In case you missed THE NATION on Christopher Wray. 9/2021
[link:https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/wray-fbi-nassar/|
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Meanwhile, Wray has straight-up refused to answer Senator Sheldon Whitehouse’s written questions asking him to explain the shoddiness of his investigation into alleged attempted rapist Brett Kavanaugh. Information surfaced in March that the FBI received some 4,500 tips about Kavanaugh’s alleged misconduct and, as far as we know, the agency has followed up on only 10 of them. Wray, a Republican who is a member of the Federalist Society, was acquainted with Kavanaugh back when they were both in law school. The only people less interested in investigating Kavanaugh’s conduct than Wray were PJ, Tobin, and Squee.
Can anybody explain to me why Wray still has his job? The FBI director is appointed to a 10-year term—a practice that was put in place to avoid the appearance of political patronage in federal law enforcement—but the director still serves at the pleasure of the president. That Trump had the authority to fire Comey was never in question; the issue was that Trump chose to fire him for a corrupt reason (notwithstanding a report drafted by Trump enabler Rod Rosenstein to justify Comey’s dismissal). If Trump can fire the FBI director for disloyalty, then surely President Joe Biden can fire Trump’s handpicked replacement for repeated incompetence. Indeed, Trump likely planned to fire Wray had he won reelection (which, for the trillionth time, he did not).
Biden decided to keep Wray for reasons that have yet to be fully explained or interrogated. I can appreciate that Biden wanted to avoid the appearance of Trumpism, which the both-sides media would clearly have tagged him with if he had fired the FBI director. I can appreciate that, in a functional republic, the director of the chief federal law enforcement agency should not be a political appointee who changes with each new administration. But, at some point, such optical and institutional concerns must give way to basic governmental accountability.
more at link.....
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