Wray denies FBI tougher on Jan. 6 than 2020 protests

FBI Director Christopher Wray is rejecting claims that his agency’s aggressive investigation of the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6 contrasts with a lackluster response to violence and unrest that accompanied some Black Lives Matter protests across the country during the spring and summer of 2020.

Speaking in California, Wray offered his most detailed public rebuttal yet to critiques of the bureau put forward in recent months by some Republican lawmakers and other allies of former President Donald Trump, as well as attorneys for those charged with crimes related to the Capitol riot.

“We have one standard, which is: I don’t care whether you’re upset about an election or upset at our criminal justice system,” Wray said during an appearance at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley on Monday night. “Whatever it is you’re upset about, there’s a right way and a wrong way to express your being upset in this country and violence — violence against law enforcement, destruction of property — is not it. …That’s what the rule of law is about.”

During a question-and-answer period after a speech Wray delivered on the threat China poses to U.S. interests, Reagan Library executive director John Heubusch called the assault on the Capitol a “tragedy” and praised the FBI’s determined effort to hunt down those responsible.

“At the same time, there’s a concern out there in a community that a lot of bad actors did similar things, whether it be to federal courthouses or police headquarters across the United States in the summer of 2020,” added Heubusch, a former executive director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

Wray insisted that it was “absolutely” true that the FBI was moving as aggressively to investigate crimes related to the 2020 unrest as it is with offenses committed at the Capitol last Jan. 6

“We have in both instances opened hundreds of investigations — in both. We’ve made hundreds of arrests — in both. We’ve used nearly all 56 of our field offices, including our joint terrorism task forces — in both. We’ve used investigative publicity, most wanted posters, and things like that — in both,” the FBI chief said. “We’re aggressively pursuing both.”

However, Wray noted that the Capitol attack was particularly disturbing because it occurred during the planned certification of the presidential contest and while the building was occupied by staff and lawmakers. He also pointed to challenges in the summer 2020 cases that haven’t affected the Capitol riot investigation. “In the Jan. 6 instance, it happened in broad daylight and was … photographed extensively, people’s faces eminently visible, and involved a fairly unmistakable breach and entry into the Congress while they were in the middle of conducting one of their most sacred responsibilities. Contrast that from a lot of what we saw over the summer was happening under cover of darkness, with people’s faces concealed, often attacking buildings that might not be federal property, in some cases a courthouse, but not while people were in operation.”

Wray’s remarks generally tracked with explanations federal prosecutors have given in court in response to motions Jan. 6 defendants have filed complaining of selective prosecution by the Biden administration. None of those motions has been successful, although one federal judge in Washington — Trump appointee Trevor McFadden — has publicly criticized the Justice Department for being too lenient toward protesters who caused property damage in Washington in the summer of 2020.

“I think the U.S. Attorney's Office would have more credibility if it was evenhanded in its concern about riots and mobs in this city,” McFadden said at a sentencing hearing for a Capitol riot defendant last October.

However, some of McFadden’s colleagues have rejected the comparison, insisting that some people in Washington did face serious charges for rioting that summer and that the two situations are not comparable.

“Some have compared what took place on Jan. 6 with other protests that took place throughout the country through the past year and have suggested that the Capitol rioters are being treated unfairly,” said Judge Tanya Chutkan, an appointee of President Barack Obama, during another Capitol riot sentencing last year. “I flatly disagree.”

McFadden hasn’t withdrawn his criticism and, in a December ruling, he expressed astonishment that the federal government had dropped many of the charges against rioters in Portland, Ore., including some accused of assaulting federal officers. “Rarely has the Government shown so little interest in vigorously prosecuting those who attack federal officers,” he wrote.

But McFadden ultimately ruled that there were enough distinctions to defeat the selective prosecution claim. The judge also zeroed in on one difference Wray highlighted Monday night: that the Capitol complex was fully occupied when the mob stormed in on Jan. 6, while most of the Portland protests directed at the federal courthouse there took place late at night. “Members of Congress cowered under chairs while staffers blockaded themselves in offices, fearing physical attacks from the rioters,” McFadden wrote.

During his speech Monday, Wray did not make mention of the withering attacks the FBI suffered from President Donald Trump during his term in office, when Trump claimed he was targeted by “corrupt” leaders and personnel at the law enforcement agency.

However, without mentioning Trump by name, Heubusch did ask Wray whether “politics” had hampered the FBI’s ability to do its work.

In his reply, Wray — nominated to head the FBI by Trump in 2017 after he fired Director James Comey — also didn’t mention Trump on Monday or refer directly to his harsh attacks. However, the director did offer what seemed to be a blunt assessment that Trump’s invective toward the agency ultimately led many people to rally around the FBI.

“This is something I think about a lot. …There’s always going to be somebody who’s unhappy,” Wray said, before referring to a time frame when Trump’s verbal fusillade at the agency was at a peak. “In 2019, the number of Americans all over this country applying to be special agents to put their lives on the line working for us, tripled the pace it had been. … In my book, that speaks volumes about what people think about the FBI and what we want them to think about the FBI.”

Kyle Cheney contributed to this report.