Wray: ‘Loyalty’ requests will be shut down
FBI pick says he would resign if asked to give up independence
President Trump’s pick to lead the FBI vowed Wednesday that he would not be influenced by political pressure, pledging loyalty to the rule of law and insisting his investigations would be “only driven by the facts.”
“My loyalty is to the constitution and the rule of law, full stop,” Christopher Wray told the Senate Judiciary Committee, appearing to reject any suggestion that he would entertain efforts by the White House to compromise him.
The previous FBI director, James Comey, has testified that President Trump pressed him to drop parts of his investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia — and unsuccessfully demanded that Comey pledge him his personal loyalty. Trump abruptly fired Comey on May 9 in the middle of the Russia investigation.
Wray said that “no one asked me for any kind of loyalty oath during any part of this process,” and he would not provide one if asked.
If confronted with any request to dump a criminal investigation, Wray said he would try to persuade the person otherwise.
“If that failed, I would resign,” he said. “I believe to my core that there is only one right way to do this job and that is strict independence — without fear, without favoritism and certainly without regard to any partisan influence.”
From his opening remarks, the FBI nominee and former assistant attorney general appeared to indicate — without mentioning Trump by name — how he would handle a president who has not always kept the traditional distance between the White House and law enforcement community.
“Anybody who thinks I would be pulling any punches as the FBI director surely doesn’t know me very well,” he said.
Wray will not oversee the Russia investigation, which is now led by special counsel Robert Mueller. But Wray pledged to guard the independence of the ongoing inquiry into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, and said any effort to tamper with the inquiry would be “inappropriate.”
Though Trump has consistently called the investigation the “greatest witch hunt in political history,” Wray disagreed. “I do not consider director Mueller to be on a witch hunt,” he said.
At his confirmation hearing, senators were focused on questions of independence from the next FBI head under the Trump administration.
“The reason Mr. Comey was dismissed was because Mr. Comey would not pledge his loyalty to the president and he wouldn’t lift the cloud of the Russia investigation,” California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the panel’s ranking Democrat, said in an opening statement. “All of this raises important questions about the next FBI head, about the person’s independence. The FBI director does not serve the president; he serves the Constitution and the law.”
Wray, however, sought to deflect questions about recent developments on Trump’s oldest son’s and son-in-law’s campaign contacts with Russia.
On Tuesday, Donald Trump Jr. disclosed emails in which he agreed to meet with Kremlin-linked attorney last year to obtain damaging information on the Clinton campaign. The information, according the email, was being offered up by the Russian government.
Pressed whether such a meeting was appropriate, Wray said: “I say any threat to interfere with our election system from any nation state is the kind of thing the FBI would want to know.”
There appeared to be no immediate opposition to Wray’s nomination, with several Republicans and Democrats openly voicing their approval.