Trump’s choice to head FBI says he won’t bow to pressure
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s nominee to head the FBI during the highly sensitive investigation into Russia’s efforts to sway the 2016 election pledged Wednesday to protect the bureau from political interference, saying he wouldn’t bow to pressure from anyone to quash the probe — even the president.
In testimony that repeatedly put him at odds with the president’s often angry assaults on the Russia investigation, Christopher Wray told the Senate Judiciary Committee that he believes Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel now running the probe, is the “ultimate straight shooter.”
“I would consider an effort to tamper with Director Mueller’s investigation to be unacceptable and inappropriate,” he said.
Responding to questions from Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the committee’s top Democrat, Wray said he would blow the whistle on such an attempt, if he could do so without compromising the case, saying it “would need to be dealt with very sternly indeed.”
“You can’t do a job like this without being prepared to either quit or be fired, at a moment’s notice, if you’re asked to do something or confronted with something that is either illegal, unconstitutional or even morally repugnant. And you have to be able to stand firm to your principles,” he said at another point.
“There is not a person on this planet whose lobbying or influence could cause me to drop a meritorious and properly predicated investigation.”
The fate of the Russia probe and Wray’s willingness to withstand political pressure were at the center of the hearing. His answers pleased both Republicans and Democrats, many of whom thanked Wray for being willing to step into the job now, when some of Trump’s closest associates face a widening criminal investigation.
Throughout the hearing, senators seemed less interested in cross-examining Wray than in sending warnings to Trump to avoid interfering with Mueller or the Russia probe.
“You’re going to be director of the FBI, pal,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said at one point, pointing to this week’s disclosures that Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. met last summer with a Russian lawyer after being told she had damaging information about Hillary Clinton that was part of a broader Kremlin attempt to help his father’s candidacy.
“Here’s what I want you to tell every politician,” Graham said: “If you get a call from somebody saying a foreign government wants to help you by disparaging your opponent — tell us all to call the FBI.”
Wray agreed that was “the kind of thing the FBI would want to know.”
If confirmed by the Senate, which seemed a virtual certainty after the hearing, Wray would replace James B. Comey, fired by Trump on May 9 after Comey resisted what he said was Trump’s request to back off on the Russia inquiry — and dodged what he described as the president’s pressure to declare his loyalty.
The firing led to the Justice Department’s appointment of Mueller, himself a former FBI director, as a special counsel. He heads a team of prosecutors who are directing the investigation into Russia’s role in the election, any possible collusion by people close to Trump’s campaign as well as whether the president was trying to obstruct justice with Comey’s firing.