Republicans are mad at the Federal Bureau of Investigation. In recent weeks, GOP members of Congress have called for investigations into the FBI’s inner workings, recommended the FBI headquarters be moved out of the D.C. area, floated slashing the bureau’s funding, and suggested withholding the salaries of certain officials. Long-shot Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has even called for the FBI to be eliminated entirely.
Much of the anger has been focused on one man: bureau director Christopher Wray. On Wednesday, Wray, a registered Republican who was appointed by President Donald Trump, went before the House Judiciary Committee for one of his routine appearances before Congress. The hearing, though, was no simple check-in: For just about every question, Republican lawmakers used their time to chastise Wray, highlight their favorite FBI-related conspiracy theories, and accuse Wray of oppressing Republicans. It was Wray’s first appearance since Trump was federally indicted, and the GOP committee members were ready to whip up their voters’ anger about how unfair that is. Again and again, in recent weeks, Republican congressmen have insisted that Wray was doing the Democrats’ bidding. (“The idea that I’m biased against conservatives seems somewhat insane to me, given my own personal background,” Wray said at one point Wednesday.)
If you haven’t kept up with Fox News, however, it might have been hard to follow what, exactly, the congressmen were talking about. So here is our guide to the top talking points—and conspiracy theories—Republicans are citing these days when yelling about the FBI.
Shielding the Bidens From Investigations
One of the primary conservative conspiracy theories about Wray is that his agency does allegedly scandalous work on the Biden family’s behalf.
During the hearing, Rep. Matt Gaetz questioned Wray about whether the Biden administration and FBI interfered in the IRS investigation into Hunter Biden’s taxes, to protect both Hunter and his father. Gaetz pressed Wray on whether the bureau muzzled an IRS employee who claims both that he wasmuzzled, and that the FBI and broader Justice Department prevented him from pursuing leads involving Joe Biden. One of those leads was a document that Republicans say showed that both Bidens had received a $5 million bribe from Burisma Holdings, the Ukrainian natural gas firm whose board Hunter Biden gained a seat on while Biden was vice president, in exchange for Burisma’s policy influence over the Obama administration.
Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement AdvertisementThere’s no evidence for any of this, including that the administration or bureau ever pressured the IRS employee during its Hunter Biden probe. In 2020 the FBI reviewed the Burisma document, and says it was kept private because it contained unsubstantiated claims that could prove misleading or false; indeed, its contents are completely unverified. Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin, who also viewed the document when the FBI made it available, claimed it did little to bolster debunked Hunter Biden–Burisma conspiracy theories. Republicans at the hearing grumbled that the version released was too redacted to show much of anything, and that they needed to see the full document.
Ignoring the Hunter Biden “Shakedown”
Another key Biden-related accusation deals with a 2017 WhatsApp message Hunter Biden sent to a Chinese energy executive. The message was released last month by Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee, and they have pointed to it as proof Joe Biden was involved in his son’s shady international business dealings.
Advertisement“I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled,” Hunter Biden wrote in the text. He continued: “I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction. I am sitting here waiting for the call with my father.”
AdvertisementMost Democrats have pointed out that the elder Biden held no political office at this point and that his son, who was struggling with addiction at the time, may not have been entirely truthful about Joe Biden’s involvement. (Hunter Biden has an undoubtedly bad history of using his father’s name for clout.)
Advertisement“Sounds like a shakedown, doesn’t it, director?” Gaetz asked Wray in the hearing. “You seem deeply uncurious about it, don’t you?” Gaetz said. “Almost suspiciously uncurious. Are you protecting the Bidens?”
Stoking the Insurrection
Here is where we get truly off the wall: Some Republicans believe that the Jan. 6 raid on the Capitol was encouraged if not staged by FBI agents. Take, for example, the following exchange between Wray and Rep. Andy Biggs:
AdvertisementAdvertisement Advertisement AdvertisementBiggs:How many agents or human resources were present at the Capitol complex, in the vicinity, on Jan. 6?
Wray:Well, again, it’s going to get confusing because it depends on when we deployed and responded to the breach that occurred. Obviously, there were federal agents—
Biggs:Sure, you’re talking—you and I both know we’re talking different things here. Please don’t distract here, because we’re focusing on those who were there in an undercover capacity on Jan. 6. How many were there?
Wray:Again, I’m not sure I can give you that number as I sit here. I’m not sure there were undercover agents on scene.
This line of questioning was based on Biggs’ understanding of the description of events from former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund, who has complained that intelligence officials and the military were too slow to move on reports of coming violence. (Biggs: “Sund reportedly has asserted that the protest crowd was filled with federal agents.”) But Biggs’ let’s-cut-through-the-bullshit retort makes it clear that what he reallymeans to ask is whether FBI agents goaded Trump supporters into entering the Capitol.
Lying About Ray Epps
The “FBI did Jan. 6” assertion overlaps with theories about Ray Epps, an Arizona Trump supporter who is now suing Fox News for defamation. On his former show, Tucker Carlson had promoted the conspiracy theory that Epps, who was seen urging people into the Capitol on Jan. 6, was actually an undercover FBI agent.
Advertisement“Mr. Wray, you have arrested hundreds of people related to Jan. 6,” Rep. Troy Nehls said in the hearing. “Now look into the camera, sir, when you answer my next question. Are you going to arrest Mr. Epps, yes or no?”
When Wray (who did not look into the camera) explained that he could not speak about an individual’s legal situation, particularly given that the FBI exists to investigate and not to prosecute, Nehls waved him off.
Advertisement Advertisement“A lot of people getting arrested for not going into the Capitol but into the restricted area,” Nehls said. “But yet, Ray Epps, who, many people feel: fed, fed, fed,” meaning thathe’s a federal agent. “I will tell you, Mr. Wray: If you don’t arrest Mr. Epps, there’s a reason behind it. I believe you know what it is, and it appears to me you are protecting this guy.”
AdvertisementUltimately, Wray told Rep. Steve Cohen, a Democrat, that Epps was not a government agent and that it was “ludicrous” to think the insurrection was “orchestrated by FBI sources and agents.”
Planting Pipe Bombs
During his time, Rep. Thomas Massie grilled Wray about why the FBI hadn’t found the culprit who placed pipe bombs outside the Democratic National Committee and Republican National Committee. Massie’s questions fixated on the DNC.
“Nine hundred days ago is when this happened,” he said. “You said you had total confidence we’d apprehend a subject. We’ve found video that looks like somebody, a passerby, miraculouslyfound this pipe bomb at the DNC, and then notified the police. Miraculously, I say, because it was in specifically the same, precise time to cause a maximum distraction from the events going on at the Capitol.”
Advertisement Advertisement AdvertisementHe didn’t straight-out say it, but Massie seems to think the pipe bombs were a false flag, planted by the FBI. The reasoning, supporters of this theory explain, is that such an explosion would divert law enforcement resources away from the Capitol, allowing the riot to grow out of control as it was provoked by the bureau’s undercover agents, while also placing the blame on conservatives. Those who buy into the theory often demand to know why the person behind the bombs hasn’t been arrested yet, implying that the FBI knows who did it and is protecting them—because it’s an FBI agent. Again, there’s no evidence of this.
Censoring Free Speech
That social media companies discriminate against conservatives is now a tired claim. But Republicans are currently fired up over a July 10 report from the House Judiciary Committee alleging that the FBI had been reckless when it gave social media companies the usernames of accounts that Ukrainian spy agency SBU gave the bureau. Some of the accounts, the report said, were not Russian agents but legitimate conservative Americans. The FBI has defended this as a matter of helping to fight Russian disinformation. But Republicans see the communications as evidence the FBI was involved in censoring Americans’ political speech.
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Read MoreIn the hearing, lawmakers depicted these communications as evidence of the FBI’s political motivations, arguing that they reveal the bureau’s meetings to “police election-related speech” and its censorship of news about Hunter Biden’s laptop, and that it shut down any discussions of COVID that were counter to the orthodox positions. At one point, Wray was faced with the accusation that the FBI had helped Big Tech censor discussion of the lab-leak theory.
“The idea that the FBI would somehow be involved in suppressing references to a lab-leak theory is somewhat absurd when you consider the fact that the FBI was the only—the only—agency in the entire intelligence community to reach the assessment that it was more likely than not that was the explanation of the pandemic,” Wray said.
Vilifying Concerned Parents, Pro-Life Activists, and Traditional Catholics
First, the parent activists. In 2021 Attorney General Merrick Garland put out a memo telling the FBI to coordinate with local leaders to deal with “a disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence” against school boards. Republicans have described this memo as equating concerned conservative parents in the parental rights movement with violent extremists.
Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement“I will say to you the same thing that I said to all 56 of our field offices as soon as I read the memo, which is that the FBI is not in the business of investigating or policing speech at school board meetings or anywhere else, for that matter,” Wray said in the Wednesday hearing.
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Second, the pro-life activists. Last year, the FBI arrested a man named Mark Houck on charges he violated a federal law against harming or intimidating abortion service providers. Houck had shoved a 72-year-old Planned Parenthood volunteer but was later acquitted. Still, different stories around the nature of Houck’s arrest (Houck described it as 20 to 30 armed agents descending on his house; the FBI disagreed with that) made it a major rallying cry for the anti-abortion cause. During the hearing, Rep. Chip Roy brought up Houck’s case.
Advertisement Advertisement“Your job is to protect the American people from the tyrannical FBI storming the home of an American family,” Roy said. Wray responded by describing it as a routine, uneventful arrest.
Finally, the Catholics. A January memo from the Richmond field office identified increasing interest among “racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists” in “radical-traditionalist Catholic” ideology. This enraged conservatives who believed that the FBI was labeling orthodox Catholicism as extremism. It was an intentional misreading of the memo, which warned only that violent white supremacists might find themselves attracted tofar-right traditionalist Catholic communities. But the FBI apologized anyway.
Somehow, this list is not exhaustive. Some critiques of the FBI are valid; others, pure fantasy. But as long as Republicans feel themselves to be on the wrong side of the law, we should expect to see more and more accusations that the bureau is persecuting them.
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