Press Releases

Johnson, Chairman Jordan Ask Director Wray to Correct Testimony

The Congressmen sent a letter to FBI Director Wray offering him the opportunity to issue corrections to his Congressional testimony relating to misinformation and the censorship of Americans

Washington, July 18, 2023

WASHINGTON — Today, U.S. Congressman Mike Johnson (LA-04) and Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (OH-04) sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray offering him the opportunity to correct his testimony provided to the Judiciary Committee during a hearing last Wednesday.

In response to questions from Congressman Johnson, Director Wray testified that the FBI’s focus is on malign foreign disinformation, not domestic, and stated unequivocally that “the FBI is not in the business of moderating content or causing any social media company to censor or suppress” speech. That testimony does not reflect the findings of the federal court in Missouri v. Biden.

“Your testimony conflicts with the findings of the federal court in Missouri v. Biden, which specifically noted that the FBI flagged domestic speech as potential disinformation and that the FBI ‘significant[ly] encourage[d]’ social media platforms to take certain actions with respect to content,” wrote Jordan and Johnson. “The court also noted that FBI had likely participated in “the most massive attack against free speech in [the] United States’ history.”

“Contrary to your testimony, the FBI did not passively relay information to the social media companies and leave it for the companies to decide what content moderation decisions to make,” the Congressmen wrote. “Instead, the FBI was an active participant in this process—flagging content for companies, following up with them to ensure the content had been removed, and offering legal process for the content’s removal.”

“This discrepancy between your testimony and the information we have obtained leads us to conclude that either you misled the Committee about the FBI’s interactions with social media companies or that you were not fully aware of the egregious and unconstitutional actions of the FBI you administer. Either scenario is alarming. Accordingly, we invite you to amend your testimony,” the Congressmen concluded.

Read the full text of the letter here.

Read more about the letter in Fox News.