By Mary Fanning and Alan Jones | August 18, 2022
FBI Director Christopher Wray’s use of the FBI Gulfstream jet for a personal vacation was Illegal, according to former FBI executive Terry Turchie.
Terry D. Turchie served as the first Deputy Assistant Director of the newly created Counterterrorism Division of the FBI.
Terry Turchie appeared during the Saturday, August 13th broadcast of The Intelligence Briefing on Ark Midnight Live with John B. Wells.
Click Here To Listen To The Intelligence Briefing “Hammering President Trump” (Time 1:46)
During that episode of The Intelligence Briefing, titled “Hammering President Trump,” Terry Turchie stated:
Maybe the FBI today needs to be disbanded and we need to figure out how to start over…that’s kind of an attitude from former agents…
Christopher Wray was unusually surly that week…he was really bothered by having to be there and having to answer questions. Now, I’ve been involved in search warrants and I’ve been involved in chases and I have to tell you, Christopher Wray knew last week that he was going to be searching, or his agents were going to be searching the President’s home the following week.
But, of course, we wouldn’t have known it. He just, he had no time for us. He had no time for We The People. He had no time to be bothered with questions about the Hunter Biden laptop, and apparently he’s not nearly as worried as I am, and of course we have to hope he is really sitting on some really great information, because he’s not near as worried as I am that we may very well have a Chinese plant in the White House.
I worked counterintelligence before I got into counterterrorism. I am not on the fringe, John, and by the way, neither are you and probably the vast majority of your audience is not on the fringe. I’m not going to say that right away for CNBC and some of those places…
But the point is this: Christopher Wray had no time to talk about any of that, and when finally they said “we need twenty more minutes,” he said “I don’t have twenty minutes to give you, I’m on vacation. I’ve got a flight back to Saranac Lake.”
Now, this is what played out in the beginning stages before we ever knew there was going to be a search and a huge, long controversy about President Trump taking classified documents.
So, Christopher Wray didn’t have time for that. He had a flight to catch. Well it turns out now, we found out, the flight was the FBI’s Gulfstream. He was going to take the FBI’s Gulfstream back to Saranac Lake…
Now, here’s the problem I have with that. That’s a violation of Title 18 of the U.S. Code. We call it “theft of government property.” Now, why can I be so passionate and certain about this? Well, I’ll tell you why.
One of the last things I did as I turned my lights out and walked out the door of the J. Edgar Hoover FBI building, the last day I worked there, was finished up doing my role and playing my part as the Deputy Assistant Director of the newly-formed Counterterrorism Division – it’s in the FBI Director talking points – because he was pursuing the purchase of a Gulfstream with the help of Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska – I remember this like it was yesterday – and in the course of all of this deliberation, we were being very clear. The FBI – remember, this was before 9/11 – the FBI had made it very clear to Congress and everybody who would listen, America’s in trouble. America needs this Counterterrorism Division. America needs JTTF (Joint Terrorism Task Forces), and America needs rapid deployment forces because America is going to be hit again.
We’ve already been hit at our embassies overseas by that time in Kenya and Tanzania. We’ve already been hit in October, 2000 with the U.S.S. Cole,” another case I was involved in when I was there, and the director said, “Look, this is a good opportunity. We need this Gulfstream because it will assist in terrorism-related matters.”
But, the talk of these meetings, and I remember this clearly too, and we were kind of thinking we were joking, but I remember some specific statements to the effect “You know, we really need this plane, but God help us if some future FBI executive carts their buts around America on this plane that has nothing to do with terrorism.”
And so we watched as Christopher Wray had to get out of there because he didn’t have time for We The People, but he had to get to that plane at Joint Base Andrews or wherever and jet off to Saranac Lake.
Now I say all that saying his only defense, his only defense, was “Look, I’m a very important guy, and I needed this plane there. We have major national security emergencies.” But, my gosh, in all of his testimony, basically he would not commit himself to the fact that our border was a national emergency. He would not commit himself to the fact that our cities are a mess, that crime is rampant, that that’s what Americans want the FBI and police to focus on.
He would not even tell us “Gosh, that President Trump was a threat.” He just wanted out, and he converted, knowingly, property of the U.S. government to do it.
I want to read something to you. I don’t know if you read stuff, but I want your audience to kind of savor this. It’s called “Definition of 18 USC 641 of the US Code. “Theft of Government Property. “ I’m just going to read a couple paragraphs.
“Anyone who embezzles, steals, purloins, or knowingly converts to their use or the use of another, or without authority, sells, conveys or disposes of any record, voucher, money, or something of value of the United States or of any department or agency, or any property made under contract for the Government will be fined or imprisoned.”
Embezzlement is the fraudulent appropriation of property by someone to whom the property was entrusted. The individuals who have the most access to government property are often federal employees.
One common scenario in 18 U.S.C. § 641 prosecutions is the embezzlement of government property by one of the government’s own who enjoy a position of trust and access. Embezzlement is distinct from larceny or other forms of theft in that the physical taking of the property is often lawful.
In the employment context, this may mean that the federal employee was initially permitted to take into his or her possession the government property in question.
But to complete the crime of embezzlement under 18 U.S.C. § 641, the employee must misappropriate the property, meaning the employee converted or appropriated the property for their own use with the intent of depriving the United States of the use of the property.
Now here is the line that will really hit home:
This can be as simple as using a government-issued vehicle or other device for personal use…
And then it says:
It should be noted that intending to return or pay back the government for the property is not a defense under 18 U.S.C. § 641…
…As soon as the misappropriation of government property occurs, the offense is complete even if the government ultimately suffered no harm.
Now he may have one other defense. He may say, “Well, the attorney general said I really need that plane.”
Well, the attorney general can’t waive this either. So, I’d like to use your show and your platform tonight to say this:
After what we have had our nation go through, and what the former president is going through, I’m asking since we got a huge speech basically from both of these people about the integrity of the FBI and how insulted they were that the FBI and DOJ employees would be sullied around in the media by people like us, I’d like you to use this platform to say “These people need to go.They need to resign and the O.P.R. – and I’ll use words like the Black Lives Matter folks like to use and all of these other activists out there on the radical revolutionary side – I mean by that the Democratic Party – I’d like to use the word they use. I’m demanding it. These people have committed, on the surface, on the face of it, a crime. And I have a feeling this is not the first time he’s jetted away on the Gulfstream. We specifically preached to each other and we specifically preached to people in the Counterterrorism Division, 21 years ago, that we’re really hoping we can get this airplane, and by golly, this is not for people to play with. This is a serious thing for rapid deployment of counterterrorism resources. If we had a real urgent emergency in America while he’s up having fun in the Adirondacks, that plane would not be available to instantly get the HRT [FBI Hostage Rescue Team] or anybody else where they needed to be because it’s not home, it’s not in D.C.. It’s sitting on some runway waiting for the director. That’s all I’ll say about that. That is the difference between the old and the new FBI.
COPYRIGHT 2022 MARY FANNING