The Wray Slayer

by Julie Kelly 

Confirming reports he planned to step down before Donald Trump’s inauguration next month, FBI Director Christopher Wray today announced he will retire at the official end of the Biden administration. Wray, appointed by then-President Trump in 2017, delivered the news during an all-hands-on-deck virtual meeting of more than 38,000 FBI employees.

In typical oleaginous fashion, Wray touted the bureau’s alleged achievements under his leadership—fighting the trafficking of illegal drugs, protecting children from predators, thwarting cybercrime, blah blah—by “abiding by the rule of law and adhering to our core values.” Whatever that means.

The FBI, Wray claimed, is immune to the whimsy of American politics: “Unfortunately, all too often in today’s world, people’s standard for whether something was fair or objective—a Supreme Court decision, a verdict in a high-profile case, the investigation we brought, or the one we didn’t bring—is whether they liked the result, whether their side won or lost. But that’s not how independence and objectivity work. We’re not on any one side. We’re on the American people’s side, the Constitution’s side.”

That, of course, is not true; in fact, it is demonstrably false. While former FBI Director James Comey initiated the partisan weaponization of the FBI against Trump in 2016 with the opening of “Crossfire Hurricane,” Wray accelerated the effort while expanding the FBI’s political hit list. The “side” Wray chose time and again was the side of the Democratic Party—the Bidens in particular—while subjecting Trump supporters and other conservatives to the crushing boot of the most powerful law enforcement agency in the world.

What, No Bragging About Jan 6 and Whitmer Kidnapping Plot?

For example, one day before Wray’s “we don’t take no sides” speech, agents with the FBI Counterterrorism Task Force arrested a man from Florida for his participation in the events of January 6 as the caseload for the FBI’s biggest criminal investigation in history reaches 1,600 total defendants. Wray’s FBI continues to execute military-style SWAT raids of J6 protesters; the FBI just issued a “Most Wanted” poster for a 60-ish man from California who fled his home right before a pre-dawn armed raid on October 17.

Oddly, however, Wray did not brag about the J6 investigation during his scripted remarks today. He did not boast about how the FBI saved America from the threat of Indiana meemaws or decorated veterans pissed off about a rigged presidential election. Wray omitted mentioning the FBI’s extensive use of geofence warrants for cell data and subpoenas for banking records and Amazon purchases and the interrogation of family members and co-workers to hunt down J6 trespassers.

Why so humble all of a sudden, Mr. Wray?

He also failed to mention the greatest unsolved crime related to a day Wray himself designated an act of domestic terror: the identity of the J6 pipe bomber. Wray’s FBI still offers a $500,000 reward for anyone who helps nab the individual who allegedly planted explosives—devices Wray’s FBI insist were “viable” and “lethal”—outside the headquarters of the RNC and DNC the night of January 5. Surely the fact the MAGA bomber, who almost assassinated Kamala Harris that day, is still on the loose must keep Wray up at night. Isn’t that open case something Wray would want to encourage his presumed successor, Kash Patel, to pursue?

Wray also overlooked the FBI’s “success” in foiling the plot to kidnap and kill Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer in 2020, which was considered the FBI’s biggest domestic terror investigation prior to January 6. Why didn’t Wray take credit for saving Whitmer from the guy living in the basement of a vacuum repair shop in a Grand Rapids strip mall?

Which leads to one reason why Wray may have abruptly announced his resignation today: the long-awaited release of an internal DOJ investigation into the FBI’s role in January 6, which could happen by the end of the week. As I reported here, the report by DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz is expected to at least partially confirm the number of FBI confidential human sources, commonly known as informants, before and on January 6.

In many ways, the Whitmer fednapping hoax—which involved dozens of FBI informants, undercover employees, and handling agents working out of numerous FBI field offices—represented a dress rehearsal for January 6.

And Wray’s Congressional testimony over the past few years related to his knowledge about the presence of informants may contradict the official findings, possibly prompting perjury charges against him after he vacates the J. Edgar Hoover building next month.

Watch his shifting testimony here:

At the same time Wray’s FBI concocted the Whitmer fednapping hoax to make it appear that rightwing gun crazies wanted to take out one of Trump’s biggest political foes in 2020, Wray’s FBI created a coverup operation for Hunter Biden’s incriminating laptop. Despite possessing the device, loaded with proof that the “Big Guy” was directly involved in his addicted son’s international racket, since 2019, Wray’s FBI refused to launch an investigation.

To the contrary, Wray’s FBI colluded with Big Tech to ban reporting of the laptop’s contents just weeks before Election Day 2020. Photos, emails, and other correspondence directly contradicted Joe Biden’s public denials of his knowledge about Hunter Biden’s “business” deals, facts that could have swayed the already rigged election results.

One Armed Raid, One Voluntary Search

But nothing comes close to the disparity between the FBI’s handling of Trump’s alleged possession of so-called classified documents versus Joe Biden’s longtime hoarding of similar files. Wray’s FBI, over the objection of lower-level FBI officials, executed a search warrant of Mar-a-Lago on August 8, 2022. At least 30 armed FBI agents from two field offices rummaged through Trump's residence for nine hours. The private suite of Melania Trump and bedroom of Barron Trump were ransacked despite no evidence classified papers were hidden in either place. The FBI raid plan included the bureau’s “use of lethal force” policy.

But the FBI’s search for classified files at the Biden home did not require armed agents with authorization to shoot-to-kill if necessary. Two “voluntary” searches yielded national security documents, material Biden was never authorized to take as vice president. And while Trump faced a 40-count federal criminal indictment in southern Florida, Biden’s condition as an “elderly man with a poor memory” allowed him to evade prosecution.

There are of course many other examples of Wray’s brazen politicking: arresting pro-life activists, spying on parents protesting woke policies at school board meetings, abusing warrantless surveillance tools for partisan purposes.

This represents the shameful legacy of Christopher Wray. A recent Gallup poll showed the FBI has the lowest approval rating in history; less than one-quarter of Republicans trust the FBI, a stunning figure from the party of law and order.

And all of the self-aggrandizing bloviating in the world can’t cover Wray’s disgraceful performance as director of the FBI.

https://www.declassified.live/p/the-wray-slayer

Repare hit after data release

 Heavily-pretreated patients on lunresertib and camonsertib combination achieved 25.9% overall response rate (ORR) in endometrial cancer and 37.5% in platinum-resistant ovarian cancer

Nearly half of patients with gynecologic cancers maintained progression-free survival at 24 weeks, comparing favorably to current standard of care

Company plans to initiate a registrational Phase 3 trial of lunresertib in combination with camonsertib in endometrial cancer in 2H 2025

Repare to host conference call and webcast today at 4:30 p.m. ET to discuss these results

Repare will host a conference call and webcast today, December 12, at 4:30 p.m. ET to discuss the results. Repare’s executive management team will be joined by Brian Slomovitz, MD, MS, FACOG, Director, Gynecologic Oncology, Co-chair of the Cancer Research Center, Mount Sinai Medical Center.

To access the call, please dial (646) 357-8785 (U.S. and Canada) or (800) 836-8184 (international) at least 10 minutes prior to the start time and ask to be joined to the Repare Therapeutics call. A live webcast and presentation materials will be available in the Investor section of the Company’s website at https://ir.reparerx.com/events-and-presentations/events. A webcast replay will also be archived for at least 30 days.

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241212081329/en/

Mayorkas Announces Jobs Giveaway — for Migrants

 In the final weeks of President Joe Biden’s administration, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is announcing a jobs giveaway for newly arrived migrants with work permits.

On Tuesday, Mayorkas announced a final rule from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) that will allow millions of migrants, many of whom have been released into the U.S. interior by the Biden administration, to keep their work permits for up to 540 days when they seek a renewal.

Migrants previously could renew their work permits for 180 days. For years, Democratic mayors had lobbied DHS to extend such automatic employment authorization for migrants. The rule will go into effect on Jan. 13, 2025.

Mayorkas said in a statement the move is meant to help “businesses fill” American jobs with more migrants:Increasing the automatic extension period for certain employment authorization documents will help eliminate red tape that burdens employers, ensure hundreds of thousands of individuals eligible for employment can continue to contribute to our communities, and further strengthen our nation’s robust economy. [Emphasis added]

 

Likewise, USCIS Director Ur Jaddou said the rule will “help U.S. employers better retain their workers and help prevent workers with timely-filed [work permit] renewal applications from experiencing lapses in their employment authorization and employment authorization documentation through no fault of their own.”

At a hearing last week, Immigration Subcommittee Chairman Tom McClintock (R-CA) scolded Jaddou for the rule — noting that inflation has continuously outpaced U.S. wages and foreign workers have netted nearly all of the nation’s job growth.

“Now we learn that the agency intends to increase temporary work permits from 180 days to 540 days,” McClintock said. “If anyone wonders why real wages for working families have declined under this administration, look no further than the agency before us today.”

Indeed, in the last year, more than a million foreign-born workers have secured American jobs while nearly 800,000 native-born Americans have dropped out of the workforce.

In July of this year, a Pew Research Center study found that as of 2022, more than 30 million legal immigrants and illegal aliens were holding American jobs — a 20-percent increase over the last 15 years.

During the same period, the number of native-born Americans who have been added to the workforce has increased by less than 10 percent.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2024/12/10/dhs-chief-alejandro-mayorkas-announces-jobs-giveaway-for-migrants/

Feds help health insurers hide their dirty secret: denials on the rise

 The health insurance industry’s dirty secret is that it’s no longer selling insurance: It’s selling a crapshoot. 

The risk of having your health insurance claim denied is roughly 10 times what it was a decade ago.

Back then, insurers seldom rejected claims. 

UnitedHealthcare nixed 1.1%, Humana 1.9%, Aetna 1.5% in 2013, per the American Medical Association.

By 2022, major insurers were refusing to pay, on average, 15% of claims, according to a national survey of hospitals and health-care providers by Premier, an insurance consultant.

The figure continues to shoot upward, with some companies today denying almost half of all claims, according to researchers at the Kaiser Family Foundation. 

But you can’t find out which companies, and that makes choosing a plan a high-stakes gamble.

If you’re seriously ill and need costly care, a denied claim could push you into bankruptcy.  

The Affordable Care Act of 2010 requires the Department of Health and Human Services to monitor claims denials and provide the information to the public.

But government officials — coopted by the industry — simply don’t do it. 

Consumers be damned.

Uncle Sam is allowing claims denial to become a major profit center for insurers.

The assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson is igniting an outpouring of vitriol against insurers. 

Alleged killer Luigi Mangione railed in a manifesto against the “corruption and greed” of the industry.

No industry malfeasance could ever excuse murder. 

Period.

Even so, it’s past time for companies’ denial rates to be made public.

You aren’t really insured if your insurer can deny valid claims with impunity.

That is what’s happening, based on information that Kaiser researchers were able get about plans sold on the Affordable Care Act exchanges.

ACA plans on average refuse to pay 17% of claims.

But the researchers found that numerous insurers nix 30% or more, including Meridian Health Plan of Michigan, United Healthcare of Arizona, and Optimum Choice in Virginia.

Celtic Insurance Company in Florida refused 42% of claims in 2021. 

You can’t really call that insurance.

The problem is not unique to ACA plans. 

Premier’s March 2024 survey found that insurers overall denied 15.7% of Medicare Advantage claims, 15.1% of Medicaid managed care claims and 13.9% of claims from non-government plans. 

That staggering denial rate should be the first fact any consumer sees when choosing a plan, and plan ratings should include denial rates.

Hiding them is an outrage.

Insurers cite lack of medical necessity for under 2% of denials, lack of prior authorization for 8%, and about 13.5% for the service not being covered under the plan.

But the major reason for denials — “other,” accounting for 76% of them — is a big black hole. Anybody’s guess.

Patients rarely appeal — only 0.2% of the time, per Kaiser.

An appeal means coaxing your doctor and staff to spend hours filling out forms and making repeated phone calls to joust with an insurance company employee.

ew doctors are eager to take on this ordeal. 

But appeals pay off. In the ACA plans, Kaiser reports that 41% of turn-downs get reversed — an indication that plenty of necessary care covered by plans is being denied.

Employers and their workers should be able to get information on how often insurers deny claims, and so should Medicare Advantage plan users. 

But federal regulators have capitulated to pushback from the industry, and refuse to collect the information.

State regulators aren’t any better.

State insurance commissioners collect denial data, but with the exception of Connecticut and Vermont, they don’t disclose that information, a ProPublica investigation found. 

New York state publicizes the number of complaints against insurers, but not actual denial rates — which would be more telling.

Nationwide, health coverage for a family of four topped $25,000 this year — a staggering amount. Young families will likely never meet their annual deductible.

All they’re getting for their premium is peace of mind — the knowledge that if a terrible illness or accident happens, they’re covered.  

Truth is, they may not be covered.

They may be insured by a company that denies a third or more of all claims.

And they won’t know it until it’s too late.

Transparency is the only way to make the insurance market fair. 

President-elect Trump’s health nominees have argued that there’s too much coziness between industry and the federal bureaucracy, with the public paying the price.

They’re right — and this is an odious example.

Federal regulators need to do what the law requires: Expose companies that take our money and then deny legitimate claims.

No new law is needed.

Just an order from the top. 

President Trump, are you listening?

Betsy McCaughey is a former lieutenant governor of New York and co-founder of the Committee to Save Our City.

https://nypost.com/2024/12/12/opinion/feds-help-health-insurers-hide-dirty-secret-rising-denials/

Mangione frenzy: It’s time for a national conversation on left-wing violence

 Even before we knew the targeted killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson by Luigi Mangione was politically motivated, many leftists were justifying, celebrating and rationalizing the shooting.

There’s a real debate going on in some quarters of the progressive Left over whether slaying CEOs is a bad thing.

And it’s unsurprising.

Of course, if any MAGA professors or journalists were online publicly defending the killing of perceived political enemies, thousands of wringing hands would be lamenting the menacing rhetoric of conservatism.

And rightly so.

But the unhinged demonization of the health-insurance industry, the pharmaceutical industry and Big Oil are now the norm.

A generation of college students has been indoctrinated into believing the profit motive is killing people when the opposite is true.

And there’s a clear ideological continuum between those who rationalize the shooting of a CEO and rationalize the murder and rape of Jews by Palestinian terrorists and rationalize the burning down of cities for “social justice.”

One expects Mangione’s writing will be largely indistinguishable from what a person hears from elected progressives and pundits.

Yet few will ponder why a seemingly rational Ivy League-educated engineer decided to become a hit man.

Instead, the public is incessantly warned that white supremacists are gathering in the shadows, readying to spring their coup.

So dangerous were these alleged impending “major civil disturbances” in 2023 that the Justice Department created a new category of extremists to “track and counter” the “anti-government or anti-authority violent extremism.”

When BLM rioting enveloped the nation, causing billions in damage, destroying thousands of lives, one could barely get anyone in the media to admit it was even happening.

To the left, parents who protest school boards over critical race theory and mask mandates are “domestic terrorists,” but people who burn down cities are “mostly peaceful.”

The left has been prone to violence since Year Zero.

In the early 1900s, the United States was awash in communist and anarchist bombings, culminating in the deaths of 30 people on Wall Street in 1920.

Most cultural depictions of the ’60s upheavals were of a genteel, peace-loving movement, but it was imbued with extremists, as well.

By the 1970s, left-wing terrorist groups such as the Weather Underground were setting off bombs at the Capitol, police stations, the Pentagon and state attorneys general offices.

An 18-month period in 1971-’72 saw an amazing 2,500 bombings in the United States by leftist groups.

Worse, then as now, violence was often ignored or idealized by the “intellectual” left.

When I was young, self-styled socialists would commemorate mass murderers such as Che Guevara or Mao Zedong on T-shirts.

Today, feted contemporary public intellectuals such as Ta-Nehisi Coates write bestselling books celebrating terrorism.

The late Kathy Boudin, a former Weather Underground member who was involved in the Brinks truck robbery that killed two innocent people, operated Columbia University’s “Center for Justice” for decades.

And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Angela Davis, widely considered a hero by younger progressives, who not only championed murders and terrorist regimes her entire career but bought two guns used in a courtroom kidnapping-shootout perpetrated by the Black Panthers in 1970, when three hostages and a superior court judge were killed in Marin County, Calif.

There is simply no comparable mainstreaming of right-wing extremists.

It was James Hodgkinson who walked onto an Alexandria, Va., baseball field in 2018 and opened fire at a Republican congressional delegation.

He was a Bernie Sanders fan.

Certainly, no reporter ran around the halls of Congress asking every elected Democrat if they were going to lower the rhetorical temperature.

Nor did they do so when a left-wing assassin showed up at the house of Justice Brett Kavanaugh, promising to “stop roe v wade from being overturned” by “shooting for 3” justices.

After years of hearing the demonizing of the Supreme Court, the man showed up with a Glock, zip ties, duct tape and various other tools.

When Paul Pelosi was attacked by a deranged man, the entire media conversation revolved around conservative rhetoric.

When we had two attempted assassinations of Donald Trump, most of the Left could barely stop calling him Hitler.

None of this is to maintain there isn’t right-wing violence.

Of course there is.

It’s simply to say that we should acknowledge that a lot of our contemporary political violence emanates from the left.

And a lot of it is girded by the hard-left progressive turn in mainstream America’s politics.

David Harsanyi is a senior writer at the Washington Examiner. 

https://nypost.com/2024/12/12/opinion/luigi-mangione-frenzy-time-to-examine-left-wing-violence/