FBI Director Christopher Wray on Wednesday defended the bureau against attacks by lawmakers on multiple fronts.

Wray testified before the House Judiciary Committee during a time when Republicans are accusing the FBI and Justice Department of being politically weaponized against conservatives, with some GOP lawmakers suggesting the bureau should be defunded or dismantled.

Republicans have assailed the FBI over its handling of investigations into former President Donald Trump, Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, and the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection; its communication with social media platforms over misinformation; its misuse of a foreign intelligence database; and a Virginia field office memo warning of “radical traditionalist Catholics,” among other matters.

“This is no time to mince words: The American people have lost faith in the FBI,” said Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La. “ … See, the American people that we represent are losing count of the scandals that are mounting.”

Without explicitly mentioning the attacks in his opening remarks, Wray, who appeared before the panel for the first time since Republicans took control of the House in January, defended the work and character of FBI employees. 

“Today's FBI leaders reflect the best of our organization, an organization that is made up of 38,000 men and women who are patriots, professionals and dedicated public servants. And that is the real FBI,” he said.

Republicans pressed Wray, who was appointed by Trump in 2017, on the FBI’s contacts with social media companies after a federal judge in Louisiana earlier this month said the Biden administration, including the FBI, could no longer flag specific posts to the platforms or request reports about their efforts to remove the content.

Judge Terry Doughty cited a wide range of topics he said were suppressed on social media at the urging of administration officials, including about COVID-19 vaccines, the origin of the virus, the 2020 presidential election and Hunter Biden’s laptop.

Wray told lawmakers the FBI has only alerted the platforms about disinformation campaigns by foreign governments, adding, “At the end of the day, we're very clear that it's up to the social media companies to decide whether to do something.”

Republicans, however, have complained that conservative speech was targeted. And Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., argued tech companies cannot help but feel pressured when contacted by the FBI. 

“A suggestion of the most powerful law enforcement operation is not a suggestion,” Issa said. “It is, in fact, effectively an order.”

GOP lawmakers also attacked Wray over a recent ruling by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that found the FBI improperly searched for information on U.S. citizens in a database for foreign intelligence 278,000 times over several years. The subjects of the search included Capitol riot suspects, political campaign donors and protesters following the 2020 police killing of George Floyd, the court said.

When Wray could not immediately answer a question from Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., about how many illegal Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act searches were conducted under his leadership, Gaetz fired back, “It seems like a number you should know — how many times the FBI is breaking the law under your watch.”

Gaetz played video of Wray’s 2021 testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee in which the FBI director said he didn’t believe FISA was “remotely implicated” in the bureau’s Jan. 6 investigation. 

Wray said Wednesday his answer then was truthful because  he “did not believe FISA had been involved in the Jan. 6 investigation.”

The FBI director, however, later acknowledged the bureau “clearly had failures in the past” with FISA searches. He added that the FBI has “implemented a whole series of reforms” since the abuses came to light and that audits by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and Justice Department have indicated those reforms are working.

Wray and Gaetz had another heated exchange when the Florida congressman opened his questioning by reading a purported 2017 text message from Hunter Biden to a potential Chinese business partner invoking Hunter’s father, Joe, before he was elected president. An attorney for Hunter Biden has said the text message is fake.

“Sounds like a shakedown, doesn't it, Director?” Gaetz said.

“I'm not going to get into commenting on that,” Wray responded.

“I'm curious. Are you protecting the Bidens?” Gaetz asked.

“Absolutely not,” Wray answered.

Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, the committee’s chairman, questioned Wray about an internal memorandum in January by the FBI’s Richmond, Virginia, office that warned against “radical traditionalist Catholic ideology,” and claiming it “almost certainly presents new mitigation opportunities.”

Wray condemned the missive, saying it “was a single product by a single field office, which, as soon as I found out about it, I was aghast and ordered it withdrawn and removed from FBI systems.”

The FBI director insisted the memo did not result in any investigations.

Jordan blasted Wray for not letting the committee to speak to those responsible. Wray said the FBI is still conducting an internal review. 

Some Republicans also questioned Wray about whether the FBI had undercover agents and confidential informants at the Capitol on Jan. 6. One debunked conspiracy theory has claimed federal agents incited the Capitol riot to entrap conservatives.

“I will say this notion that somehow the violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6 was part of some operation orchestrated by FBI sources and agents is ludicrous and is a disservice to our brave, hardworking, dedicated men and women,” Wray said.

The FBI director frustrated Republicans by saying he could not provide a number on how many confidential informants might have been in the crowd and that he did not believe — but couldn’t say for sure — that any undercover agents were used.

Democrats tried to poke holes in ongoing Republican talking points attacking the FBI and Justice Department for charging Trump with illegally retaining classified military documents and continuing to investigate the former president.

Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York, the top Democrat on the committee, called Wednesday’s hearing by the Republican-led panel “performance art.”

“It is an elaborate show designed with only two purposes in mind: to protect Donald Trump from the consequences of his actions and to return him to the White House in the next election,” he said.

Democrats argued Trump could have avoided prosecution if he had not repeatedly defied attempts by the federal government to recover the documents.

While more friendly toward Wray overall, some Democrats, too, criticized the FBI. 

Reps. Zoe Lofgren and Adam Schiff, both California Democrats, mentioned a Washington Post investigative report last month that the FBI resisted for more than a year opening an investigation into Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Wray said he could not comment on the ongoing investigation, which is now being led by special counsel Jack Smith, or the internal deliberations leading up to it.

While Republicans have repeatedly accused the FBI of targeting Trump for political reasons, Lofgren said the bureau “showed unprecedented caution before investigating the ex-president, even when there was a potential threat to national security.”

Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., asked Wray what the impact would be if some Republicans got their wish and defunded the FBI.

“It would hurt the American people, neighborhoods and communities all across this country, the people we're protecting from cartels, violent criminals, gang members, predators, foreign and domestic terrorists, cyberattacks — I could go on and on,” he said. “And the people that would help would be those same violent gangs and cartels, foreign terrorists, Chinese spies, hackers and so forth.”