THE HARD WRAY

Christopher Wray is the Director of the FBI. He has resisted giving interviews and releasing documents to congressional committees. Several conservative commentators have complained about this and questioned whether Wray is willing to take on corruption in the FBI. However, I noted that this criticism never came from William Barr or President Trump. So I went back and looked at what Wray actually said. He repeatedly said he would not comment on an ongoing investigation. He would then defend the integrity of the FBI.

Wray refused to release documents or allow interviews by congressional committees. That was interpreted as being part of a cover-up. There have been times when that tactic was used by unscrupulous people to avoid answering questions. They used the illusion of an investigation to perpetuate a cover-up. But there are also people who don’t comment on an ongoing investigation because they are not interested in making news they are interested in making arrests. It is now obvious that Christopher Wray has been cooperating with William Barr and John Durham. Perhaps it is because he is less interested in making the news and more interested in obtaining criminal convictions. Here is the actual FBI statement:

“With regard to certain documents in the Michael Flynn matter from the 2016-2017 time period that are now the subject of reporting by the press, the FBI previously produced those materials to the Inspector General and US Attorney Durham,”

“The Flynn investigation was initiated and conducted during this time period, under prior FBI leadership….Director Wray remains firmly committed to addressing the failures under prior FBI leadership while maintaining the foundational principles of rigor, objectivity, accountability, and ownership in fulfilling the Bureau’s mission to protect the American people and defend the Constitution.”

The fact that the FBI released this now is beyond significant. It is clearly designed to get those pesky congressional committees and the news reporters to back off. But it is also implies that Durham is poised to start indicting people. The FBI wouldn’t have released this statement without approval from both Barr and Durham. They would not have given such approval unless they already had all the evidence they need.

Many of you have wondered how some of this could have happened without anyone being held accountable. McCabe was fired, but everyone else seemed to get away with a slap on the wrist. But sometimes silent people are dangerous people. When they speak, people go to jail. We just may be dealing with that rare but important breed of prosecutors who could care less about what the public or anyone else thinks. They are focused only on building a case that will result in conviction.

Frankly, some of those conservative commentators should have known better. If the FBI had released these documents sooner, before the investigation was complete, they would have just given criminal defense attorneys a road map for defense. It is like the local prosecutor who knows a key piece of evidence crucial to a criminal conviction. The prosecutor also knows that the prime suspect does not know this evidence exists. All of us have watched a TV crime show where we have seen this in action. The detective is interviewing the suspect. The suspect does not know that the detective has the murder weapon with the suspect’s finger prints on it. So the suspect lies. If the suspect knew what evidence the detective had, an explanation would have been prepared. This is why any competent detective or prosecutor that is asked about a criminal investigation responds with: “no comment.” That is just the way it works. It is the way it should work.

It sure looks like a lot of former FBI employees who thought they were above the law about to learn this the Hard Wray. It just could be a beautiful thing.

TDM