Sen. Paul to Newsmax: Wray 'Incredibly Dismissive of Arguments for Civil Liberties'

There's "no time like the present for a change" at the Federal Bureau of Investigations as Christopher Wray, who announced his imminent resignation Wednesday as head of the agency, "was incredibly dismissive of the arguments for civil liberties," said Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., on Newsmax.

"I'm looking forward to President Trump's nominee, Kash Patel taking over," Paul told the "The Chris Salcedo Show."

"Christopher Wray was incredibly dismissive of the arguments for civil liberties," Paul said. "For example, there's something called the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. You'd think that would be collecting information on foreigners.

"But a lot of American's information is in that database. So, I, along with a lot of reformers, have always argued the FBI shouldn't be looking at it without a warrant. If they want to look up your name or my name or any other American, they should have to go to a court and get a court order to look at that data. Christopher Wray was an advocate of just looking at any American's data that's caught up in that."

Paul continued.

"And a lot of it could be. For example, if you've talked to a reporter in the Middle East and that reporter has a source who's in Hamas now, you're only one step away from terrorism. That doesn't make you a terrorist, and that doesn't make your conversations any less protected by the First Amendment. But Christopher Wray was never much of a defender of American privacy. And for that reason alone, I'm glad he's gone."

The FBI, added Paul, "was also involved with censorship. They were involved with going in and telling Twitter and others what they could publish. And I think that's a not a function of the FBI. And I'm very hopeful that the next administration will say no to all of these things."

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