibility that the evidence buried by FBI headquarters came from the Pittsburgh U.S. attorney\u2019s office or the related FBI field office and was never shared with the Delaware U.S. attorney\u2019s office.<\/p>\n<p>Brady declined to comment to The Federalist and Grassley\u2019s office has not yet responded to a request for comment as of publication time.<\/p>\n<h2>2. Was There a Foreign Human Source?<\/h2>\n<p>A second line of Grassley\u2019s inquiry during Thursday\u2019s hearing raises further questions about the type of evidence purportedly buried by FBI headquarters.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would like to know if the FBI received information that foreign persons had evidence of improper or unlawful financial payments paid to elected officials or other politically exposed persons would that pose a nation security concern?\u201d Grassley asked the FBI director. And what steps should the FBI take \u201cto vet or more fully investigate improper or unlawful money paid to elected officials and other politically exposed persons?\u201d Grassley inquired.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Given Grassley\u2019s focus on the whistleblower information during the hearing and the similarity between the hypothetical posed and the allegations swirling around Hunter Biden, this line of inquiry suggests FBI headquarters may have wrongly classified a foreign human source with evidence about Hunter Biden as disinformation and did so without any vetting or investigation. And having Wray state for the record, as he did, that the FBI would look at such information \u201cvery closely\u201d and \u201cvery seriously\u201d through the FBI\u2019s maligned foreign influence teams, and with the potential involvement of public corruption resources, seems a purposeful tact for Grassley to make as he moves the whistleblowers\u2019 claims move forward, especially if the evidence shows that the agents presented with the derogatory information about Hunter did not properly address the evidence.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2>3. How Was the Derogatory Information on Hunter Biden Branded Disinformation?<\/h2>\n<p>Grassley also pushed Wray on the question of disinformation. Again, while his questions were posed generically, the whistleblowers\u2019 claims provide an interesting context to the discussion.<\/p>\n<p>What criteria does the FBI use to evaluate whether evidence \u201cis or isn\u2019t disinformation\u201d? the Iowa senator asked.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Here, Wray responded that \u201cwhen it comes to disinformation, we\u2019re not out there investigating whether or not information we see floating around is truthful or false in the first instance.\u201d Rather, the FBI\u2019s focus is on whether \u201cthere\u2019s a foreign adversary trying to push information and from there we look into,\u201d Wray explained. \u201cWhen it comes to disinformation and defensive briefing, for example,\u201d Wray continued, \u201cthere is an inter-agency process, that is [Office of the Director of National Intelligence] coordinated because a lot of this information comes not from the FBI but from other intelligence agencies, or in some cases from foreign allies,\u201d the FBI director explained.<\/p>\n<p>That testimony raises numerous red flags when considered against the whistleblowers\u2019 claims that evidence about Hunter Biden was wrongly labeled disinformation by FBI headquarters. First, just from Wray\u2019s testimony, it appears that the FBI agents would not be the appropriate ones to deem evidence \u201cdisinformation.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Second, given the \u201cinter-agency process\u201d mentioned, one wonders if FBI headquarters reached out to any of the other intelligence agencies to discuss the derogatory information about Hunter Biden and if so, did another intelligence agency brand it disinformation? Third, was this derogatory evidence ever shared with the head of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, John Ratcliffe, or if not, why not?\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The whistleblowers\u2019 allegations were bad enough before, but now that Wray has explained the inter-agency involvement in assessing disinformation and in providing defensive briefings, the scandal could be even worse, if, for instance, FBI headquarters marked the sources as disinformation without sharing the intel with the other agencies as seems the proper protocol from Wray\u2019s testimony.<\/p>\n<h2>4. Does the FBI Have a Culture of Retaliation?<\/h2>\n<p>A final line of questioning of interest focused on ensuring the whistleblowers would not be retaliated against. Here, it is interesting to note that Grassley stated that during his June telephone conversation with the FBI director they had \u201cdiscussed the need to protect whistleblowers that had approached my office.\u201d Grassley then thanked Wray for his commitment to preventing retaliatory conduct against whistleblowers, before asking two follow-up questions.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDo you agree any retaliatory conduct against whistleblowers must be disciplined?\u201d Grassley asked first.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Wray agreed that any conduct against whistleblowers was \u201cunacceptable\u201d and that the department had a \u201cnumber of mechanisms\u201d in place to protect whistleblowers.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Grassley then asked for Wray to commit \u201cthat the FBI won\u2019t take any action to determine who the whistleblowers are.\u201d Wray again confirmed the bureau would \u201cbe scrupulous in our rules\u201d and condemned \u201cin the strongest possible terms any prospect of retaliation against whistleblowers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That Grassley had Wray publicly reaffirm his commitment to protect the whistleblowers and condemn any possible retaliation raises the question of whether the FBI has a culture of retaliation. That might explain why the agents who came forward to Grassley about the alleged burying of evidence against Hunter Biden did so only within the last two months, when the charged misconduct occurred back in 2020. Grassley may also be seeking to assure other would-be whistleblowers that he will safeguard their identity and hold the FBI director responsible for guaranteeing they are not retaliated against.<\/p>\n<p>With this guarantee now public, the question for the \u201cpatriots working their tails off,\u201d as Sen. John Kennedy called the FBI agents not implicated in wrongdoing during yesterday\u2019s hearing, is whether they will come forward to out the bad apples. If not, are they really <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/08\/02\/all-fbi-agents-must-blow-their-whistles-or-theyll-be-complicit-in-bureaus-politicization\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">patriots<\/a> working their tails off? Or are they really just trying to save their hides.\u00a0<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n<p>\n  Margot Cleveland is The Federalist&#8217;s senior legal correspondent. She is also a contributor to National Review Online, the Washington Examiner, Aleteia, and Townhall.com, and has been published in the Wall Street Journal and USA Today. <\/p>\n<p>Cleveland is a lawyer and a graduate of the Notre Dame Law School, where she earned the Hoynes Prize\u2014the law school\u2019s highest honor. She later served for nearly 25 years as a permanent law clerk for a federal appellate judge on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Cleveland is a former full-time university faculty member and now teaches as an adjunct from time to time. <\/p>\n<p>As a stay-at-home homeschooling mom of a young son with cystic fibrosis, Cleveland frequently writes on cultural issues related to parenting and special-needs children. Cleveland is on Twitter at @ProfMJCleveland. The views expressed here are those of Cleveland in her private capacity.<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-comments mt-30 mt-sm-60\">\n<div class=\"article-comments-container d-flex flex-column align-items-center py-30\">\n    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"110\" height=\"106\" src=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/fdrlst-mark.svg\" class=\"img-fluid mb-20\" alt=\"The Federalist logo eagle mark\" \/>    <\/p>\n<p>Unlock commenting by joining the Federalist Community.<\/p>\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/plans\/pricing\/\" class=\"btn btn-on-white\">Subscribe<\/a>  <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sen. Chuck Grassley\u2019s questioning of FBI Director Christopher Wray during Thursday\u2019s Judiciary Committee hearing, when considered in conjunction with the details provided by FBI whistleblowers, is suggestive of an even<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":499,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1590390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1590390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/499"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1590390"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1590390\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1590390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1590390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1590390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}