Wednesday, July 12th 2017 — Democrats and Republicans left Wednesday’s confirmation hearing for Christopher Wray showing strong support for Donald Trump’s nominee to take the reins as the new director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
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For the past two years under the leadership of former director James Comey, the agency has been at the center of bitter political controversies that outraged both sides of the aisle. But the 50-year-old former federal prosecutor often described as “understated and low-key” may provide a much-needed fresh face for the FBI.
Judiciary chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is prepared to move Wray’s nomination through the committee and could schedule a vote in two weeks at the earliest.
Vice-chair Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) told reporters that she plans to support Wray and expects his confirmation process will “move rapidly.”
During the roughly 4 1/2-hour hearing, the FBI’s independence dominated the discussion. Some senators questioned whether Wray would ensure the new FBI director didn’t interfere in politics, others were were more concerned about politicians interfering with the FBI.
“I believe to my core that there is only one right way to do this job and that is with strict independence, by the book, playing it straight without fear, without favoritism and certainly without regard to any partisan political influence,” Wray told the lawmakers.
He went on to assure the panel that “no one asked me any kind of loyalty oath at any point during this process, and I sure as heck didn’t offer one.”
After the hearing, Sen. Grassley told Sinclair Broadcast Group that despite the politicization of the FBI under Comey, the American people have no reason to doubt Wray’s independence and integrity.
“I think that he said it, and you have to believe it,” Grassley noted. “I just think his persona and the people that are backing him and his reputation as a hard-nosed lawyer, a hard-nosed prosecutor, and hard-nosed as assistant attorney general speaks for itself.”
After Trump submitted Wray’s nomination in June, a number of law enforcement groups including the FBI Agents Association and the International Association of Chiefs of Police announced their support. Wray also received an endorsement from President Obama’s first attorney general, Eric Holder and the former acting attorney general Sally Yates, both appointed by Democrats.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) was encouraged to see high-level bipartisan support for the nominee. She indicated her support for Wray, telling reporters that his testimony was “very impressive” and that he “clearly showed his independence.”
Senators on the left and right pressed Wray on how he would respond if directed by the president or any top official to do something illegal, immoral or unconstitutional.
“There isn’t a person on this planet whose lobbying or influence could convince me to just drop … a meritorious investigation,” Wray explained.
“You can’t do a job like this without being prepared to quit or be fired,” he continued.
Asked by Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy (D) what he would say if Donald Trump asked him to do something unlawful, Wray responded, “First I would try to talk him out of it, and if that failed I would resign.”
Klobuchar pointed to statements like those as encouraging signs that the nominee would not act as a political appointee.
“[Wray has] been very outspoken today about how he would resign before taking an order that he felt was inappropriate,” Klobuchar told Sinclair. “He said he supported the intelligence community’s findings [on Russian election interference]. He talked about the importance of protecting election infrastructure going forward. So he’s done an impressive job.”
Similarly, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told reporters that Wray is “a great choice” and “handled himself well” when faced with tough questions.During the hearing, Graham pressed Wray on the recent revelations that Donald Trump, Jr. may have sought to obtain damaging material on Hillary Clinton from the Russian government. As well as reports that Hillary Clinton’s campaign may have sought help from the Ukrainian government to produce damaging materials on then-candidate Trump.
“[It was] important for him to let the country know that if you’re contacted about working with a foreign government in your campaign, the answer is no. That the Ukraine’s involved, that’s bad; if Russia’s involved, that’s bad–in elections.”
Graham was also heartened when Wray affirmed that the investigation into Trump and Russia, led by special prosecutor Bob Mueller, is not “on a witch hunt,” as the president has repeatedly suggested. Wray, Graham noted, is “going to give all the protection he can to Mueller to do his job.”
Asked about the possibility that President Trump obstructed justice in firing Comey, Wray asserted that “obstruction needs to be treated seriously,” but he did not give any indication that he believed it was an issue in the current investigation.
Regarding Comey’s handling of the Clinton email affair, Wray assured lawmakers that he “can’t imagine a situation where as FBI director I would be giving a press conference on an uncharged individual, much less talking in detail about it.”
Many of Wray’s answers began to allay some of the deepest concerns of some, like Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), who worry that the White House is seeking to “inhibit or impede” the special counsel’s investigation into Trump and Russia.
“He has indicated in his private conversations with me and his public testimony today that he will fiercely and passionately protect the independence of the FBI against political interference,” Blumenthal said of Wray.
The senator was not prepared to say firmly that he will vote yes on the nomination, but he told Sinclair that he believes Wray “should have an overwhelming vote of public confidence.”
Before Trump fired James Comey in May, the former FBI director appeared to have lost much of the public confidence. In a March survey by Harvard-Harris Poll, voters had a negative opinion of Comey by a two-to-one margin. According to the director of the poll, the results suggested a crisis of confidence in the agency’s leadership.
That distrust was largely driven by the perception that the head of the agency was putting his thumb on the political scale. Whether it was his role in clearing Hillary Clinton of any criminal charges and then reopening the investigation on the eve of the 2016 election, or the contemporaneous memos Comey drafted and then leaked to the press about meetings with President Trump, it all pointed to political overreach at the FBI.
For much of the focus on the potential for presidential interference in the FBI, Sen. Grassley gave a stern reminder about the agency’s independence. Going back to the agency’s beginnings under J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI director has more often been tempted to exert political pressure, not to be a victim of it.
“History shows,” Grassley warned, “that the ten-year term limit isn’t there to protect the FBI director from politicians or politics, it’s there to help prevent the FBI director from overreaching or abusing power.”
