WASHINGTON —

The director of the FBI will face some of his harshest critics in Congress on Wednesday as he testifies before a House committee that is leading several investigations into claims that the law enforcement agency unfairly targets conservatives.

FBI Director Chris Wray's appearance before the House Judiciary Committee is expected to be contentious. Republicans are prepared to aggressively question the director on several fronts, including the recent indictment of former President Donald Trump, the ongoing investigation into President Joe Biden's son and the push for a new FBI headquarters.

It’s just the latest display of the new normal on Capitol Hill, where Republicans who have long billed themselves as the champions of police and “law and order” are growing deeply at odds with federal law enforcement and the FBI, accusing the bureau of bias dating back to investigations of Trump when he was president. The new dynamic has forced Democrats into a new position of defending these law enforcement agencies they have long criticized.

Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, has been laying the groundwork for Wray's appearance since House Republicans took the majority in January.

Republicans have held hearings with former FBI agents, Twitter executives and federal officials to make the case that the FBI has been corruptly using its powers against Trump and the right. And they've formed a special committee on “weaponization” of government, also led by Jordan, to investigate abuse.

Video below: Rep. Jim Jordan in 2021 says democrats obsessed with impeaching Trump

Wray's trip to Capitol Hill comes just a few weeks after the president's youngest son, Hunter Biden, reached an agreement with the Justice Department to plead guilty to misdemeanor tax offenses. Jordan and other GOP lawmakers slammed it as “a sweetheart deal” and the latest example of a “two-tiered justice system.”

Jordan and the leaders of the Oversight and Accountability and the Ways and Means committees quickly opened a joint investigation into the Hunter Biden case, citing testimony from two IRS whistleblowers on the case who say the Justice Department meddled with their work.

The claims from the whistleblowers are contested. The Justice Department has denied their allegations and said repeatedly that U.S. Attorney David Weiss in Delaware, the federal prosecutor who led the investigation, always had “full authority” over the case. Weiss was appointed to the job during the Trump administration.

Republicans have requested an interview with Weiss and other Justice Department officials but it is not likely they will come in until after the case is closed, in line with department policy.

Wray is also likely to face questions about the charges against Trump — the same man who nominated him to lead the FBI after firing James Comey in 2017. The Justice Department has accused the former president of illegally storing government secrets at his Florida estate and then refusing to give them back. Trump has pleaded not guilty to 37 felony charges.

Concerns around the FBI's ongoing investigation into the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol are also top of mind for Republicans. Some say prosecutors have acted far too aggressively against those accused of breaching the Capitol.

With Republican criticism of the FBI at a high pitch, some of the party's most conservative members are even pushing to cut off funding to the department altogether. Jordan has yet to go that far, but he is seeking to choke off funding for a new FBI headquarters.

In a letter to Rep. Kay Granger, chair of the House Appropriations Committee, Jordan wrote that the appropriation bills should eliminate any funding set aside for a planned relocation of the FBI’s headquarters from Washington, D.C., to the suburbs. Instead, he said Congress should look at moving the FBI's headquarters out of the D.C. region altogether.

“We also recommend tying funding for the FBI to specific policy changes — such as requiring the FBI to record interviews — that will promote accountability and transparency at the FBI,” Jordan wrote in the letter Tuesday.

Another focus of Wednesday's hearing will be the push to reauthorize a program under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, that grants agencies like the FBI sweeping powers to surveil and examine communications of foreigners located outside the United States.

The provision of FISA known as Section 702 is set to expire at year’s end unless Congress agrees to renew it. But members of both parties are frustrated with the program, citing revelations about federal officials abusing the system.

Regardless, Democrats on the Judiciary Committee are preparing a counteroffensive Wednesday to Republicans' rhetoric against the FBI, making the case that it is GOP lawmakers who are weaponizing the power of congressional oversight to appease their base and the leader of their party.

“For Republicans, this hearing is little more than performance art. It is an elaborate show designed with only two purposes in mind: to protect Donald Trump from the consequences of his actions, and to return him to the White House in the next election,” Rep. Jerry Nadler, the top Democrat on the committee, is expected to say in his opening remarks.

Two former White House aides are expected to testify at the House Jan. 6 committee's prime-time hearing Thursday as the panel examines what Donald Trump was doing as his supporters broke into the Capitol, according to a person familiar with the plans.

Matthew Pottinger, former deputy national security adviser, and Sarah Matthews, a former press aide, are expected to testify, according to the person, who was not authorized to publicly discuss the matter and requested anonymity. Both Pottinger and Matthews resigned immediately after the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection that interrupted the congressional certification of President Joe Biden's victory.

The two witnesses will add to the committee's narrative in its eighth, and possibly final, hearing this summer. The prime-time hearing will detail what Trump did — or did not do — during several hours that day as his supporters beat police officers and broke into the Capitol.

Previous hearings have detailed chaos in the White House and aides and outsiders were begging the president to tell the rioters to leave. But he waited more than three hours to do so, and there are still many unanswered questions about what exactly he was doing and saying as the violence unfolded.

A spokesperson for the committee declined to comment. CNN was the first to report the identity of Thursday’s witnesses.

Lawmakers on the nine-member panel have said the hearing will offer the most compelling evidence yet of Trump’s “dereliction of duty" that day, with witnesses detailing his failure to stem the angry mob.

“We have filled in the blanks,” Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., a member of the House committee investigating the riot who will help lead Thursday’s session, said Sunday. "This is going to open people’s eyes in a big way.”

“The president didn’t do very much but gleefully watch television during this timeframe,” he added.

Throughout its yearlong investigation, the panel has uncovered several details regarding what the former president was doing as a mob of rioters breached the Capitol complex. Testimony and documents revealed that those closest to Trump, including his allies in Congress, Fox News anchors and even his own children, tried to persuade him to call off the mob or put out a statement calling for the rioters to go home.

At one point, according to testimony, Ivanka Trump went to her father to plead with him personally when those around him had failed to get through. All those efforts were unsuccessful.

Thursday’s hearing will be the first in the prime-time slot since the June 9 debut that was viewed by an estimated 20 million people.

The hearing comes nearly one week after committee members received a closed briefing from the watchdog for the Department of Homeland Security after it was discovered that the Secret Service had deleted text messages sent and received around Jan. 6. Shortly after, the committee subpoenaed the agency, seeking all relevant electronic communication from agents around the time of the attack. The deadline for the Secret Service to respond is Tuesday.

Committee member Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., told The Associated Press on Monday that the Secret Service informed them it will turn over records within the requirements of the subpoena.

KENOSHA, Wis. —

A man who suffered a severe arm injury when he was shot by Kyle Rittenhouse during a night of protests against racial injustice is expected to testify this week as prosecutors near the end of their case in Rittenhouse's murder trial.

Gaige Grosskreutz, 27, who had a gun in his hand as he stepped toward Rittenhouse, was shot in the arm moments after Rittenhouse fatally shot two others in the streets of Kenosha, Wisconsin. Testimony during the first week of Rittenhouse's trial showed bystanders came to Grosskreutz's aid and placed a tourniquet on his arm before loading him into a vehicle that rushed him to a hospital.

Rittenhouse, 18, is charged with shooting Grosskreutz and fatally shooting Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber on Aug. 25, 2020. The one-time police youth cadet from Antioch, Illinois, was 17 when he went to Kenosha with an AR-style rifle and a medical kit in what he said was an effort to safeguard property from the demonstrations that broke out over the shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, by a white Kenosha police officer.

Rittenhouse is white, as are the three men he shot, but the case has raised polarizing questions about racial justice, policing, firearms and white privilege.

In the first week of Rittenhouse's trial, prosecutors played numerous videos that showed the events of that night from different angles. Jurors heard testimony from people who were with Rittenhouse, as well as from police officers and loved ones of the men who died.

Jason Lackowski, a former Marine who was on the streets of Kenosha carrying his own rifle, testified Friday about Rosenbaum, the first man Rittenhouse shot. Lackowski said Rosenbaum was acting "belligerently" but did not appear to pose a serious threat.

Lackowski said he considered Rosenbaum a "babbling idiot," and turned his back and ignored him. He acknowledged that he didn't see everything that went on between Rittenhouse and Rosenbaum, including their final clash.

Other witnesses testified last week that a "hyperaggressive" Rosenbaum angrily threatened to kill Rittenhouse that night and that Rosenbaum was gunned down after he chased Rittenhouse and lunged for his rifle.

Prosecutors have portrayed Rittenhouse as the instigator of the bloodshed as well as an inexperienced teen who misrepresented his age and medical training to others that night. Rittenhouse's lawyer has argued that he acted in self-defense, suggesting among other things that Rittenhouse feared his weapon would be taken and used against him.

The prosecution suffered a potential blow when Rosenbaum's fiancée, Kariann Swart, disclosed that he was on medication for bipolar disorder and depression but hadn't filled his prescriptions because the local pharmacy was boarded up due to the unrest — information Rittenhouse's lawyers could use in their bid to portray Rosenbaum as the aggressor.

On the day he was killed, Rosenbaum, 36, had been released from a Milwaukee hospital. The jury was told that much, but not why he had been admitted — after a suicide attempt.

Rosenbaum's killing has emerged as one of the most crucial moments that night because it set in motion the bloodshed that followed moments later.

Rittenhouse shot and killed Huber, a 26-year-old protester seen on bystander video hitting Rittenhouse with a skateboard. Rittenhouse then wounded Grosskreutz.

Rittenhouse could get life in prison if convicted. The case has stirred furious debate over self-defense, vigilantism, the right to bear arms and the racial unrest that erupted around the U.S. after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and similar cases.

Two jurors were also dismissed last week. One man was dismissed for potential bias after he told a joke about the Blake shooting to a court security officer, and a woman who is pregnant was dismissed after she said she was experiencing some discomfort. Eighteen jurors remain, and 12 will ultimately be picked to deliberate.

As President Donald Trump prepares for his last day in the White House, a former Trump advocate is ready to do his part to protect Trump from destroying "America's democracy."

On Friday, Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen tweeted that he was asked and has agreed to testify on "the wrongdoing" by Trump and his family.

"I have been asked and have agreed to cooperate with multiple government agencies to provide testimony on the wrongdoing by #Trump and the #TrumpFamily," Cohen tweeted. "I am doing this in large part as #Trump and family have tried, and thankfully failed, to destroy America’s democracy."

Cohen tweeted after news broke that Twitter had permanently banned the president "due to the risk of further incitement of violence" two days after a violent riot occurred at the U.S. Capitol.

Cohen also commented on Twitter banning Trump from its social platform.

"Know that #Trump relies on @Twitter to exist in the same way we require oxygen to breathe. He is losing his marbles right now!"