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Thompson wants to know if far left or far right is worse when it comes to domestic extremism. Wray says greatest threat to the homeland is not one organization or ideology, but rather lone actors, self-radicalized online, who pursue soft targets using readily accessible weapons.
Wray says the IC agrees Russia is trying to influence the election through malign foreign influence--social media, use of proxies, state media, online journals, to sow divisiveness and denigrate as Biden. The targeting of election infrastructure, "we have not seen" yet.
Wray says the FBI views QAnon as less of an organization and more of a "complex set of conspiracy theories," but that the FBI does not investigate an ideology or conspiracy theory itself.
Wray says the FBI is not only tipping off social media companies to fake accounts/groups, those companies are also sending the FBI accounts they have identified which then allows the FBI to pursue more leads. There is "nearly" every day engagement.
Wray tells Rep. Debbie Lesko that the FBI's FISA process with the Trump campaign was "unacceptable behavior," and that he implemented "over 40 corrective actions." Most people involved in that investigation were either terminated during his tenure or retired, Wray says.
Lawmakers keep asking Wray to characterize the violence at protests as originating from the left or right. But he keeps saying things like, "Much of the violence we’re seeing is not attributed to one particular group or movement."
Asked if the National Counterterrorism Center has planned for a global leadership vacuum, Director Christopher Miller says ”I have seen no degradation” of a commitment or partnerships, but "obviously concerned about a drawing back from our commitments overseas."
"The FBI can’t be the truth police," Wray says. He later adds that he's concerned Americans are getting info about elections from social media, when they should be getting info from local election officials' websites.
Many Republican lawmakers are pushing back on Chris Wray's description of Antifa as a "movement," insisting they are a group. Antifa expert @Mark__Bray told me weeks ago, they are a loose movement. Wray again repeats, we investigate the violence not the ideology.
Wray alludes to some tensions w tech companies, as terrorists use end-to-end encryption. "We are getting to a point where the tech companies are creating an entire warrant-proof world…it doesn’t matter how awful the conduct, how tragic the victim…we’re gonna be blinded to it.”
Wow. @ElissaSlotkin draws Wray to say white supremacists are a bigger threat than Antifa. FBI has ~1K domestic terrorism investigations a year. "What I can tell you is that within domestic terrorism bucket, racially motivated violent extremism is the biggest bucket," Wray says.
Wray tells lawmakers he is worried about the "steady drumbeat of misinformation" and amplification of smaller cyberintrusions that could make American voters lose confidence in the validity of their vote. "That would be a perception, not a reality."
Asked about FBI morale, Wray says, "I could not be more proud of our people," and that the attrition rate is down to <1%. On the recruiting side, he says last year the FBI had triple the number of applications to become special agents in the FBI. This year, on track to be higher.
Asked about President Trump's sustained claims that voting by mail lends itself to fraud, Wray says, "We have not seen to date a coordinated, national voter fraud effort in a major election."
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