‘Was Russia Collusion A Hoax?’: GOP Rep. Tom Tiffany Grills Christopher Wray Over Durham Report

Republican Rep. Tom Tiffany of Wisconsin questioned FBI Director Christopher Wray about former Special Counsel John Durham’s report regarding the FBI’s conduct while investigating Donald Trump’s campaign in 2016, with Wray admitting that he agreed with the report’s findings.

Wray was questioned by members of the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday, in a highly-anticipated hearing regarding the FBI’s investigative activities. “In the Durham Report, he said that the FBI failed to uphold strict fidelity to the law, and that predates you. Do you agree with that statement that Mr. Durham made?,” Tiffany asked Wray, to which he responded, “Yes, I do.”

Durham’s report revealed that the FBI’s leaders at the time, chiefly then-Director James Comey, had concealed counter-factual evidence from rank-and-file agents investigating the Trump campaign’s alleged links to the Russian government in 2016. One item of evidence included an intelligence report that Hillary Clinton’s campaign had sought to “vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by Russian security services,” which officials deemed important enough to personally brief President Barack Obama and then-Vice President Joe Biden about the matter.

“Was Russia collusion a hoax? In light of the Durham Report, was it a hoax?,” Tiffany asked in response.

“As to the Durham Report, the conduct it describes was conduct I consider unacceptable and unrepresentative of who I see the FBI as every day. It must never be allowed to happen, again,” Wray responded, adding that “it’s not seriously disputed that Russians, among other foreign adversaries, have attempted to interfere in our elections.”

Wray also noted that “President Donald Trump, rightly, declared a national emergency about foreign interference in our elections in 2018.”

Tiffany then asked Wray about the FBI’s activity during elections. “The actions of the disgraced James Comey and the FBI interfered in elections in 2016 and 2020. Will that interference happen again in 2024?,” he asked Wray.

“The FBI is not going to be interfering in elections,” Wray responded. Tiffany claimed that the Durham Report had evinced election interference by the FBI, to which Wray said “I’m not quite sure that’s what the report concludes.”

“You can be in denial on this, but that’s exactly what happened,” Tiffany concluded.