{"id":2259895,"date":"2024-06-04T19:26:02","date_gmt":"2024-06-04T23:26:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/fbi-director-wont-say-if-trump-conviction-is-election-interference\/"},"modified":"2024-06-04T19:29:07","modified_gmt":"2024-06-04T23:29:07","slug":"fbi-director-wont-say-if-trump-conviction-is-election-interference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/fbi-director-wont-say-if-trump-conviction-is-election-interference\/","title":{"rendered":"FBI Director Silent on Whether Trump&#8217;s Conviction Constitutes &#8216;Election Interference"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/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%2Ffbi-director-wont-say-if-trump-conviction-is-election-interference%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=2259895&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>FBI Director Christopher\u2064 Wray avoided\u200b directly addressing whether recent indictments against former President Donald Trump amount to &#8220;election interference.&#8221; Senator\u2062 Bill Hagerty questioned Wray during\u2062 a Senate session, expressing\u200b concerns\u2064 about governmental\u2062 interference. Wray cited limitations due to pending state prosecutions. Partisan debates continue,\u200d with references to a push to label Trump a convicted felon for electoral impact. Hagerty highlighted recent events involving Alvin Bragg\u2062 in this context.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/fbi\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">FBI<\/a> Director <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/christopher-wray\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Christopher Wray<\/a> declined Tuesday to answer whether the recent New York hush money guilty verdict and three other indictments against former President <a href=\"http:\/\/washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/donald-trump\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Donald Trump<\/a> amount to \u201celection interference,\u201d just five months out from the November 2024 race.<\/p>\n<p>Sen. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/policy\/defense\/2708074\/sen-bill-hagerty-says-us-is-sending-mixed-messages-to-israel\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Bill Hagerty<\/a> (R-TN), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, asked Wray whether the federal indictments against Trump and his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/new-york\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">New York<\/a> conviction amounts to a level of election interference the bureau is concerned about. The FBI director said he was not able to comment on \u201cpending state criminal prosecutions.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure><figcaption>FBI Director Christopher Wray speaks during a hearing of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Monday, March 11, 2024, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo\/Mark Schiefelbein)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not something I would ever do,\u201d said Wray, a Trump appointee. Hagerty clarified, \u201cI\u2019m talking about utilizing governmental authority to interfere with an election.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hagerty said that last Thursday \u201cwe saw\u201d Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg \u201cdo just that, with a flimsy made-up theory and a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/niger-heads-to-polls-in-search-of-first-democratic-transition\/\" title=\"Niger heads to polls in search of first democratic transition\">criminal conviction<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure>\n<div>\n<blockquote data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Democrats should refer to Trump as a convicted felon at every opportunity. Repetition is the key to a successful message and we want people to wrestle with the notion of hiring a convicted felon for the most important job in the country! \u2066\u2066 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/WLLMWatlkP\">https:\/\/t.co\/WLLMWatlkP<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Alex Soros (@AlexanderSoros) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AlexanderSoros\/status\/1796614879656267871?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">May 31, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>\u201cJust this weekend, the leader of the Soros organization came out and advised Democrats to repeat the slogan \u2018convicted felon,\u2019 so it can be imprinted on voters\u2019 minds,\u201d Hagerty said, referring to a post on X by Open Society Foundations Chairman Alex Soros. \u201cAlvin Bragg facilitated that imprint and did just that. Is that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/trump-lawyer-slams-new-york-civil-fraud-verdict-they-will-not-get-away-with-it\/\" title=\"Trump lawyer slams New York civil fraud verdict: \u2018They will not get away with it\u2019\">coordinated election interference<\/a>, or is that just a coincidence that would happen?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Republicans have claimed all four criminal cases against Trump are politically motivated and reflect an effort by President Joe Biden to interfere in the 2024 election. They have also hit out at Bragg\u2019s hiring of Matthew Colangelo to lead the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-big-problem-with-the-stormy-daniels-hush-money-case-against-trump\/\" title=\"The Big Problem With The Stormy Daniels Hush Money Case Against Trump\">hush money case<\/a>, noting the high-ranking former Justice Department official left his post in the Biden administration to work for Bragg just one year before his office brought the indictment against Trump in April 2023.<\/p>\n<p>After Wray declined to answer Hagerty again, the senator said he would pivot to the \u201cfederal level,\u201d referring to Attorney General Merrick Garland\u2019s decision to appoint special counsel Jack Smith to investigate Trump, which in 2023 led to two separate indictments in Washington, D.C., and Florida, respectively.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGarland appoints Jack Smith to prosecute Trump, President Biden\u2019s opponent. Is this coordinated election interference to go after your opponent in a federal election using the Justice Department to do it?\u201d Hagerty asked, adding that the way the \u201clegal stars have aligned in this circumstance is deeply concerning.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Wray again declined to answer but said, \u201cI can tell you that we are going to do our part.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd we have one part in protecting our elections from the threats that we have jurisdiction to investigate,\u201d Wray added.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The FBI director\u2019s testimony came just after Garland spent hours testifying to members of the House Judiciary Committee. There, the attorney general denied politicizing the justice system against Trump and argued that such allegations by Republican lawmakers amounted to intimidation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI will not be intimidated,\u201d Garland said. \u201cAnd the Justice Department will not be intimidated. We will continue to do our jobs free from political influence. And we will not back down from defending our democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>FBI Director Wray refused to address if the recent New York hush money verdict and other indictments against ex-President Trump constitute &#8220;election interference.&#8221; This query arose during a Senate Appropriations Committee session with Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN), only months before the November 2024 elections<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2633,"featured_media":2259896,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/AP24071805112604-1024x683.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2259895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/AP24071805112604-1024x683.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2259895","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\/2633"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2259895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2259895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2259896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2259895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2259895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2259895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}