Tag: Christopher Wray

House GOP Vows to Refer ActBlue Fundraising Probe to Incoming Trump Justice Department

Just the News
Brian Steil

House Administration Committee Chairman Brian Steil said he will refer findings from his ongoing probe into the progressive fundraising platform ActBlue to the incoming Trump Justice Department. 

Steil believes the new Attorney General Pam Bondi, if confirmed, will be more than willing to probe the Democratic fundraising powerhouse over allegations it failed to implement sufficient security measures on its platform to prevent illegal foreign monies from flowing into U.S. political campaigns. 

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Commentary: The Wray Slayer

Julie Kelly

Confirming reports he planned to step down before Donald Trump’s inauguration next month, FBI Director Christopher Wray today announced he will retire at the official end of the Biden administration. Wray, appointed by then-President Trump in 2017, delivered the news during an all-hands-on-deck virtual meeting of more than 38,000 FBI employees.

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Congress to Subpoena ActBlue as Feds Confirm Suspicious Activity Tied to Democrat Fundraising

Just the News
James Comer

House investigators prepared Wednesday to subpoena the Democrat donations platform ActBlue in a rapidly expanding probe into possible illicit foreign funding in the 2024 election after the Treasury Department confirmed to Congress its money laundering detection system has generated hundreds of suspicious activity reports related to the online fund-raising giant.

The dramatic developments were communicated to House members and ActBlue itself in a series of memos this week obtained by Just the News that reaffirmed that lawmakers fear foreign adversaries like China, Iran, Venezuela and Russia may be routing illicit foreign money into Democratic coffers by using the names of unsuspecting American donors.

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Florida Sues Biden-Harris DOJ for Allegedly Blocking Trump Assassination Attempt Investigation

Daily Caller News Foundation
Ashley Moody

Florida sued the Biden-Harris administration’s Department of Justice (DOJ) Wednesday for allegedly blocking the state’s investigation into the second Trump assassination attempt.

Federal officials almost immediately began “taking steps to halt the state’s investigation” into Ryan Wesley Routh, who was indicted for attempting  to assassinate former President Donald Trump at his Florida golf course in September, the lawsuit states.

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Study Finds TikTok Manipulates Content to Favorably Promote Chinese Government

Just the News
TikTok

TikTok uses an algorithm to promote content that puts the Chinese government in a favorable light in order to sway users’ views, according to a new study from the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI).

The study builds off a previous report from December that found the social media site likely promotes pro-China content, as the app faces bipartisan criticism over national security concerns. The app is already facing a potential ban in the United States if the Chinese parent company ByteDance doesn’t divest its shares of the platform on time.

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Whistleblower Report: Local LEOs Refuse to Share Information with FBI Due to ‘Disturbing Loss of Trust’

Minnesota Sun Staff
FBI logo outside of building

Police departments throughout the United States have stopped sharing information with the FBI due a “disturbing loss of trust” in the Bureau, an alarming new whistleblower report has found.

An alliance of retired and active duty FBI special agents and analysts examined the attitudes of the Bureau’s “local law enforcement partners,” drawing on the testimony of more than 30 “independent, highly credible law enforcement sources and sub-sources” across the country.

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Congress Presses to See If U.S. Intel Warned Biden of Son’s Business Deals

Just the News
Hunter Biden and Joe Biden

House Republicans have built a mountain of incontrovertible evidence that Hunter Biden made millions while his father was vice president from business associates with unsavory backgrounds, including a Ukrainian energy firm deemed corrupt by the State Department, a Chinese executive convicted by DOJ of corruption, a Russian oligarch unable to get an American bank account because of red flags, a Romanian oligarch charged with bribery in his country, and two Americans convicted of securities fraud.

And now, an Associated Press/University of Chicago poll shows that two thirds of Americans believe Joe Biden did something illegal or unethical.

But the tangle of complex transactions and foreign names can often complicate the explanations of influence peddling.

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China’s Growing Threat to U.S. National Security in the Crosshairs of Congress

The Center Square
Illegal Immigrants

While the Chinese Communist Party’s possibly imminent invasion of Taiwan could spark a war in the region, experts and lawmakers in Congress on Thursday expressed that the Taiwan issue is just one part of a broader Chinese strategy countering the U.S.

U.S.House lawmakers raised the alarm about the Chinese communist government’s threat to the U.S. via cyber security and the border crisis at two separate hearings Thursday.

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Chairman Jordan Presses Wray for Data on FBI’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Hiring Practices

Just the News

“We understand that the FBI has struggled with attracting enough qualified applicants from all desired target groups to sustain its mission This is likely due to the FBI re-focusing its recruitment efforts on DEI statistics,” Jordan wrote in the letter to Wray.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, is pressing Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Christopher Wray for more information surrounding the bureau’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) hiring practices and other initiatives.

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Commentary: Navigating the Vibe Shift of a Cultural Reckoning

Minnesota Sun Staff
Masked woman holding American flag

We have been hearing a lot about a “vibe shift” in American culture recently. The phrase has been around for a while. It gained new currency after the commentator Santiago Pliego wrote an essay about the phenomenon, and Tucker Carlson had him on his show to talk about it.

I recommend both.  For one thing, they offer notes of cheerfulness (I almost said “optimism,” but optimism is Dr. Pangloss’s failing) in the midst of our sea of gloominess and despondency. According to Pliego, Americans are awakening from their “dogmatic slumbers,” where the dogmas in question are the rancid pieties of the so-called “progressive” establishment. Have you checked your privilege today, Comrade? How are your pronouns holding up? What have you done to combat “whiteness,” “toxic masculinity,” and “climate change?”

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Q1 2024: Most Illegal Border Crossers Apprehended at Northern Border in U.S. History

The Center Square
Illegal Immigrants

In the first quarter of fiscal 2024, more foreign nationals were apprehended illegally entering the northern border than at any time in U.S. history.

They totaled 60,602, according to new data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

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Josh Hawley Blasts FBI Director Wray for Allowing the FBI to Target Catholics: ‘You Haven’t Fired Anybody!’

Minnesota Sun Staff

Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) tore into FBI Director Christopher Wray Tuesday for not firing anyone for targeting Catholics as potential domestic terrorists.

“You said, and I’m quoting now, ‘The FBI uses all tools available at its disposal to combat domestic terrorism,’ which now includes, apparently, the crime of being Catholic,” Hawley said during an FBI Oversight Committee hearing in the Senate. “Let’s talk a little bit about the FBI’s egregious targeting of Catholic Americans.”

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Commentary: Hamas Ally CAIR Has Been Operating with Impunity Inside America for 30 Years

RealClearWire

After Hamas massacred 1,400 men, women and children in Israel last month, FBI Director Christopher Wray warned that the terror group “and its allies” could inspire attacks on Americans “here on our own soil.” He also told the Senate that the FBI is conducting “multiple, ongoing investigations” into people affiliated with the U.S.-designated terrorist group.

What Wray didn’t say is that the FBI has been investigating Hamas’ biggest ally in America for the past 30 years – without filing any charges. Launched in 1994 as a secret front organization to support Hamas, according to declassified FBI wiretap transcripts and FBI testimony, the Council on American-Islamic Relations has, in the decades since, become an accepted member of Washington’s lobbying community. The New York Times and other influential newspapers routinely describe CAIR as a “Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization.”

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Wisconsin U.S. Senator Ron Johnson Leads Efforts to Seek Records on Saudi Arabia’s Role In 9/11 Attacks

M.D. Kittle

On this 22nd anniversary of 9/11, U.S. Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) is demanding the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation turn over the complete, unredacted records of Saudi Arabia\’s role in the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil.

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FBI Cites ‘Ongoing Criminal Investigation’ in Refusing to Release Hunter Biden Gun Records, Just as the Agency Is Doing in The Star News Network FOIA Lawsuit

M.D. Kittle

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is citing an “ongoing criminal investigation” in refusing to turn over records on Hunter Biden’s trashed gun.

It’s the same suspect blocking argument the FBI is trying to use in The Star News Network’s lawsuit demanding the agency turn over the Covenant School killer’s manifesto in Nashville.

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Catholic Leaders Demand Answers from FBI on Bombshell Discovery Agency Probe into Traditional Catholics ‘Bigger than Believed’

Susan Berry, PhD

National Catholic leaders said the FBI’s probe of Catholics, as revealed by documents obtained by the House Judiciary Committee, went far beyond a so-called rogue agent in a single field office in Richmond, as was explained in testimony by agency Director Christopher Wray.

The leaders of Catholic civil rights groups reacted to a letter to Wray sent Wednesday by Judiciary Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government Chairman Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA), who informed the FBI director evidence obtained by the Judiciary Committee shows the agency’s “assessment of traditional Catholics as potential domestic terrorists” was developed through information obtained “from around the country,” rather than from an isolated source.

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Commentary: Government Corruption Helps the Bidens and Hurts Trump

Minnesota Sun Staff

The media frequently invokes Trump’s appointment of officials to dismiss the possibility of bias. The media have invoked this defense for FBI Director Christopher Wray, who is responsible for the FBI’s raid of Trump’s home to obtain classified documents, and for David Weiss, the Delaware U.S. Attorney, who gave kid-glove treatment to the first son, Hunter Biden.

Invoking the provenance of Trump’s persecutors is meant to deflect and confuse. Regardless of who appointed these people to their current positions, these are career government workers, i.e., the managerial class. They have shown themselves to be particularly hostile to Trump and other Republicans, who might dare to interfere with business as usual.

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FBI Hands over Documents Relating to Targeting of Catholics

Minnesota Sun Staff

On Tuesday, the FBI handed over requested documents on its efforts to target Catholic Americans after another threat from Congress to hold Director Christopher Wray in contempt.

As reported by the New York Post, Congressman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, had subpoenaed the files in question and threatened to hold Wray in contempt of Congress if the documents were not delivered by the deadline of July 25th.

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Commentary: FBI Chief Replies with Less-than-Inspiring ‘Not to My Knowledge’ When Asked About Tricky FISA Warrants, Criminal Investigations

Minnesota Sun Staff

“Not to my knowledge.”

That was FBI Director Christopher Wray’s response to questioning from U.S. Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) at the House Judiciary Committee on July 13 about whether the Justice Department and FBI utilize parallel construction — where law enforcement agencies are handed information obtained from Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants or via warrantless surveillance by intelligence agencies, not unlike the FISA surveillance of the Trump campaign in 2016 that became the Russiagate counterintelligence and eventually criminal investigation — and then act on it.

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Top Biden Intel Nominee Calls Warrantless Surveillance Tool Used to Spy on Americans ‘Irreplaceable’

Minnesota Sun Staff

President Joe Biden’s nominee to lead top intelligence agencies described a tool used to surveil Americans without a warrant as vital at his confirmation hearing Wednesday.

U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Timothy Haugh characterized Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), a tool that has been abused to spy on Americans, as “extensively used” and “irreplaceable” in his testimony to the Senate Intelligence Committee. Biden nominated Haugh to head both Cyber Command and the National Security Agency (NSA) in May, according to Politico.

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From January 6 Informants to FISA Abuses, FBI Boss Had Few Answers to Congress’ Most Pressing Questions

Just the News

FBI Director Christopher Wray declined to answer direct questions from lawmakers on several hot-button issues at a House Judiciary Committee oversight hearing.

The performance on Wednesday generated frustration on both sides of the political aisle, and a rebuke from FBI alumni.

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Commentary: Dear America, The Intelligence Community Isn’t Your Friend

Minnesota Sun Staff

The intelligence agencies have been in the news a lot lately — and not because they deserve praise. Recently, the FBI refused for weeks to provide the House Oversight Committee with a document that alleges a bribery scheme involving President Joe Biden during his time serving as vice president.

To avoid a contempt of Congress hearing, FBI Director Christopher Wray decided, at the last minute, to allow the committee’s members to view the document in question.

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Comer Wins: FBI Relents, Agrees to Deliver Subpoenaed Memo Alleging Biden Bribery to Capitol

Just the News

Facing a potential contempt of Congress vote, FBI Director Christopher Wray relented and has agreed to bring a subpoenaed document from the Biden family investigation to Capitol Hill for lawmakers to inspect on Monday, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer announced Friday. The document in question, an FD-1023, contains uncorroborated allegations that an informant provided the FBI in June 2020 alleging that Joe Biden, when he was vice president, was engaged in a bribery scheme to change US policy in return for $5 million to his family’s businesses, lawmakers have said.

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FBI Chief Wray Rolls Dice with Congress over Contempt, then Jets to Las Vegas

Just the News

Just hours after informing Congress he wouldn’t comply with a subpoena and turn over an informant document on the Biden family investigation, FBI Director Christopher Wray hopped on the bureau’s Gulfstream jet and ferried off to the more friendly confines of Las Vegas.

The flight manifest for the FBI’s official jet shows Wray left the Washington suburb of Manassas, Va., at about 4 p.m. ET on Wednesday and landed about four hours later in Nevada’s most famous tourist city.

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Homeland Security Department Sees ‘Heightened Threat’ of Attacks on Churches, Police and Feds Ahead of 2024 Election

Just the News

The Homeland Security Department is warning communities nationwide about an increased risk of terror attacks on churches, schools, federal installations and law enforcement heading into the 2024 election, specifically cautioning that “legislative or judicial decisions pertaining to sociopolitical issues” could trigger violence in coming months.

In a bulletin issued just before Memorial Day, the agency cited a spate of violent acts this spring, including on a Christian school in Tennessee, a shopping mall in Texas and a plot on a church in Ohio by white supremacists as harbingers for future concern.

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Kevin McCarthy Threatens to Hold FBI Director Christopher Wray in Contempt over Biden Probe

Just the News

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Tuesday threatened to hold FBI Director Christopher Wray in contempt of Congress if he does not comply with a request for a document about an alleged bribery scheme involving then-Vice President Joe Biden.

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FBI Formally Refuses to Produce Biden Probe Memo to Congress, Comer to Hold Wray in Contempt

Just the News

The FBI formally refused Tuesday to turn over to Congress an investigative memo alleging a bribery scheme involving President Joe Biden, prompting the chairman of the House Oversight Committee to begin proceedings to hold Director Christopher Wray in contempt. Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., the panel’s chairman, said he still plans to meet with Wray on Wednesday but declared the bureau’s notification of refusing to comply with a subpoena to be unfortunate.

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Catholic Advocacy Group Prepared to Sue FBI for Failure to Comply With FOIA on Targeting of ‘Radical Traditional Catholics’

Susan Berry, PhD

A leading national Catholic advocacy organization says it is prepared to file a lawsuit against the FBI for failing to comply with its Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request that seeks communications information related to a leaked document that revealed the bureau was targeting so-called “radical traditional Catholics.”

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Lawmakers Re-introduce Bill to Ban TikTok in the United States

M.D. Kittle

TikTok’s days in the United States could be numbered under a bipartisan bill re-introduced by the heads of congress’ new Committee on China. 

Reps Mike Gallagher (R-WI-08) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL-08) on Friday submitted the legislation, which would ban the controversial video-sharing app from operating in the United States. 

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FBI Keeps Getting Burned by Reliance on Liberal Sources

Just the News

A dossier alleging Russian collusion funded by a Democrat presidential candidate. A suggestion that school parents were domestic terrorists from a left-leaning school board group. A list suggesting old-fashioned Catholics were extremists from a liberal watchdog on hate speech.

Three triggers for investigation. Three blunders that left America’s premier law enforcement agency reeling with a black eye.

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House Judiciary GOP Subpoena FBI’s Christopher Wray, AG Merrick Garland

Just the News

The House Judiciary Committee has issued subpoenas to FBI Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland, demanding they provide the committee with documents pertaining to FVI investigations of school board meetings.

In October of 2021, Garland issued a memo highlighting “violent threats” against school officials amid a rise in parental opposition to the teaching of Critical Race Theory in public schools. That memo, directing law enforcement to address the issue, attracted considerable scrutiny from conservatives who categorized it as part of the Biden administration’s alleged “weaponization” of federal agencies.

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Commentary: What the New January 6 Videos Will Show

Admin

The jury trial of Richard Barnett, the man famously photographed with his feet on a desk in Nancy Pelosi’s office on January 6, 2021, is underway in Washington, D.C. Nearly two years to the date of his arrest, Barnett finally had a chance to defend himself in court on multiple charges, including obstruction of an official proceeding.

But it was not the fiery, outspoken Barnett who provided the most jaw-dropping testimony in the trial so far. To the contrary, one of the government’s own witnesses confirmed under defense cross-examination that “agents provocateur” were heavily involved in instigating the events of January 6.

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Commentary: Americans Should Pay Close Attention to the FBI and Zero-Click

Admin

During the Trump administration, the FBI paid $5 million to an Israeli software company for a license to use its “zero-click” surveillance software called Pegasus. Zero-click refers to software that can download the contents of a target’s computer or mobile device without the need for tricking the target into clicking on it. The FBI operated the software from a warehouse in New Jersey.

Before revealing any of this to the two congressional intelligence committees to which the FBI reports, it experimented with the software. The experiments apparently consisted of testing Pegasus by spying — illegally and unconstitutionally since no judicially issued search warrant had authorized the use of Pegasus — on unwitting Americans by downloading data from their devices.

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Whistleblowers: FBI Officials Are ‘Pressuring’ Agents to ‘Artificially Pad’ Domestic Violence Extremist Data

Minnesota Sun Staff

FBI whistleblowers have disclosed to Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee that FBI officials have been “pressuring” agents to “artificially pad” domestic violence extremist (DVE) data, and have even dispensed “awards and promotions” to those who met the Bureau’s DVE investigation quotas.

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‘Coordinated Campaign on a Grand Scale’: U.S., U.K. Spymasters Issue Dire Warning on Chinese Espionage

Minnesota Sun Staff

by Micaela Burrow   Heads of intelligence agencies in the U.S. and UK warned against a widespread Chinese espionage campaign in a unique joint statement Wednesday. FBI Director Christopher Wray and MI5 Director General Ken McCallum addressed an audience of leaders in business and academia outside of the MI5 headquarters…

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Commentary: No, Senate Republicans, the FBI Does Not Deserve a Raise

Minnesota Sun Staff

The day before FBI Director Christopher Wray explained to a Senate appropriations subcommittee why his department deserves a $527.8 million raise in 2023, his agents were credited with foiling an ISIS-linked plot to assassinate George W. Bush. An Iraqi national was arrested on May 25 and charged with attempting to smuggle four other Iraqis into the United States then “murder” the former president in retaliation for the war in Iraq. (I will address the sketchiness of this story in a separate column.)

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Poll: Most Republicans Distrust the FBI

Minnesota Sun Staff

For decades, the Federal Bureau of Investigation enjoyed strong support from Republican political leaders and voters. But the agency’s reputation has crashed among its most dependable constituency amid scandal, corruption, and flagrant politicking on behalf of the Democratic Party.

A Rasmussen poll released today shows that 57 percent of Republicans hold an unfavorable view of the FBI; 47 percent of all likely voters surveyed at the end of December view the FBI unfavorably.

As if to prove the bureau has become the jackboots of the national Democratic Party rather than a nonpartisan law enforcement agency, a whopping 63 percent of Democrats have a favorable opinion of the FBI.

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FBI Director Told Former Agents the Bureau Will ‘Stay in Its Own Lane’ and Won’t Be Attending School Board Meetings

Minnesota Sun Staff

FBI Director Christopher Wray “made it clear” during an October speech that FBI agents “would not be attending school board meetings” and the Bureau “would stay in its own lane,” a former agent who saw the speech told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Cecil Moses, a retired FBI special agent and former police chief in Alabama, was in Scottsdale, Arizona, for the national conference for the Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI, where he said Wray met with former agents on Oct. 22 and assured them that the Bureau would not be monitoring school board meetings.

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Commentary: Biden’s Attack on Public School Parents Cannot Stand

Admin

President Joe Biden’s Attorney General, Merrick Garland’s memo directing the FBI to investigate parents who speak out at school board meetings has shocked the nation.

The Biden administration has gone into full attack mode against the First Amendment right to petition the government as Attorney General Merrick Garland has declared that parents opposing Critical Race Theory before their local school boards should be treated as terrorists under the Patriot Act.

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Commentary: The New York Times Reveals FBI Role in January 6

Minnesota Sun Staff

The New York Times often acts as the spin cycle for the Democrats’ dirty laundry. For years, Times reporters have helped get ahead of damning news, especially when it’s related to the Russian collusion hoax, in an attempt to establish the narrative early.

A recent example is the Times article downplaying the pending indictment against Michael Sussman, the Clinton campaign lawyer who acted in cahoots with the FBI to seed the collusion tale before the 2016 election. The article was published the day before Sussman pleaded not guilty of lying to the FBI.

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FBI Director Wray Refuses to Disclose Brian Sicknick’s Cause of Death

Minnesota Sun Staff

FBI Director Christopher Wray on Tuesday refused to disclose the cause of death of police officer Brian Sicknick during the riots at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, citing an ongoing investigation.

“There is an ongoing investigation into his death. I have to be careful at this stage, because it’s ongoing, not to get out in front of it,” Wray said in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing when asked about Sicknick’s death.

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Commentary: FBI Director Christopher Wray Should Be Replaced

Minnesota Sun Staff

There must be someplace warm and inviting that needs an ambassador where FBI Director Christopher Wray can be sent to lounge around without getting in the way of the Nation’s important business.

We urge this action because it has becoming increasingly clear that Director Wray has no stomach for the hard work necessary to focus the FBI on the important work at hand, namely crushing the terrorist organizations now destroying American cities and cleaning up the mess Obama and Comey left in the wake of the set up of LTG Mike Flynn the spying on President Trump and his campaign.

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Commentary: Christopher Wray Has Some Explaining to Do

Minnesota Sun Staff

Article 35 of the constitution of the People’s Republic of China guarantees “freedom of speech, of the press, of assembly, of association, and of demonstration.” Article 36 guarantees religious freedom including the right to believe in any religion. Article 37 prohibits illegal arrests and unlawful searches of Chinese citizens. Article 40 guarantees a Chinese citizen’s right to privacy of correspondence. Article 126 guarantees judicial independence without interference by any administrative organ, public organization, or individual.

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Grassley Demands Answers from Wray Over Raid of Whistleblower on Clinton Foundation

Admin

by Richard Pollock   Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley wants answers from FBI Director Christopher Wray about a Nov. 19 bureau raid on the home of a recognized whistleblower. The whistleblower, Dennis Cain, who was once employed by an FBI contractor, reportedly turned over documents to the Department of Justice Inspector General…

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