Wray's legacy: an FBI instrumentalized in favor of Democratic ideology

The exit of Cristopher Wray means the end of a way of making policy through the FBI. Although he came to office with Donald Trump in power, Wray's tenure has been characterized by partisan instrumentalization of the agency in favor of Democratic ideology - especially the persecution of the president-elect, Christians and pro-life activists-... and by numerous other gross missteps.

Wray's departure after seven years at the helm of the Bureau leaves the agency at one of its lowest moments. Americans have lost confidence in an institution that the Hollywood imagination turned into a legend. In Gallup's latest survey of federal agencies last year, more than half of respondents questioned the agency's performance.

The poll, moreover, made clear the FBI's partisan bias: while Democrats give it a score of 70 out of 80, Republicans barely give it a 26. Likewise, conservatives overwhelmingly called for a change of direction in its management.

Persecution of the Biden Administration's political and ideological rivals

If anything has characterized Wray's management during Joe Biden's term in office, it has been the blatant use of the agency to serve the partisan and ideological interests of the Democratic Administration. Its persecution of Christian activists, whom agents detained as if they were armed terrorists in their homes and in the presence of their children.

Nor did the FBI come out of the Durham report findings on alleged Russian collusion in the 2016 presidential election well. The Justice Department inspector general's investigation revealed that "seniorFBI officials displayed a serious lack of analytical rigor toward the information they received, especially that received from politically affiliated individuals and entities."

From Russian collusion to Hunter Biden's laptop

In addition, Durham who charged the agency "repeatedly ignored important requirements" to obtain special FISA warrants to spy on the Trump campaign, while acknowledging that they did not "genuinely believe that there was probable cause" that the campaign had colluded with Russia. Wray came into office in 2017, but the report points to irregularities committed with him already in charge.

It also became clear that the FBI collaborated in discrediting the appearance of sensitive information on a Hunter Biden laptop abandoned in a repair shop. In a report, the House Judiciary Committee noted that "the same FBI personnel who were warning social media companies about a possible Russian'hack and leak' operation ahead of the 2020 election knew that the laptop belonging to Hunter Biden was not Russian disinformation."

"After the New York Post published a story based on the contents of the Biden family's influence-peddling laptop, the FBI made an institutional decision to refuse to answer direct questions from social media companies about the laptop's authenticity, despite months of constant information sharing up to that point. Simply put, after the FBI conditioned the social media companies to believe that the laptop was the product of a hack-and-dump operation, the Bureau stopped sharing information, allowing the social media companies to conclude that the New York Post story was Russian disinformation."

Gross errors, centralism and retaliation

In addition, during Wray's tenure, the agency has been portrayed in numerous gross failures and abuses that have called into question its effectiveness, such as snooping into the bank records of Americans without warrants and collaborating with the Justice Department to warrantlessly eavesdrop on congressional oversight without informing the courts of its intended targets.

Wray's leadership was also heavily questioned for not being able to prevent a shooting at a nightclub despite the shooter being under surveillance, and for a wave of sexual harassment against female agents and female employees of the agency, the use of political litmus tests such as support for Trump and Second Amendment views during security clearance reviews, or for management's reprimands against whistleblowers who pointed out problems that needed to be corrected.

As a manager, he is especially criticized for the centralism imposed on the agency, in which headquarters was more important than field investigations. In addition, several former agents and lawmakers accuse him of surrounding himself with bosses who "have corrupted their objectives," and who will have to be purged to regain the agency's prestige.

Trump applauds his resignation

The announcement of his resignation was applauded by the man who placed him in the post, and who has already announced Kash Patel as his replacement for his second term. In addition to noting that his farewell "is a great day for the US," Trump wondered what has happened to the man once charged with leading one of the top federal law enforcement agencies.