FBI director boasts that applications are 'up over 100%' in Florida after Matt Gaetz says people trusted the FBI 'more when J. Edgar Hoover was running the place'

• FBI Director Christopher Wray bragged about the agency's recruitment when informed of its low popularity.
• Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz claimed the bureau was trusted more under the notorious leadership of J. Edgar Hoover.
• Wray retorted that recruitment is "up over 100%" in Florida under his watch.

FBI Director Christopher Wray on Wednesday bragged about the bureau recruitment in response to Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz grilling him about Americans' view of the FBI.

"Respectfully, congressman, in your home state of Florida the number of people applying to come work for us and devote their lives working for us is up over 100% since I started," Wray told Gaetz during a heated back-and-forth at a House Judiciary Committee hearing.

Gaetz grew agitated with Wray after a series of aggressive questions about Hunter Biden and the FBI's January 6 investigation. 

"People trusted the FBI more when J. Edgar Hoover was running the place than when you are. And the reason is because you don't give straight answers," Gaetz concluded. "You give answers that later a court deems aren't true. And then at the end of the day, you won't criticize an obvious shakedown when it's directly in front of us, and appears as though you are whitewashing the conduct of corrupt people."

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Gaetz's reference to Hoover, whom the FBI's headquarters are named after, harkens back to the controversial figure's nearly half-century running the bureau. Hoover's legacy is tarnished by the FBI's surveillance of political groups and civil rights activists, illegal probes of politicians, and other wrongdoing, as The Atlantic once recounted. In one of the most famous instances, the bureau tried to destroy Martin Luther King Jr. by mailing the civil rights icon an anonymous note urging him to kill himself along with tapes of some of his extramarital affairs.

The Florida Republican snapped back after Wray pointed out the recruitment figures.

"We're deeply proud of them, and they deserve better than you," Gaetz said.

Polling has shown that while close to a majority of Americans approve of the FBI, there is a massive split between Democratic and Republicans. The split coincidences with years of conservative attacks on the bureau.

Wray volleyed repeated questions from Republican lawmakers about the FBI's handling of its January 6 investigation, Hunter Biden's laptop, and other actions it has taken during the Biden administration. The bureau is also at the center of a special select panel on lawmakers probing the "weaponization of the federal government."

At one point, a Democratic lawmaker pointed that it was former President Donald Trump who appointed Wray to the top job after he fired Director James Comey. Wray then correctly recalled that only five senators voted against his confirmation. (They were all Democrats.)

Gaetz began his aggressive line of questioning by pointing to an alleged Hunter Biden "shakedown," a reference to an alleged 2017 text Hunter Biden sent to a Chinese business partner that claimed he was sitting right next to the then-former Vice President. (Biden has since denied that he was present.) When Wray refused to characterize the text, Gaetz pressed if the director was "protecting the Bidens."

He then moved on to questions about a once-secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that found the FBI had broken its own rules when conducting improper searches about January 6 and Black Lives Matter protestors. Gaetz pointed out that Wray had previously testified before the Senate that to his knowledge the FBI had not relied on a database of foreign intelligence information in regard to its January 6 investigation. The court's order found the FBI had done exactly that.

"I certainly didn't perjure myself," Wray shot back Gaetz, who had accused him of lying to lawmakers. "At the time I was testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee, I didn't have access to that piece of information."