FBI Director Wray Leaves Senate Hearing Early to Fly on Government Plane to Vacation Spot
The “business” Wray had to attend to was a weekend trip to the Adirondacks.
Oh, look. More proof that FBI Director Christopher Wray has no respect for the Constitution or the people.
Last Thursday, Wray appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee to answer questions about the agency adhering to the law and any concerns from the American people.
The hearing took 3.5 hours, but Ranking Member Sen. Chuck Grassley wanted Wray to stay for 21 more minutes for the second round of questions.
Wray claimed he had a plane to catch instead of doing his job. The aircraft was the FBI private jet, and the trip had nothing to do with work. Wray went on a weekend vacation.
Miranda Devine at The New York Post has details:
“We just heard a half hour ago about you having to leave at 1:30,” Grassley grizzled. “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 smoothly: “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 pointed out that the FBI director has a private jet at his disposal and can leave any time he likes.
“If it’s your business trip you’ve got your own plane. Can’t it wait a while?” he asked
Wray replied, “To be honest, I tried to make my break as fast I could to get right back out here.”
Grassley, “You took more than five minutes.”
Wray laughed and the silence that followed only emphasized the disrespect to all senators, but especially to Grassley, the president pro tempore emeritus of the Senate.
Awkward.
Okay, we all know these hearings never end on time, and sometimes the hearings last all day. Everyone also knows the second round wouldn’t last the 21 minutes cited by Grassley.
But that doesn’t matter. Wray shouldn’t have planned anything on a day with a Senate hearing.
Wray tried to make Grassley think his flight was on a commercial plane. Grassley knows better.
When Grassley mentioned the private jet, he said “business trip,” assuming Wray had to attend to FBI-related business.
Wray did not confirm or deny the “business trip,” which means he did not flat-out lie.
But then…
When the hearing officially ended at 1:30, Wray shook Grassley’s hand.
Grassley said, “I assume you’ve got other business.”
Wray responded, “Yeah.”
FBI Director Christopher Wray After Having To Leave Early From Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing Today
Senator Grassley: "I assume you've got other business?"
Director Wray: "Yeh." pic.twitter.com/luPDQpmbrQ
— The Columbia Bugle 🇺🇸 (@ColumbiaBugle) August 4, 2022
That business was a weekend getaway:
But the luxury FBI Gulfstream Wray uses was recorded on Flightradar24 making the one hour and 12 minute flight later that afternoon to bucolic Saranac Lake in the Adirondacks, which happens to be a favorite summer destination since his childhood, when he used to hike the High Peaks and fish for trout, according to the Adirondack Daily Enterprise.
Wray, 55, who attended the Buckley School on the Upper East Side and the private Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., graduated from Yale University, the alma mater of his father, Cecil Wray, who was Adirondack Park Agency Commissioner for 14 years.
The FBI’s Gulfstream made another trip to Saranac Lake on Thursday, June 2, returning to Washington, DC on Sunday, June 5.
FBI directors can use the Gulfstream jet for personal use. They have to reimburse “the cost of a coach class airline fare for personal trips, a significant discount on the several thousand dollars an hour it costs to operate the Gulfstream, which is considerably more convenient than Delta.”
No first-class. Coach.
None of this will matter. The Department of Justice has been a mess for a long time. The FBI is corrupt. We have a director who doesn’t care about his job. I wish I could hop on a private jet and take a quick weekend trip on someone else’s dime.
Must be nice.
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Comments
Reverse the party and it would mean jail time.
No, it wouldn’t. He didn’t break any laws. But the Dems and their partners in the news industry would have made a huge deal of it.
No he didn’t technically break any laws. However, the policy itself is contrary to federal income tax regulations, so in this case, the government itself is a lawbreaker. A “deal” like Wray gets here would be a prosecutable crime if done in private business. I can’t help but wonder how widespread the use and abuse of government (taxpayer) assets is in the federal government.
Louis Brandeis, Supreme Court Justice 1928:
“Crime is contagious. If the Government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy.”
Why should citizens continue obeying income tax law when our own federal employees break the law as a matter of routine.
Another bad government policy. How widespread is this kind of waste? Do FBI agents just take government cars home every weekend? How high up do you have to be to use the G5 at airline coach rates? Below is the message I just sent to my congressman and senators.
Congressman, I am shocked about once a week with stories of waste and abuse, but this one requires reporting and investigation. Last Thursday Christopher Wray left in the middle of a senate hearing, because he “had to catch a flight.” That “flight” turned out to be a Gulfstream 5 owned by the taxpayers of America for him to fly to a vacation spot in the Adirondacks. So first it was a lie, since the “flight” would leave whenever he was ready. Second, is how our employees get personal use of expensive government assets–costing a lot of money AND making those assets unavailable for actual government business.
I understand policy is that such use requires “reimbursement” at a rate comparable to standard coach airfare for a similar trip. What? Give me a break! Thousands of dollars an hour to fly a G5, and the “reimbursement” is coach air fare? This is just wrong. First the G5 shouldn’t be used for personal travel. Second, the full cost of operating the plane should be the reimbursement, and if not, the difference between cost of the G5 and standard coach air should be income to the beneficiary. In other words, at the very least, the several thousand dollars should be added to his W2 income, else are we not looking at felony income tax fraud? Maybe one of those 87,000 new IRS agents should look into this.
Wray’s evasive, indifferent and non-contrite answers to the Senate committee, combined with his leaving questioning early, perfectly encapsulate the unabashed and imperial arrogance of the Dumb-o-crat apparatchik Swamp denizens.
Nominate the right person for 2024, avoid undermining Republicans running for senate in 2022 and combined that will make a future Der Wray will not be a fan of.
When either President Trump or Governor DeSantis wins the White House in 2024, his first order of business should be firing Wray and his lackeys, Gina Haspel and her lackeys at CIA, “I want to learn about ‘white rage’ ” Milley and the rest of the self-congratulatory, narcissistic and subversive “woke” Dumb-o-crats in military leadership.
That would be what I’d characterize as a good start.
I’ve posted this on Parler, Rumble, and Truth Social, along with the text of the message I sent to my congressman and senators. This is such bad and wasteful government policy, it is disgusting. Oh, and I’m pretty sure that getting a government plane ride worth thousands for a couple hundred is felony tax fraud.
He knows the RINOs aren’t going to do a thing about it. MAYBE an angry letter at worst. He’s practically rubbing it in their faces that he barely even pretends to care what they think.
Two comments logged out, three when logged in.
I am not alone.
If he was strung up upside down from a bridge he wouldn’t have been able to go anywhere.
Conseq
Consequences?
None!
Hello, edit button?
There will be none during a Democrat administration that is.
And there won’t be any during a REPUBLICAN administration, either.
Assuming the DNC’s Dominion Software/Illegal Alien “Fix” even allows a non GOPe Republican like Trump or DeSantis in, that is.
More ballot boxes is likely, even in Wisconsin. Their supreme court ruling calling ballot boxes illegal, and that elections using illegal means of gathering ballots are illegitimate, will not be defended if Trump or DeSantis litigate an election loss in Wisconsin. You can be certain that the Wisconsin supreme court will decline review after the lower courts summarily reject the challenge.
Way to unconditionally surrender based on lies and slanders about Dominion.
Based on what happened from 2016-2020, I doubt that.
Now that it is exposed the FBI will not be able to trick GOP senators or congressmen.
The list of senators attacking Wray are not lists of out of the norm firebrands.
Here is when it will matter
if
1. We retake congress (this isn’t when it will matter, Republicans will not be doing a longterm government shutdown although they will likely be able to do some warning budget cuts)
2. We retake the presidency
That 2 is the problem because right now we seem hell bent on nominating someone who has a demonstrated ceiling of 46.5% of the vote.
I. Am. Fuming. How dare he stick his rear end in our faces.
“A republic, madam, if you can keep it” or something to that effect. When will we ever learn.
Say what you might about CEO compensation, but when an executive of a big company uses the company jet for personal purposes, the direct costs of the flight are added as compensation for tax purposes. Not the equivalent coach class ticket.
That’s fine if they could have flown commercial and it’s their choice to take the jet. If it’s the company that wants them to take the jet then it’s not fair to charge them for it. And if they’re not allowed to fly commercial then it’s completely unfair to charge them for it.
It doesn’t matter if the company prefers or requires the CEO to take the company jet. If it’s personal use it’s income to the CEO, because vacations in the Adirondacks are not a business necessity even though resting your CEO periodically is obviously necessary to keep the business running.
The same would be true if the company prefers the CEO use a car service rather than drive themselves. That is personal use, including the commute to/from the company offices.
Yes, but it’s not fair to charge more than they would have spent if they’d gone commercial. Which they’re entitled to say means the cheapest available flight.
They are taking flights that are equivalent to 1st class and are in this case it is a flight to a personal vacation of which he chose the location and made a decision it would be a flight distance.
Nobody has ever seriously made a big case about the privilege of being in leadership but yes that is a privilege and it isn’t fair.
That the flight is equivalent to first class isn’t relevant. If the choice to fly that way was not theirs, then it’s not fair to charge them for a first class ticket. Had they been given a choice they might have bought a cheap ticket, so that’s all it’s fair to charge them.
It’s the same as the fuss Dems made about the cost of security for Trump and his family. It’s not their choice to have that security, and it’s not being provided for their benefit. They are required to have the security, for the country’s benefit, so it’s not fair to expect them to pay for it.
Not fair? The Director’s net worth is estimated at between $23 million and $42 million based upon a Newsweek article at the time of his appointment. So the man could very well afford the cost, even if it was simply added to his compensation and he had to pay taxes on that income. Big company CEOs, by the way, are generally required to use corporate aircraft or charters “for security and availability reasons”. I’m sure the Director has similar requirements, so there should be a level playing field.
There is not one employee of the FBI who should not be fired for cause, lose their security clearance, and never work for any government agency again in any capacity.
My preference would be that top two floors of the Hoover Building be sent to Gitmo along with every living retiree who worked on those floors.
Are they allowed to fly commercial? If not, if the job requires them to take the jet, then it’s not fair to charge them more than they would have spent had they flown commercial.
The president and his family have to pay first class fares, but I think that’s wrong, and they should only be charged the lowest fare they could have got had they been allowed to.
Why wouldn’t he be “allowed” to travel commercial for personal trips?
Not allowed? Is there a statute for that or simply an FBI policy which as director he could waive. I’ve flown commercial and had dignitaries and their security detail on the flight.
Unless you could point to the relevant statute passed by congress it is just FBI policy which the FBI director could change.
Furthermore he doesn’t have to vacation particularly far away from D.C. He chose a vacation that he flew to on a first class ticket that costs him coach because of the privilege of leadership.
Nobody cares overly much that the highest rank of society comes with some privilege but don’t tell us it is raining when we are being pissed on. Yes it is privilege, no it isn’t fair, and yes it is acceptable to bring up that we grant privileges to people based on their position when those people are pissing on our elected leaders.
Unlike the senators who all are elected nobody voted for Wray, he should have a base minimum of respect for each one of them.
Did he fly alone or did he take family members and staff?
How much carbon was spewed to transport one of our “elites” to his favorite vacation destination? One more of thousands of data points that none of these people take climate change seriously on a personal level.
On a more serious note, does anyone know if Wray (and any other federal hack with such a perk) has to declare the difference between said coach seat price and the estimated value of a private jet flight as income for these personal trips?
If not, why not?
One more D.C. insider who should have never been employed in the first place.
Yet another reason to defund the FBI.
My guess is that, in 2025, President Trump or DeSantis will do their utmost to ensure Wray discovers that he can’t fly off to the Adirondacks when he’s stuck in a 6 x 9 cell.
Hardly, make me laugh
There isn’t anything or anyone big enough to take them down
We blew it a long time ago
They assassinate Presidents without any consequences
For those who have not heard, the FBI just seized and raided Trump’s Mar-a-Lago compound today. That is probably why Wray had to leave, to supervise the death of the Constitution.
Subotai Bahadur
I would argue the opposite. The FBI director is on leave. Every request for a comment will be directed to the missing director, who will be ‘unavailable’ until a day or two goes by. Of course he was ‘fully briefed’ before leaving, and is in constant contact with the people from the office in case he needs an out, but certain things will be left uncommunicated for when he is on the stand and can swear ignorance.
The FBI is beyond salvation. It needs to be abolished with the proviso that none of its personnel can ever again be employed in Federal law enforcement.
Dial that down tighter: they are disqualified from ANY enforcement work of any kind, not just law. I mean, no dog catchers. no building code enforcement, no working in auto smog check stations, NOTHING.
I would like to do that, but I am not sure the feds can tell the states what to do.
Why not? They seem to already…
My reasoning about states is that employment law is very protective of a person’s right to be employed. Making someone everywhere unemployable in his or her field of expertise may not hold up in court.
Things just went from 9mm to 10mm.
The thing that scares me the most is that Wray had no real intention of hiding his reasons for leaving the hearing. He knew he’d be found out in no time at all, and he didn’t care.
Like the Legacy Media and other of our (ahem) betters in the government, and like the raid at Mar A Lago, and the pronouncements by anti-racists and academics . . . they aren’t at all worried about their corruption getting them in trouble.
In fact, in their circles, giving the finger to the rest of us is a badge of achievement.
They feel – and are – above the law.
Who has the power to hold them accountable, if they hold all the power?