Democrats Complicit in Advancing Christopher Wray Confirmation as FBI Director

Constituents giving Hero of the Resistance Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse a piece of their minds after his vote to confirm pro-torture Mike Pompeo as CIA director

by Gaius Publius

It seems "our" Democrats never learn.

During the earlier rounds of confirmation on Trump cabinet nominees, a group of early votes to confirm some of the worst and least qualified included far too many Democrats saying Yes.

One of the worst votes was the confirmation of torture advocate Mike Pompeo as CIA director 66-32-2, with such Heroes of the Resistance as these...

• Diane Feinstein
• Maggie Hassan
• Tim Kaine (Clinton's VP nominee)
• Amy Klobuchar
• Brian Schatz
• Chuck Schumer
• Jean Shaheen
• Sheldon Whitehouse
• Angus King

...voting to install him. (See "Mike Pompeo, Torture, and the Future of the Democratic Party" for more.)

For their trouble, Democratic senators like Sheldon Whitehouse were subject to their own angry town halls. (See "Democrat-Supported CIA Chief Hires a Torturer of Muslims as Deputy" for more.)

Now our Heroes of the Resistance (including Sens. Whitehouse and Franken; see below) are at it again, this time on the recent vote to confirm Trump nominee Christopher Wray to replace James Comey as FBI Director.

From Huffington Post and Reuters:

Senate Panel Unanimously Approves Chris Wray's Nomination As FBI Director

All 20 members of the committee voted to advance the nomination.

WASHINGTON, July 20 (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday unanimously approved the nomination of Christopher Wray to be FBI director following the dismissal of the agency’s former chief, James Comey, by President Donald Trump.

All 20 members of the committee voted to approve Wray, a white-collar crime lawyer and former assistant attorney general under President George W. Bush, sending his nomination to the full Senate for a vote.

Trump nominated Wray last month after firing Comey during an FBI investigation into whether Trump campaign associates colluded with the Russians to help him with the 2016 presidential election.

Needless to say, Trump would not have chosen Wray in the first place if Wray were going to operate in the recent James Comey mode, meaning independent of White House direction.

Who Is Christopher Wray?

According to Reuters, Christopher Wray is lawyer who specializes in prosecuting and defending white collar crime. He's also Chris Christie's personal lawyer "in a political scandal."

As a bonus, Wray also has a nice connection to the Russian energy giant Gazprom: "Wray works as a King & Spalding litigation partner and represents companies and individuals in a white-collar criminal and regulatory enforcement matters. King & Spalding has represented Russian companies including state gas monopoly Gazprom, according to its website. According to the website, the firm's energy practice also has represented businesses taking part in deals involving Russian entities including state-owned oil major Rosneft."

In other words, Wray is connected to all the right right-wing people. As we'll discuss at another time, part — or maybe most — of the Trump-Russia battle over sanctions may well be related to the U.S. attempt to corner the E.U. LNG (liquified natural gas) market for struggling U.S. suppliers and freeze out Russian suppliers and pipelines that would deliver Russian LNG to the West.

That may be good or bad, depending on whether you think U.S. military policy should protect U.S. fossil fuel corporations. But with Trump and Tillerson firmly in the "let Russia sell their natural gas" camp, you can be pretty sure which side Christopher Wray will be on — Trump's.

A Loyal Trumpie?

Do you think Trump will expect the same "loyalty" from Wray that he expected from Comey? Reuters again:

In written testimony released by the panel on Wednesday, Comey said Trump told him on Jan. 27 that "I expect loyalty," and in a Feb. 14 meeting asked him to back off from a probe into former national security adviser Michael Flynn's ties with Russia. ... In a statement, Trump called Wray "an impeccably qualified individual" who will serve "as a fierce guardian of the law and model of integrity."

I think it would be foolish to think otherwise.

"Heroes of the Resistance"

And these fine members of the Senate Judiciary Committee voted (pdf) to send the nomination to the Republican-dominated Senate floor, making confirmation a bipartisan certainty:

• Al Franken
• Sheldon Whitehouse (again)
• Amy Klobuchar
• Patrick Leahy
• Dick Durbin
• Richard Blumenthal
• Mazie Hirono

As CREDO Political Director Murshed Zaheed put it, "Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee just failed the resistance. ... Every Democratic member of the Senate Judiciary Committee should be ashamed of themselves for rewarding Trump by rubber-stamping his pick to fill the role. If Senate Democrats don’t have the backbone to stand up to Trump’s dangerous regime they might as well go home and find a new line of work."

A New Leaf, or the Old One?

They never learn. How do they expect us to think they've turned a new leaf if they keep showing us the old one?

So we're back to the question we asked earlier — how much Democratic complicity is too much? It seems that Democratic senators are determined to help us find out.

GP