Top of the Fold

• FBI director bugs out of Senate hearing early for vacation: Most folks wouldn’t relish the thought of sitting before an often hostile group of lawmakers to give account under oath. However, when you head one of the most prominent agencies in the federal government, that is literally part of the job. So when FBI Director Christopher Wray left early from his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee last Thursday, it communicated more about his leadership than it did anything he actually said. Wray’s reason for leaving early was not due to business obligations, as he implied, but so that he could go spend the weekend vacationing at his summer home in the Adirondacks. Republicans had expected to get more time to question him and were none too happy when they were informed that Wray “needed” to leave early. “We just heard a half hour ago about you having to leave at 1:30,” a clearly irritated Senator Chuck Grassley said. “We were going to have seven minutes [each] for first round [questions and] three-minute second rounds,” he added. “I’ve got seven people on my side of the aisle [who] want their additional three minutes. Is there any reason we couldn’t accommodate them for 21 minutes?” Wray replied that he could not because he had a plane to catch and insisted it could not wait. The truth is it could have waited. The likeliest reason Wray wanted out was to avoid further uncomfortable questioning from Republican senators. A scandal is now brewing because not only did Wray not take a chartered flight, he took the FBI’s luxury private Gulfstream jet. And he did so just days before that raid on Donald Trump’s house…

• Ahmaud Arbery killers get life in prison: The three men involved in chasing down, shooting, and killing 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery as he ran through their neighborhood in early 2020 were sentenced in federal court on Monday. All three had already been tried and found guilty of murder by the state of Georgia and had received life sentences without parole. The federal court also handed down life sentences to two of the defendants, father and son Greg McMichael and Travis McMichael, and a 35-year sentence to William Bryan, who had recorded the killing on his cellphone. Attorney General Merrick Garland stated, “The Justice Department’s prosecution of this case and the court’s sentences today make clear that hate crimes have no place in our country, and that the Department will be unrelenting in our efforts to hold accountable those who perpetrate them.” Garland then added, “Protecting civil rights and combatting white supremacist violence was a founding purpose of the Justice Department, and one that we will continue to pursue with the urgency it demands.” Hopefully, that urgency doesn’t preclude prosecuting all racially motivated violence without prejudice.

• America’s cop shortage: Democrats loudly and repeatedly promoted the anti-police, “systemic racism” narrative of Black Lives Matter all through the summer of 2020 and beyond. In some cases, politicians acted to defund the police. The predictable result has been a spiking violent crime rate in cities all across the country that is showing no signs of slowing down. And even as Democrat politicians attempt to backtrack and distance themselves from BLM’s vilification of law enforcement, the negative impact upon police cannot be easily undone. Who wants to take on the difficult and life-threatening career of a police officer, especially now that the job has been so demonized? Indeed, fewer people are willing to do so, as cop shortages are becoming the norm in some of America’s largest and most crime-riddled cities. The Los Angeles Police Department is down some 650 officers since the start of the pandemic. Portland, Oregon, lost 237 officers in 2020, even as homicides hit historic highs in the Rose City. When lawlessness is seen as legitimate protest thanks to an ideology that excuses slothfulness and criminality, and when those tasked with enforcing the law are vilified for doing their jobs, then evil grows.

Headlines

• FBI raids Trump’s Mar-a-Lago: “Unprecedented” for agency to execute search warrant against former president (Fox News)

• DHS scraps Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy after final court hurdle disappears (Washington Times)

• Scientists suing Biden admin over COVID info censorship (Hot Air)

• New Ukraine military package is largest yet, Pentagon says (WaPo)

• Russia suspends START arms inspections over U.S. travel curbs (Reuters)

• Chinese military fires missiles over Taiwan for first time ever (PM)

• White House responds to “Let’s Go Brandon” with Nazi, CCP memes (National Pulse)

• Trans hormone dealer openly trafficking on TikTok (Not the Bee)

• Gabby Petito’s parents announce wrongful death lawsuit against Moab police (Fox News)

• Chris Pratt delivers perfect response to “woke critics” who panned “The Terminal List” (RedState)

• Policy: The bureaucracy’s Democrat majority made America a one-party government (FrontPage Magazine)

• Satire: Hunter Biden breathes sigh of relief as FBI raid team passes by his house on way to Mar-a-Lago (Babylon Bee)

For more of today’s editors’ choice headlines, visit Headline Report.