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HOMB Takes Additional Hurricane Reserve Out of Abundance of CautionHouse approves $895B defense bill with military pay raise, ban on transgender care for minorsWASHINGTON − Seven years before President-elect Donald Trump pushed FBI Director Christopher Wray into announcing Wednesday he will step down at the end President Biden's term, Trump appointed Wray and called him "a model of integrity." In the years since, Trump soured on the nation's top law enforcement official for overseeing investigations into his allegedly trying to overturn the 2020 election and retaining classified documents after he left office in January 2021. Trump had already nominated Kash Patel, an ardent Trump supporter, to be Wray’s replacement , thus signaling his intent to fire Wray upon taking office. Here’s a list of key events in the fraught relationship between Trump and Wray that began in 2017 with Wray’s nomination to head the Federal Bureau of Investigation. June 7, 2017: Trump nominates Wray After firing FBI Director James Comey for his role in investigating Trump’s potential role in Russian interference in the 2016 election, then-President Trump nominates Wray as head of the nation’s premier law enforcement agency, in charge of 35,000 people including more than 10,000 “special agents” across the U.S. and around the world. Trump described Wray as a " model of integrity " and an "impeccably qualified individual" for the role of investigating crimes and foreign influence in the United States without fear or favor. Wray had began his career clerking for prominent conservative U.S. Appeals Court Judge J. Michael Luttig and served as a prosecutor in the Justice Department. He was appointed assistant attorney general, charge of the department's criminal division, by President George W. Bush. Prior to being named FBI director, he was a partner at the law firm King & Spaulding. After receiving Senate confirmation, Wray began his 10-year term at the FBI, a unique protection created by Congress specifically to insulate the FBI director position from political influence, especially from the White House. December 7, 2017: Wray defends the FBI Four months after Wray is sworn in as the eighth director of the FBI, he publicly defends the agency from Trump’s criticism of its role in investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election to help Trump defeat Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. After Trump tweeted that the bureau's reputation was " in Tatters – worst in history! " and called its impartiality into question, Wray told the House Judiciary Committee that, "The FBI I see are tens of thousands of men and woman who are hard charging people of integrity." Sept. 24, 2020: Trump criticized the FBI As Russia interferes in the election to help Trump beat former Vice-President Joe Biden, Trump sharply criticizes U.S. law enforcement and intelligence officials for investigating and publicizing what he describes as "Fake News" and the "Russia Hoax." In testimony before the House Homeland Security Committee , Wray says, “we are not going to tolerate foreign interference in our elections” and describes how the FBI was working with Facebook and Twitter to shut Russian disinformation campaigns down before they “could develop some kind of broader following.” August 8, 2022: FBI searches Mar-a-Lago The FBI conducts a search of Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla. to recover classified documents that Trump took with him from the White House and refused to return. This infuriates Trump, who decries the "weaponization of the Justice Department" and begins a campaign of publicly criticizing the FBI, saying the agency is part of a Deep State “hoax” and attack against him. The documents seized by agents play the central role in one of the two felony criminal cases ultimately filed against Trump – the first charges against a former president in U.S. history – by Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith. The other case, filed in July 2023 and based on an investigation that involved the work of FBI agents, accuses Trump of trying to steal the 2020 election that he lost to Biden. Trump maintains his innocence and pleaded not guilty in both cases. “Biden’s DOJ was authorized to use DEADLY FORCE” in Mar-a-Lago raid, Trump falsely claimed at one point , adding that FBI agents were “locked and loaded” and “ready to take me out.” Wray, and Attorney General Merrick Garland flatly denied any bias, and said the search was authorized by a judge as required. Nov. 5, 2024: Trump is elected Trump wins the presidential election. The DOJ subsequently moves to have both cases dismissed, per its policy of not prosecuting a sitting president. Trump's spokesman Steven Cheung applauds the move, saying, "Today's decision by the DOJ ends the unconstitutional federal cases against President Trump, and is a major victory for the rule of law." Nov. 30, 2024: Trump nominates Kash Patel to replace Wray Trump nominates Patel , a former Justice Department prosecutor, congressional staffer and national security official in Trump's first administration. Patel had publicly vowed to go after senior FBI and Justice Department officials who investigated Trump, and to shut down FBI headquarters "on Day One" and turn it into a museum for the so-called "deep state" national security bureaucracy that Trump believes has been out to get him. Dec. 11, 2024: Wray announces resignation Wray informs FBI employees of his decision to resign next month at the end of Biden's term on January 20, 2025. His announcement comes two days after a key Republican senator who will have oversight of the FBI issues a stinging rebuke of Wray and his “failed” and politicized leadership of the law enforcement agency and calls on him to step down immediately. Wray describes his decision as the best way to “keep the focus on our mission... and avoid dragging the bureau deeper into the fray, while reinforcing the values and principles that are so important to how we do our work.” He has more than two years left in his term. Trump immediately hails Wray’s resignation on social media as “a great day for America as it will end the Weaponization of what has become known as the United States Department of Injustice." Trump said in a statement on social media . "Under the leadership of Christopher Wray, the FBI illegally raided my home, without cause, worked diligently on illegally impeaching and indicting me, and has done everything else to interfere with the success and future of America." In a statement, Attorney General Merrick Garland said Wray "has served our country honorably and with integrity for decades, including for seven years as the Director of the FBI under presidents of both parties.”
Trump says firms who invest more than $1 BILLION will get fast-tracked permitting dealsAnthony Albanese has been accused of responding “too slow” to a surge in anti-Semitism after yet another incident in Sydney. A crime scene was established in the east Sydney suburb of Woollahra after “Kill Israiel” was scrawled onto a wall behind a torched car in the early hours of Wednesday. Another car and two buildings were also vandalised, authorities said. The second high profile anti-Semitic incident in a major Australian city in less than a week, senior Coalition MP Sussan Ley said she wanted “to see strong leadership from the Prime Minister”. “This is not a peaceful protest. This is thugs and hooligans going to where Jewish people live, to their homes, and conducting these sort of awful, awful acts of intimidation, harassment, and who knows what next,” she told Sky News. “I want to see arrests, I want to see action, I want to see strong leadership from the Prime Minister, and I’m not sure that we’re seeing that now.” Mr Albanese and several senior ministers have condemned the latest incident in Sydney. “Overwhelmingly, Australians are respectful people,” he told the ABC. “Australians want to live peacefully, side by side, and Australians reject this abhorrent criminal behaviour.” Mr Albanese said the incident was “not a political act”, in that it would “not change anything that is occurring in the Middle East”. “This is an attack against their fellow Australians,” he said. Meanwhile, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has pledged that those behind the incident in Woollahra “will face the full force of the law”. “This latest attack is an abhorrent attempt to intimidate our Jewish community, but it will not be successful,” Mr Burke said in a statement. “Officers from Operation Avalite will brief the government this morning. Home Affairs officials are engaging with NSW police. “We will continue to stand with the Jewish community against hatred and violence which has no place in our country. Those responsible for this will face the full force of the law and the condemnation of our community.” The Albanese government on Monday announced Operation Avalite, a special taskforce to tackle anti-Semitic attacks after a synagogue in Melbourne was firebombed last week. But many in the Jewish community have questioned why it took so long for any concrete action. On Tuesday, security rushed Mr Albanese into his car after he was heckled while visiting the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne. The incident overnight in Woollahra, which has a high Jewish population, is the second such incident in the suburb in less than a month. In late November, several buildings were vandalised with anti-Semitic graffiti and a car set alight. Two men have been charged in relation to that incident.
TikTok is challenging the federal government’s order to shut down its operations in Canada. The company filed in documents in Federal Court in Vancouver on Thursday. The government ordered the dissolution of TikTok’s Canadian business in November after a national security review of the Chinese company behind the social media platform. That means TikTok must "wind down" its operations in Canada, though the app will continue to be available to Canadians. TikTok wants the court to overturn the government’s order and to place a pause on the order while the court hears the case. It is claiming the minister's decision was "unreasonable" and "driven by improper purposes." The review was carried out through the Investment Canada Act, which allows the government to investigate any foreign investment with potential to harm national security. Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne said in a statement at the time the government was taking action to address "specific national security risks," though it didn’t specify what those risks were. TikTok’s filing says Champagne "failed to engage with TikTok Canada on the purported substance of the concerns that led to the (order.)" The company argues the government ordered "measures that bear no rational connection to the national security risks it identifies." It says the reasons for the order "are unintelligible, fail to reveal a rational chain of analysis and are rife with logical fallacies." The company's law firm, Osler Hoskin & Harcourt LLP, declined to comment, while Champagne’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A TikTok spokesperson said in a statement that the order would "eliminate the jobs and livelihoods of our hundreds of dedicated local employees — who support the community of more than 14 million monthly Canadian users on TikTok, including businesses, advertisers, creators and initiatives developed especially for Canada." This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 10, 2024. Darryl Greer and Anja Karadeglija, The Canadian Press