Conspiracy: Christopher Asher Wray

When it comes to the administration of President Donald Trump, there's so hear-say that trying to piece together one claim is nearly impossible before three more come out. Whether it's the feuds with former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, or his disagreements with former Secretary of Defense James “Mad Dog” Mattis, you can count on there being some sort of drama that exists.

One target of this drama comes primarily from Trump's supporters: current FBI Director Christopher Asher Wray, A registered Republican, Wray's been described as a non-partisan lawman and very quiet, which is apparent given how little he's seen in the public eye for conferences. To some, this is a sign of a man who dedicates himself to his work and hos job. To others, it's a sign up something more sinister and evil.

A sign of a deep state puppet.

Following the sudden firing of James Comey for numerous disagreements over the Clinton Email Scandal and the Special Counsel Investigation, among a plethora of other things, many Democrats and moderate Republicans suspected that Trump would nominate a yes man to be the head of the FBI. Some expected House Representative Trey Gowdy—who was at the head of the Benghazi investigation—to be appointed. However, Gowdy turned down the role as he felt he'd be biased. In the end, Christopher Wray got the position.

Having previously served under George W. Bush's administration in the Department of Justice as an Assistant Attorney General for its Criminal Division, where he oversaw many investigations related to Enron. Many of these involved pizza due to mistaken beliefs that pizza orders were bomb negotiations. While some pizza parlors may have pretty explosive pizza, 99% of the time, the pizza wasn't explosive and was instead of adequate quality. That, coupled with the obscenely large about of public surveillance that the Bush administration had put into place, caused Wray to threaten his resignation from his position along with Robert Mueller and James Comey. While both Mueller and Comey would remain in their positions, Wray resigned in 2005.

From there, Wray worked as an attorney until 2017 when Trump nominated him as the 8th Director of the FBI. This was met with positively by both sides of the political aisle. Wray was a man with law experience and someone who'd worked alongside both Mueller and Comey, which alleviated fears of a potential stooge who'd weaponise the agency to sabotage any potential investigation into Trump. On the other hand, his supporters saw that if Trump picked him, he must be based and red pilled.

While some thought that Democrats and Liberals wouldn't be able to “Fray the Wray”, reality had other plans in mind. During Senate hearings prior to the confirmation, Wray cemented his belief that Russia interfered in the 2016 elections and denounced Trump's claims that the Special Counsel was a “witch hunt”.

These statements disappointed some Trump supporters and delighted his detractors, though others from both saws took it as mere lip service to get the position. Nonetheless, August of 2017 rolled around and Christopher Wray became the 8th director of the FBI, the Senate voting him in 92–5. It was with this confirmation that a question loomed over the heads of many: how would the FBI function under this new leadership? Would it be similar to as it was under James Comey, or would the heads of the political elite roll? Such questions excited some and terrified others.

Yet, the answers never came.

Wray held few press conferences and about extremely little about anything for a while; one Reddit user of the highly controversial subreddit “The_Donald” even joking that Wray finally woke up after remembering he was the FBI Director after he made a public comment months after he was confirmed. Still, some held onto the belief that he was hard at work behind the scenes bringing together a case that'd take down the Bush and Clinton Crime Families, Bathory Spawn George Soros, and would help Trump to “drain the swamp” once and for all.

That hope slowly faded at the months trudged on and the endless mudslinging from both Republicans and Democrats went on; the campaigns for midterm elections picking up speed and the Russia investigation continuing despite endless denials and labelings of it being a witch hunt. Then, in June of 2018, that hope—if any remained in the hearts and minds of some of Trump's most die-hard sand fervent supporters—died. While testifying before the House Judiciary Committee, Wray was asked by Democrat Congressman Ted Lieu as to what he thought of the “Deep State”, to which Wray replied:

“Congressman, I’ve never completely understood the term ‘deep state’. What I can tell you is that we have 37,000 men and women working in field offices all over the country and in offices all over the world. They are people of character, of courage, of principle, of selflessness and of patriotism. And that’s the FBI that I see.”

This comment didn't go over very well with many hardcore Trump supporters, especially on right-wing news outlet Breitbart. In fact, for many readers there, it was the final nail in the coffin.

Not all were angry however. Some used the chaos of the comment section to promote books.

While the commenters above were fuming, they naturally don't represent every Trump supporter. Yet even still, there remained some ardent and casual fans of the real estate mogul who saw Wray as an ally to him that would assist him in fulfilling his agenda to make America great again.

That was eight months ago and since then, Wray’s made more than a few allusions that that belief has no basis in reality.

Back in January of 2018, it was reported that Wray had threatened to quit due to President Trump’s demands that Wray fire Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. These demands weren’t sent directly by Trump himself however, but by former Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who himself would later be sacked by Trump the day after the Midterm elections. His successor, William Barr, would be confirmed by the Senate on Valentine’s Day of 2019.

The report also claimed that Sessions informed White House Counsel Don McGahn (who left the Trump administration in October of 2018) about Wray’s anger towards the ever mounting pressure to fire McCabe. In response, McGahn told Sessions that the fallout and media backlash  that would ensue wasn’t worth it in the slightest; the wound torn by Trump’s firing of James Comey still one of the largest backlashes the administration has seen. To lose two FBI directors in less than a year would be abnormal; to have it happen due to the desire of the President to have what some believe to be stooges would be unprecedented. Despite this, Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s campaign manager and the current Counselor to the President, stated that Trump wasn’t concerned if Wray resigned.

Ultimately however, McCabe was fired by Sessions on March 16 of 2018, a mere 26 hours before he was scheduled to retire. Exactly why Trump demanded McCabe’s firing if he was scheduled to retire in a mere few months remains unknown. Regardless, the ensuing backlash was tremendous; the news of McCabe losing his pension only amplifying things further. Still, many Trump supporters were pleased with the news of McCabe's firing.

However, the report mentioned above remained unconfirmed by both the FBI and the Department of Justice. That changed in the eyes of some in July of 2018 during an interview with NBC news anchor Lester Holt. After reaffirming his stance that Russia interfered in the 2016 election, a stark contrast to comments that were made by Trump days earlier, As a follow-up, Holt asked Wray if he'd threatened to resign, to which Wray replied:

"I'm a low-key, understated guy, but that should not be mistaken for what my spine is made out of. I'll just leave it at that,"

Some have taken this as admission that he’d considered it, likely during the period he was pressured to fire McCabe. Others think it’s merely him stating that he would never do so as he’s strong willed. Nonetheless, Wray this interview was more an exception to the rule when it came to being in the public eye, and the month August was largely silent as far as events went. That all changed in September when Trump gave an interview to The Hill, where he criticized the FBI. Heavily. After lambasting the FBI’s leadership as being “biased” towards him, Trump went on to say  the following:

“I hope to be able put this up as one of my crowning achievements that I was able to ... expose something that is truly a cancer in our country,"

Many have taken this as Trump labeling the FBI as a “cancer” to the United States and that he hopes to expose the entire agency for whatever malignant growth it’s become on the country as a whole. This reportedly caused significant damage to the morale at the agency and at offices around across the country, which is saying something considering Florida governor-turned-senator Rick Scott demanded Wray’s resignation in February after the Stoneman Douglas school shooting, and lambasted the FBI for not acting whatsoever despite Nikolas Cruz’s numerous threats to kill his fellow students and the dozens of reports and tips sent in by schoolmates.

The agency’s morale low and the public's perception of the FBI dwindling due to Trump’s relentless attacks on it, life didn’t seem it couldn’t get worse. Life, however, has a sense of humor worthy that could make the likes of David Parker Ray laugh. In October of 2018, the Senate hearings for Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh were in full swing in spite of the numerous sexual assault allegations surrounding him. The Republican party was short a few votes to confirm Kavanaugh and those undecided came to an agreement: the FBI would be allowed to perform a one week investigation into Kavanaugh. After that, they’d vote based on what was found.

Some saw this request as a test to Wray’s integrity and who he truly was: a mere puppet to the President who would deliberately botch the investigation in the name of a judiciary seat, especially one with a time that spans the remainder of the holders life, or as a truly non-partisan lawman who would put his oath to uphold the law above his personal views. Wray, for his part, publicly stated that the FBI would not be “Trump’s patsy”, while Trump himself gave the entire investigation his blessing and signed the go-ahead for it. This, unsurprisingly, upset many of his supporters; many seeing it as a way to drag out the process and hurt the Republicans chances at holding the Senate and the House of Representatives in the Midterms (the latter of which the Republicans lost, while the former saw them increase their majority—something incredibly rare).

Ultimately, Kavanaugh would be cleared of any wrongdoing. This result upset both pleased and upset an extremely large amount of people, some believing that there wasn’t enough time to perform a thorough investigation into the claims made by Christine Blasey Ford and Kavanaugh’s other accusers, while those who didn’t believe Ford believed that the evidence she presented was flimsy and unreliable; most of it resting strictly on the idea that the accuser must be believed and that the accused is guilty until proven innocent and not the other way around as it should be.

Nonetheless, Wray defended the investigation saying:

“That is consistent with the standard process for such investigations going back quite a long ways.”

This statement didn’t fly well with many left-leaning voters and politicians, many of whom criticized the limited scope of the investigation. Virginia senator Tim Kaine, who was Hillary Clinton’s pick for her Vice President, slammed the investigation and labeled it “a sham”. Wray, however, doubled down and continued to defend it, saying:

“Again, I would say what I said at the beginning, which is as is standard, the investigation was very specific in scope, limited in scope, and that that is the usual process and that my folks have assured me the usual process was followed.”

As seemed to have become the norm for Wray, both he and the FBI received an insurmountable level of criticism for the investigation, much of it resting upon the belief that Kavanaugh had lied under oath during his confirmation hearings. When asked if he’d investigated those allegations, Wray responded by saying:

“That’s not something I can discuss here.”

With Kavanaugh now serving on the Supreme Court for the rest of his life, the midterms having sung in the favor of both the Democratic and Republican parties, and Robert Mueller’s investigation supposedly nearing its end, many have come to agree on one of two things: that Wray is a puppet of the deep state whose goal is to block any investigation into things such as PizzaGate and the Clinton Crime family, or that Wray is merely a non-paristan lawman who will do whatever is required of him to bring the guilty to justice.

Yet, there do exist those who think that the feud[s] between him and Trump are merely stage plays of sorts meant to satisfy those who don’t want any allies of the President in notable positions of power. This belief was held by many of those who subscribe to the QAnon theory, which is something I may cover in the future. But for the uninitiated: there’s someone who refers to themselves simply as “Q” (referring to Q level clearance in government, which grants access to top secret information) who posts cryptic messages on 8chan. In Q’s case, he said that Sessions was working behind the scenes to bring the deep state to justice and that Trump’s fights with him was nothing more than acting. This, ultimately, proved to not be true when Trump fired him, though Q claims otherwise and has told those loyal to Trump to “trust the plan”.

As for the left leaning folks, there are those who see Wray as a puppet to Vladimir Putin; a man whose conflicts with Trump are, as stated before, acting. There exists no evidence for such a claim beyond Trump’s own financial ties to Russia thanks to his real estate dealings there among some other, more questionable dealings that could likely land him in some hot water should the money lead back to a less-than desirable character. Ultimately however, Wray’s entire career has always been dedicated to law and beyond the off-chance that he prosecuted, or defended, a Russian who may have had ties to a shady person back in the motherland, it’d be difficult to understand why he was put into this position by Putin. Especially when he’s stated time an again he believes Russia interfered with the 2016 elections.

Now as for my two cents: I don’t believe that Wray is a deep state puppet. While I do believe there is such a thing as the deep state, I believe it to be a mixture of special interest groups, Political Action Committees (PACs), and other unsavory figures that try to influence politicians to pass legislation that helps them and their agenda, rather than help the American people.

The thing I see with Wray is something that I see with James Comey. Comey was a man who resented comparisons to J. Edgar Hoover and feared going down in history as someone like him. When given information on the Russian dossier, he brought it to Trump as he didn’t want to be seen as someone like Hoover, who would’ve held it over Trump. There’s also the infamous revelation about Hillary Clinton’s emails that happened mere weeks before the 2016 Presidential Election that many say stole the election from Clinton and handed it to Trump on a silver platter. This is perhaps the best comparison I can think of when I see the comments Wray has made in spite of being appointed by Trump.

Comey had cleared Clinton of any wrongdoing prior to that announcement, albeit said she was negligent with her handling of the emails. Trump made this a massive talking point during the campaign trail and to this day, he and his supporters bring it up. However, Comey’s job is to enforce the law and when new evidence comes up, he had to perform his duty as Director of the FBI and announce a new opening in the case. He could’ve easily withheld it until after the election, but had Clinton won, his announcement would’ve made it a zero hour scandal and would have likely triggered a massive uproar from both Trump’s voters and the Republican party as a whole. In the end, Comey did what he had to do and that was that.

With Wray, while he hasn’t had to make a call like that, he’s put himself in a similar position that Comey was in. He’s already proven he isn’t going to be an attack dog for Trump that he can sic on his political opponents and those he dislikes because they won’t fall in line. Wray, in my eyes, as asserted himself as someone who will do whatever is morally right. Whether that means going against the man who appointed him as Director of the FBI or not.

Ultimately however, that’s merely my perspective on this theory. I leave everything up to you to decide. The evidence for this theory rests less on what’s presentable about Wray himself and more about how he speaks about President Trump and the Russia investigation. Of course, if you aren’t an ardent Trump supporter, you’ll likely disagree with everything I’ve said here. However, don’t believe that my intention is to dissuade you. As is the case with most Conspiracy Corner blogs, my intent is to merely present what I can find related to the theory. Political conspiracies such as this aren’t ones I wish to ream into and debunk by parroting talking points from dissenters; I wish for everyone to be able to make up their own minds. The great thing about life is we’re free to do as we please with what we believe in and even if I firmly disagree with nearly every single conspiracy theory out there, I encourage you and everyone else to go out and read on them. If nothing else, they can be entertaining. Until next time, keep the tinfoil hat on your head and remember that the CIA is always watching.