FBI Chief to Face Questions            03/02 06:23

   FBI Director Chris Wray is set to testify for the first time since the 
deadly Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, with lawmakers likely to press him on 
whether the bureau adequately communicated with other law enforcement agencies 
about the potential for violence that day.

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- FBI Director Chris Wray is set to testify for the first 
time since the deadly Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, with lawmakers likely to 
press him on whether the bureau adequately communicated with other law 
enforcement agencies about the potential for violence that day.

   Questions about the FBI's preparations for the riot, and investigations into 
it, are expected to dominate Wray's appearance Tuesday before the Senate 
Judiciary Committee. He's also likely to be pressed on how the FBI is 
confronting the national security threat from white nationalists and domestic 
violent extremists and whether the bureau has adequate resources to address the 
problem.

   The violence at the Capitol made clear that a law enforcement agency that 
revolutionized itself after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to deal with 
international terrorism is now scrambling to address homegrown violence from 
white Americans. President Joe Biden's administration has tasked his national 
intelligence director to work with the FBI and Department of Homeland Security 
to assess the threat.

   Wray has kept a notably low profile since a violent mob of insurrectionists 
stormed the Capitol two months ago. Though he has briefed lawmakers privately 
and shared information with local law enforcement hearings, Tuesday's oversight 
hearing will mark Wray's first public appearance before Congress since before 
November's presidential election.

   The FBI is facing questions over how it handled intelligence in the days 
ahead of the riot and whether warnings it had of potential violence reached the 
correct officials.

   Last week, for instance, the acting chief of the Capitol Police said a Jan. 
5 report from the FBI made its way to investigators within the police force and 
to the department's intelligence unit but was never sent up the chain of 
command. The report warned about concerning online posts foreshadowing a "war" 
in Washington the following day. The FBI has said the report, which it says was 
based on uncorroborated information, was shared through its joint terrorism 
task force.

   Wray may also face questions about the FBI's investigation into the massive 
Russian hack of corporations and U.S. government agencies, which happened when 
elite hackers injected malicious code into a software update.




(c) Copyright 2021 DTN, LLC. All rights reserved.