Jan 23, 2018 - Politics & Policy

The backstory on Trump's FBI director threatening to resign

Jonathan Swan

Photo: Olivier Douliery, Pool / Getty Images

President Trump said Tuesday that FBI Director Christopher Wray did not threaten to resign — "he didn't even a little bit" — following our report last night that Wray threatened to resign if Attorney General Jeff Sessions kept pressuring him to move Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, and others, out of their jobs.

Between the lines: Axios stands by its reporting. Trump was not involved in any of the conversations with Wray, and we never reported that he was.

The conversations were between Wray and Sessions, over several months. Trump applied public pressure and Sessions applied private pressure. When we gave the FBI and Justice Department full visibility of our story before publishing, neither agency took issue with our characterization of the Wray-Sessions conversations or of Wray's threat to resign. Even now, nearly 24 hours after publishing, neither Justice nor the FBI has gone on the record to deny that fact.

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The backstory on Trump's FBI director threatening to resign

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