Page 2 - ARUBA TODAY

A2 UP FRONT
Thursday 6 February 2020
Continued from previous page evidence of wrongdoing
"Unlike a cyberattack on an by either Biden.
election infrastructure, that Wray's appearance was his
kind of effort — disinforma- first since a Justice Depart-
tion — in a world where we ment inspector general re-
have a First Amendment port that sharply criticized
and believe strongly in the FBI's surveillance of for-
freedom of expression, the mer Trump campaign aide
FBI is not going to be in the national security Carter
business of being the truth Page. The errors produced
police and monitoring dis- rare bipartisan calls for
information online," Wray changes to the federal
said. government's surveillance
The FBI and Department of powers.
Homeland Security are on The report identified what it
alert for election-related said were significant errors
cyberactivity like what oc- in applications to eaves-
curred in 2016, when Rus- drop on Page, including
sians hacked emails be- FBI Director Christopher Wray testifies during an oversight hearing of the House Judiciary Commit- omitting critical information
longing to the Democratic tee, on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2020 in Washington. that cut against the FBI's
campaign of nominee Hill- Associated Press original premise that Page
ary Clinton and probed lo- was a Russian agent —
cal election systems for vul- unease surrounding elec- sides and spin them up so Democratic rival Joe Biden, something he has repeat-
nerabilities. tion security and risked am- they pit us against each his son Hunter, or into any edly denied.
But, Wray said Wednesday, plifying concerns among other," Wray said. "And then members of Congress. After the report was issued,
"I don't think we've seen American about the integ- they combine that with an The question was posed by Wray told The Associated
any ongoing efforts to tar- rity of the voting process. effort to weaken our confi- Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New Press that the mistakes
get election infrastructure Even without signs of elec- dence in our elections and York, the committee chair- were "unacceptable and
like we did in 2016." tion system targeting, Wray our democratic institutions, man and one of seven unrepresentative of who
His appearance came said Russian efforts to inter- which has been a perni- House Democratic man- we are as an institution." He
two days after Democrat- fere in the election through cious and asymmetric way agers of the impeachment repeated that message to
ic presidential caucuses disinformation had not ta- of engaging in ... informa- case. He asked whether lawmakers Wednesday.
in Iowa were marred by a pered off since 2016. He tion warfare." Trump had requested FBI The then-chief judge of
malfunctioning app that said social media had in- At another point in the investigations into the the secretive Foreign Intel-
caused a delay in the re- jected "steroids" into those hearing, Wray avoided a Bidens, lawmakers or for- ligence Surveillance Court,
porting of results. Though efforts. direct answer when asked mer national security ad- which authorizes wiretap-
local and federal officials "They identify an issue that if President Donald Trump, viser John Bolton — who is ping of subjects on Ameri-
have stressed that the they know that the Ameri- Attorney General William due out with a book next can soil in national security
problems weren't caused can people feel passion- Barr or other administration month said to undercut a investigations, responded
by a foreign intrusion, the ately about on both sides officials had asked him for key Trump defense — as to the report with an ex-
error played into existing and then they take both investigations into Trump possible payback for im- traordinary public rebuke
peachment. of the FBI and demanded
Wray initially said: "I have that the bureau report
assured the Congress, and back on what it was doing
I can assure the Congress to fix the problems.
today, that the FBI will only The FBI has laid out a series
open investigations based of changes designed to en-
on the facts, and the law sure warrant applications
and proper predication." are more closely scrutinized
After Nadler said he as- before being submitted for
sumed that answer meant a judge's approval and
that neither Trump nor Barr that they contain accurate
nor other administration information about the reli-
officials had requested im- ability and potential bias of
proper political investiga- sources whom agents rely
tions, Wray tried again: "No on. The Justice Department
one has asked me to open has also said the surveil-
an investigation based on lance of Page should have
anything other than facts, ended before it did.
the law and proper predi- Wray bristled at the sugges-
cation." tion from some Republican
Trump has sought, without lawmakers that he did not
evidence, to implicate the take the report's criticism
Bidens in the kind of corrup- seriously enough.
tion that has long plagued "I've been a prosecutor.
Ukraine. Hunter Biden I've been a defense attor-
served on the board of a ney, I've been an assistant
Ukrainian gas company at attorney general, I've been
the same time his father, as an FBI director," Wray said.
vice president, was lead- "To me, candor to the court
ing the Obama adminis- is sacrosanct, and I don't
tration's diplomatic deal- think there's anybody in the
ings with Ukraine. Though FBI who's belaboring un-
the timing raised concerns der the misimpression that
among anti-corruption ad- I think it's OK to mislead a
vocates, there has been no court."q