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 askedWray 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.”
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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