generic FBI Director Cut Congressional Hearing Short to Fly to Adirondacks on Government Jet: Report
FBI Director Christopher Wray cut his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee short on Thursday, saying he had a plane to catch. Flight logs shows the FBI Gulfstream jet Wray often uses for personal travel flew later that afternoon to the director’s favorite vacation spot in the Adirondacks, according to a new report.
The New York Post reports that Wray left on the FBI’s luxury Gulfstream 550 jet, which was later seen on Flightradar24 making the one hour and 12 minute journey to Saranac Lake, N.Y. The paper reports that the Wray family has a summer home in the area, which has been the director’s favorite summer spot since his childhood.
The plane also traveled to Saranac Lake on June 2 and returned to Washington, D.C., on June 5, according to the report.
The Gulfstream jet, though initially intended for counterterrorism use, has been controversially used by both Wray and his predecessor James Comey for personal travel, according to the report. The director must reimburse the cost of just a coach class airline fare when the plane is used for personal trips, despite it costing several thousand dollars per hour to operate the Gulfstream, the paper reported.
A spokesperson for the FBI declined to say where Wray was headed when he left the hearing last week.
“Hearing logistics are worked out with congressional committees in advance,” the FBI press office told National Review in a statement on Monday. “Director Wray’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week was consistent with the prearranged format and timing, and was also consistent with the length of the Committee’s 2021 oversight hearing.”
Before Wray’s departure, the director dodged questions from Democrats and Republicans alike. Senators Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.), Marsha Blackburn (R., Tenn.) and Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) all pressed Wray on the FBI’s mishandling of the case of Larry Nassar, who was convicted in 2016 of sexually abusing U.S. gymnasts. The senators questioned why Wray waited until 2021 to fire one of the agents involved in the botched case.
Grassley also hit Wray over a lack of transparency about how the Department of Justice decided a jury would not convict FBI agents for their handling of the investigation.
Wray declined to agree with Blackburn that Hunter Biden’s laptop, which was recovered in a Delaware repair shop and featured emails about his foreign business dealings, was not “Russian disinformation.”
He also dodged questions by Senator Ted Cruz (R., Texas) about why the FBI had labeled the Betsy Ross flag, the Gadsden Flag, and the Gonzales battle flag as signs of “militia violent extremism” in training documents.
Wray suggested FBI agents are “up to their necks enforcing all sorts of laws” when asked by Senator Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) why the bureau did not enforce the law against pro-abortion activists outside the homes of the conservative Supreme Court justices.
Then, when Senator Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) asked Wray to stay at the hearing for an additional 21 minutes, Wray declined.
“We just heard a half hour ago about you having to leave at 1:30,” Grassley said. “We were going to have seven minutes [each] for first round [questions and] three-minute second rounds. I’ve got seven people on my side of the aisle want their additional three minutes. Is there any reason we couldn’t accommodate them for 21 minutes?”
Wray replied: “Senator, I had a flight that I’m supposed to be high-tailing it to outta here, and I had understood that we were going to be done at 1:30, so that’s how we ended up where we are.”
Grassley noted that the FBI director has the use of a private jet and asked, “Can’t it wait a while?”
Wray then said he tried to make his break during the hearing “as fast I could to get right back out here.” Grassley then noted that Wray “took more than five minutes,” to which Wray just laughed.
