Washington
Wray spent the morning being grilled at a hearing of the House Judiciary Committee about how FBI personnel — particularly a senior counterintelligence agent now the subject of an internal ethics investigation — handled sensitive probes of Trump and his former political rival, Hillary Clinton.
The agent, Peter Strzok, was removed in July from the investigation being run by special counsel Robert Mueller, who is looking into possible coordination between Trump associates and Russian agents during last year’s election.
Strzok, the top agent on that probe, was removed after supervisors learned he exchanged pro-Clinton, anti-Trump texts with a senior FBI lawyer with whom he had an affair, according to people familiar with the matter.
Strzok’s alleged conduct is now the subject of a probe by the Justice Department’s inspector general. Lawmakers tried to make Wray explain exactly what Strzok’s role was in the Trump and Clinton investigations, but Wray declined to provide an answer, citing the ongoing investigation.
The revelations about Strzok prompted Trump to tweet this past weekend that the FBI’s reputation was in tatters.
Asked by the panel’s senior Democrat, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., whether that was true, Wray delivered a lengthy defense of the bureau.
He said that once the inspector general’s review of FBI conduct has concluded, “we will hold our folks accountable, if that’s appropriate.”
Wray became FBI director four months ago after Trump fired Wray’s predecessor, James Comey, leading to Mueller’s appointment as special counsel.