Dec 10, 2019 - Politics & Policy

Trump criticizes FBI director after DOJ inspector general report on Russia probe

President Trump criticized FBI Director Christopher Wray for his reaction to the Justice Department inspector general's report on the Russia probe in a Tuesday tweet.

"I don’t know what report current Director of the FBI Christopher Wray was reading, but it sure wasn’t the one given to me. With that kind of attitude, he will never be able to fix the FBI, which is badly broken despite having some of the greatest men & women working there!"

The state of play, via Axios' Jonathan Swan: A number of current and former Trump administration officials think the president would like to dump Wray — but can’t stomach the trouble of firing another FBI director.

The big picture: Wray responded to the report's release by saying that many of the FBI oversights it details are "unacceptable," but added that it's "important that the inspector general found that, in this particular instance, the investigation was opened with appropriate predication and authorization."

  • Trump and his allies believed the report would highlight wrongdoing at the top ranks of the FBI throughout the Russia probe. Instead, it found the investigation legitimate but noted that some FBI officials failed to meet standards for surveillance applications.
  • Despite this, Trump told reporters Monday that the report was"far worse than I would have ever thought possible" and that investigators "fabricated evidence and they lied to the courts."

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