Judging Freedom - FBI Director refuses to answer simple question about Jan 6 Riot

Episode Date: November 16, 2022

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Hi, everyone. Judge Andrew Napolitano here for Judging Freedom. Today is Wednesday, November 16, 2022. It's about 2.45 in the afternoon here on the east coast of the United States. Tonight, my column, which is embargoed until 1159 p.m. on Wednesdays, so effectively comes out on Thursdays, is called the FBI and Zero Click. Zero Click. I never heard of the phrase either. Zero Click is the name of Israeli software that allows the FBI to download the contents of your desktop or your mobile phone without tricking you into clicking on something. It's obviously illegal. It's computer hacking. It's obviously unconstitutional. It violates the Fourth Amendment if the government does it. But the FBI bought it and used it, and Congress found out that they were experimenting with it. This is the subject of my column, available at 1159 tonight, at judsnap.com, at luerockwell.com, at washingtontimes.com, and at its various venues, and available all over the

place tomorrow. Yesterday, and it points out, before I get to yesterday, that the director of the FBI, Chris Wray, materially misled Congress under oath about what the FBI was doing with this software. That's a felony, misleading Congress under oath, not a direct lie, but giving the absolutely incorrect impression under oath to Congress is a crime. And FBI agents themselves conspired to use this on unwitting Americans. So conspiracy to commit computer hacking is also a crime. So we have a rogue FBI led by an FBI director credibly accused of committing a crime, who's the boss of some agents and FBI management credibly accused of committing a crime.

So all that is background to what I want to talk about today. The column comes out tonight. Yesterday, the same Chris Wray, the FBI director, spoke before the House Homeland Security Committee, the chairman of which, Congressman Benny Thompson, Democrat of Mississippi, is the same person that is the chair of the House Select Committee on January 6th. Congressman Clay Higgins, Republican of Louisiana, is interrogating Director Wray. You'll see this in a minute. It's about 60 seconds long.

And he asks him point blank, did the FBI have any undercover informants dressed as Trump supporters inside the Capitol on January 6th before all hell broke loose. Now see if you are as frustrated as Congressman Higgins becomes in this tape, as frustrated as I am, and see if you approve of Congressman Thompson cutting off the questioner, Congressman Higgins, and stopping Director Wray from answering. It's about a minute. Did the FBI have confidential human sources embedded within the January 6th protesters on January 6th of 2021? Well, Congressman, as I'm sure you can appreciate, I have to be very careful about what I can say about when even now, because that's what you told us two years ago. May I finish about when we do and do not and where we have and have not used confidential human sources.

But to the extent that there's a suggestion, for example, that the FBI's confidential human sources or FBI employees in some way instigated or orchestrated January 6th, that's categorically false. Did you have confidential human sources dressed as Trump supporters inside the Capitol on January the 6th prior to the doors being open? Again, I had to be very careful. It should be a no. Can you not tell the American people no? We did not have confidential human sources dressed as Trump supporters positioned inside the Capitol. Gentlemen, time should not read anything into my decision not to share information.

Director Ray, gentlemen's time has expired. Frustrating as can be. You saw the gentleman at the end. That's Congressman Thompson, a Democrat who obviously doesn't want the question answered. Maybe he wants it answered before the January 6th committee, of which he is chair. We don't know if they interrogated Chris Wray. And Chris Wray, the director of the FBI, obviously doesn't want to answer this question. It's a profound question.

What did the FBI know and when did they know it? I mean, I know this is not in the news today, but it should be in the news because of this confrontation, this frustrating confrontation yesterday. The chair should have suspended the rules, given Congressman Higgins as much reasonable time as he needed, and ordered the director of the FBI to answer it. Mr. Director, what did the FBI know and when did they know it? Mr. Director, did the FBI know that January 6th was coming? Mr. Director, what did the FBI know and when did they know it? Mr. Director, did the FBI know that January 6th was coming? Mr. Director, did they know there was going to be violence and did they look the other way? Mr. Director, we have evidence of FBI informants on the floor of the House of Representatives or the Senate, I forget which side they were on, texting to their FBI handlers about what was happening. Mr. Director, how did they get there? Mr. Director, who paid them? Mr. Director, what did the FBI pay these thugs?

Mr. Director, if the FBI knew about this ahead of time, why didn't it stop it? I think these are profound, I'm not showing off. I think these are profound questions that the public has the right to know the answer to, that Congress has the right to ask. Maybe this will change in a Republican Congress. I don't know. I understand, you know, when I was on the bench, you work with law enforcement. There are certain things you don't want to talk about until all the trials are completed. But without mentioning any proper names, the FBI director should answer as much of this as he can rather than obfuscate. I have a feeling we're not at the end of this. And I have a feeling come January we'll see a lot more.

More as we get it. Judge Napolitano for judging freedom.