FBI Director Christopher Wray has denounced “deplorable” threats against federal law enforcement agencies and personnel that he says have appeared since the FBI raided former President Donald Trump’s home in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, on Monday.

On Wednesday, Wray called such threats, which have appeared on social media, “deplorable and dangerous.” (The apparent irony of the use of the word “deplorable” — once used by Hillary Clinton to mock Trump supporters — was evident lost.)

However, when faced with criticism from Republicans that the FBI was not doing enough to protect conservative Supreme Court justices from protests outside their private homes — which are illegal under federal law — Wray shrugged at the risk.

The protests began appearing earlier this year, when a draft decision overturning Roe v. Wade was leaked. The protests are aimed at conservative justices who joined the majority opinion in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case.

Earlier this month, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) questioned Wray at the Senate Judiciary Committee about the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the FBI’s refusal to enforce the relevant statute, Title 18 of the U.S. Code, section 1507.

Cotton, noting that the DOJ had not brought a single case against the protesters, asked Wray if there had been any arrests those who were violating the law. Wray noted that the DOJ and FBI had stopped an individual who had plotted to kill Justice Brett Kavanaugh, but admitted that had not been related to the law against protesting outside the homes of Supreme Court Justices.

“While I absolutely understand your interest in the question,” Wray said, “I think this is one of those times where I would point to the department as the lawyers who make the decisions about how to enforce it.”

When Cotton read the statute to him, Wray argued that the FBI was working closely with other law enforcement agencies who had “principal responsibility” for crowd control and for protecting the justices’ homes, and implied that the law to which Cotton was referring might be unconstitutional.

After Cotton dismissed that argument by citing past Supreme Court precedents, he asked whether FBI agents needed “direction from “on high” to arrest people for breaking the law.

Wray replied: “Our agents are … up to their necks enforcing all sorts of laws. And I wish that we were in a situation where every federal violation that occurred in this country was something the FBI could  have the resources to investigate. We have prioritized violence and threats of violence.”

The FBI and DOJ have had plenty to say about white supremacists as a domestic terrorism threat — and they are — but the agencies have been quieter on left-wing terrorism, such as the ongoing campaign by “Jane’s Revenge,” a pro-abortion group.

Throughout 2020, as Black Lives Matter and Antifa activists rioted throughout the country, Wray downplayed the threat, arguing that Antifa was an ideology and not an organization, though he acknowledged it was under domestic terror probes.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.