While the FBI was preparing to raid the home of former President Donald Trump for alleged misuse of government property, FBI Director Christopher Wray was allegedly taking government aircraft for personal use.
The New York Post reports that not only did Wray use taxpayer-funded government aircraft for a personal vacation, he timed the flight to avoid giving testimony to Congress.
The Post reports Wray cut short his testimony in an Aug. 4 Senate hearing, informing the Judiciary Committee just before the hearing he would leave in the middle of questioning to catch a 1:30 p.m. flight, even though it was a jet his own agency controlled and he was leaving for a personal vacation.
House Committee on Oversight and Reform Ranking Member James Comer (R-Ky.), House Republican Conference Chairwoman Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) and House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Ranking Member Mike Turner (R-Ohio) are now asking for Wray to clarify the allegations he used taxpayer-funded aircraft for a personal vacation.
“In light of a recent report by the New York Post that you left a Senate hearing early to fly on an FBI aircraft for a personal vacation, we have questions about whether you are properly reimbursing federal taxpayers for your personal travel aboard government aircraft. According to the Post, on August 4, 2022, you abruptly departed a Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearing to engage in personal travel to your vacation home in Saranac Lake, New York. Despite requests from Ranking Member Grassley, you refused to remain at the hearing for an additional 21 minutes for remaining members to finish asking their questions and conduct oversight of the FBI,” the lawmakers wrote.
“You reportedly departed on the FBI’s Gulfstream 550 jet, an agency aircraft initially intended for counterterrorism use, to make the one hour and 12-minute journey to Saranac Lake. Further, it has been reported that you made a similar personal trip on a government aircraft on June 2 and June 5, 2022. Although certain federal officials are permitted to use government aircraft for personal or political use, these expenses must be reimbursed,” the lawmakers continued.
“According to the Government Accountability Office, the FBI Director must make reimbursement payments for personal travel to the FBI Finance Division, which then deposits the funds to the Department of the Treasury. In order to have important oversight on whether these appropriate actions were taken, the lawmakers requested related documents and information, specifically outlined in the letter by August 29, 2022,” House Oversight Committee Republicans note.
The lawmakers are asking Wray to produce:
1. All documents and communications referring or relating to your travel on government aircraft including the dates of travel, the aircraft used, the purpose of the flights, and the names of all passengers on the flights.
2. A full accounting of the cost to taxpayers of your use of government aircraft for personal travel.
3. All documents and communications referring or relating to any reimbursement for your personal or any political travel.
4. Any documents and communications referring or relating to internal FBI policies, practices, or regulations regarding personal or political travel on government aircraft.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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How long has this been going on? File charges
Who exactly is going to “file charges”? The Justice Department? No, it’s run by Wray’s buddy Merrick Garland. I doubt that he flies commercial coach to his vacation destinations. The only option I see would be a Qui Tam lawsuit. Otherwise you will have to wait for 2025, absent impeachment of Biden/Harris (which I support, but accord a 0.00000001% chance of success as to the removal, given the corrupt nature of 48 Democrat Senators)
Biden and the democrat over reach with abuse of power are at all time highs, just like the murders rates in big cities are, they have one thing in common all democrat controlled mayors who are wasting your tax dollars and doing nothing to fight big city crime, so if you are happy with your local, state or federal government over reach with abuse of power vote democrat for the midterms, but if your tired of corruption and government over reach vote them out.
The $500 hair cut in the EMPTY SUIT must be held accountable for all his corruption!
“The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.”
Noteworthy, is that there were no opinions expressed. This was a straight up news story. This is how you report the news. Rare to see today, yes. But this is how it is done.
Worth noting is that FBI Director Wray was called out on his first lie at the hearing. While Wray was testifying there was an exchange where a member of Congress exposed Wray’s lie that he had to leave to catch a flight by exposing that Wray was using a government aircraft that flew at his pleasure and not a commercial flight that he had to catch on a predetermined timetable.
He still left.
Seems to be a lot of funny stuff going on in Washington, Like Hunter flying on the Presidents plane where he does business with enemies of America.
A person would think all that has been going on in the “Dem’s” Camp would wake people up and note it is all for “No Good” and change their vote. I know I would not vote “party” and never have when It could be proven all is NOT RIGHT or LEGAL. People need to get their head out of the sand and vote what is good for the country which in turn would teach that “power” must be used for the good of the nation and its people. History of “Party” can be interesting.
Democrats just have no shame. One after another. Entitled at every turn. Too much of this going on. American citizens in high profile jobs and will do anything they want with tax payer money. The FK you attitude is pervasive in the democrat mindset. And those that vote for them just ignore it all and keep voting them in. They definitely aren’t particular about those running for office just as long as the democrat party gets in every time! There is no such thing as may the best man win. It’s definitely an idiom in democrat thinking.
I wonder what they will require him to pay, after all, it IS a gov’t aircraft and they tend to charge what the aircraft costs to fly per hour unlike commercial where you pay a set rate per ticket…having dealt with it in the military, I’ve seen some planes that cost upwards of $30,000 PER HOUR
Yes, but a Gulfstream jet isn’t quite in that class. Per one website that seems legitimate, “the private flight cost of a Gulfstream G200 / G280 is $6,400 an hour.”