Trump probe is not a witch hunt, says his new FBI chief
The new chief of the FBI last night rejected Donald Trump’s ‘witch hunt’ claims over the investigation into Russian meddling in the US presidential election.
Christopher Wray, Mr Trump’s choice to run the bureau after he sacked former director James Comey, told senators at his nomination hearing that he would step down if the President ever asked him to do something illegal.
Criticising Mr Trump’s son, Donald Jr, Mr Wray said it would have been ‘wise’ for him to have alerted the FBI after being told the Kremlin wanted to pass on information damaging to Hillary Clinton because it wanted to help Mr Trump win last year’s election.
Mr Wray, a former lawyer, also said Mr Trump Jr should have taken legal advice before agreeing to meet Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya in June last year.
‘Any threat or effort to interfere with our elections from any nation state or non-state actor is the kind of thing the FBI would want to know,’ he said.
He also told the Senate panel: ‘Anybody who thinks that I would be pulling punches as FBI director sure doesn’t know me well. I will never allow the FBI’s work to be driven by anything other than the facts, the law, and the impartial pursuit of justice. Period.’
Hours after the President described the Russia probe as a ‘witch hunt’ on Twitter, Mr Wray said of Bob Mueller, the former FBI chief now leading the investigation: ‘I do not consider director Mueller to be on a witch hunt.’
Given that Mr Wray is Mr Trump’s choice while Mr Comey was appointed by Barack Obama, the President will find it harder to challenge the inquiry if it finds evidence that members of his campaign colluded with Russia to meddle in the election.
As Donald Jr, 39, faced intense criticism over his handling of the controversial meeting with a lawyer with Kremlin connections, his father tweeted yesterday: ‘This is the greatest Witch Hunt in political history. Sad!’ Donald Jr admit- ted that ‘in retrospect I would have done things a little differently’, but defended his decision to meet Ms Veselnitskaya as part of the usual efforts to find negative information about rival candidates. A British go-between, music publicist Rob Goldstone, had assured him in an email that that she had damaging information on Hillary Clinton and that the Russian government wanted him to have it to help ensure a Trump victory.
Instead of informing the FBI as ethics experts insist he should have done, Donald Jr told Mr Goldstone ‘I love it’, and invited
‘Mountain out of a molehill’
two senior colleagues – Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort – to join the meeting. Donald Jr said he agreed to the meeting as ‘a courtesy to an acquaintance’.
Legal experts say the Trump team members at the meeting could be charged under US federal campaign finance laws that prohibit political campaigns from soliciting money or any ‘thing of value’ from foreign nationals. Although Donald Jr insists his father was never informed of the meeting, the President faced a further headache last night when Democrat congressman Brad Sherman introduced an article of impeachment against him.
Mr Sherman accuses Mr Trump of obstructing justice during the federal investigation into Russian interference in the election by sacking Mr Comey. It is the first time a member of Congress has introduced an impeachment article against Mr Trump, the first step to removing him from office.
A majority vote in the House of Representatives would be needed to impeach him, but it is controlled by the Republicans.
Yesterday, the Kremlin commented on the row, echoing Mr Trump’s contention that it was ‘ fake news’. Foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said: ‘It’s amazing how serious people are making a mountain out of a molehill.’