THREAD. There's a reason that the WH has to resort to ad hominem attacks on the FBI Director, and it's because the FBI has a built-in safeguard that makes the info they give credible -- and therefore a threat to the administration. Here's why: https://twitter.com/therecount/status/1309471309718597632

2. This is most pertinent to Wray's comments about Russian interference, but it also applies to statements about voter fraud. The FBI is a member of the intelligence community (IC), but its focus is investigations, not intelligence collection.

3. That means that literally every piece of information the FBI has in its possession is a result of obtaining it through the course of investigating either a violation of federal law, or a threat to national security.

4. Further, everything that is gathered by the FBI in an investigation is documented, and is able to be cross referenced and searched (that's why the IG in the Crossfire Hurricane review literally sifted through hundreds of thousands of documents) -- but suffice it to say

5. If there were hundreds of cases of voter fraud, they wouldn't be hard to find. But the attack on Wray goes deeper, and it's this: He has also commented on Russia's attempt to interfere in the 2020, which goes against the administration's narrative on that topic, as well

6. Which means that they have active cases *now* indicating that this is occurring. Here is the problem for the WH, and especially for Barr. If they attempt to do what they have apparently tried to do with other agencies -- that is, suppress this info, or bury it

7. They run into a bigger problem -- because trying to stop investigations without cause is called (anyone?) obstruction of justice. So in many ways, they have to tread carefully with Wray, and the agents handling these cases

8. Here's where these two threads come together. Two days ago, the FBI warned that foreign actors would attempt to delegitimize the outcome of the election, particular following election day. Allegations of "voter fraud" are part of that narrative https://twitter.com/FBI/status/1308526541500973057?s=20ons

9. Wray's comments about foreign actors, primarily, Russia, combined with his debunking of any *actual* instances of voter fraud in the U.S., help neutralize this narrative. The White House doesn't like this. But really, they can't do much to stop the FBI from saying it (4 now)

10. So their only option is to make a sad claim that the *FBI* doesn't know what it is talking about (?? but Mark Meadows does??) because I think right now Wray's public comments may be the biggest impediment to their election strategy and their usual tactics won't work here