On Wednesday, Christopher Wray, the president’s nominee to head the FBI, swore to maintain the independence and nonpartisanship of the Bureau, with the Trump’s May firing of then-director James Comey fresh in lawmakers’ minds.
Senators on the Judiciary Committee repeatedly sought assurances from Wray that he would keep the FBI free from political pressure or influence—a pledge that the nominee also immediately offered up in his opening statement.
“If I am given the honor of leading this agency, 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,” Wray said. “Period. Full stop. My loyalty is to the Constitution and to the rule of law.”
“I pledge to be the leader that the FBI deserves—and to lead an independent Bureau that will make every American proud,” he told lawmakers.
The Senate Judiciary Committee is still investigating the circumstances surrounding Comey’s firing since the president has given a range of explanations for Comey’s dismissal.
Initially, Trump cited a letter from the deputy attorney general detailing Comey’s handling of the Clinton email investigation. But California senator Dianne Feinstein, the top Democrat on the committee, noted that that that rationale shifted to include the FBI’s Russia probe.
“Based on press reports and the president’s own words, the reason Mr. Comey was dismissed was because he would not pledge his loyalty to the president and he would not lift the cloud of the Russia investigation,” she said. Feinstein stressed that the FBI director “does not serve the president.”
Comey testified in June that Trump asked him to pledge loyalty and to drop the investigation into fired national security adviser Mike Flynn.
Wray told lawmakers Wednesday that he had not been asked to give a loyalty oath, and that he would not give one if asked.
“No one asked me for any kind of loyalty oath at any point during this process and I sure as heck didn’t offer one,” Wray said.
Democratic senator Patrick Leahy asked Wray what he would do if the president asked him “to do something unlawful or unethical.”
“First I would try to talk him out of it, and if that failed, I would resign,” Wray said.
Comey told lawmakers he leaked a memo outlining the Flynn request after Trump suggested that he had tapes of their meetings, in the hope that it “might prompt the appointment of a special counsel.” Indeed, the deputy attorney general appointed special counsel Robert Mueller soon after.
Wray said he was “very committed” to supporting Mueller’s investigation wherever appropriate.
Under questioning by minority whip Dick Durbin, Wray said that a one-on-one meeting between an FBI director and a president would be “unusual.” Still, he allowed that there could be a situation that necessitated such a meeting.
“It would depend on the circumstances,” he said. “It would be highly unlikely, but . . . I could imagine a situation where there’d be some national security matter where that might call for it.”
“The relationship between any FBI director and any president needs to be a professional one, not a social one,” he continued. “There certainly shouldn’t be any discussion between one-on-one discussions between the FBI director and any president about how to conduct particular investigations or cases.”
Updated, 11:55 a.m.: During the hearing Wray continued to make strong statements about his support of the Mueller investigation: “There isn’t a person on this planet whose lobbying or influence could convince me to just drop or abandon a properly predicated and meritorious investigation,” he said.
He later continued, “I do not consider Director Mueller to be on a witch hunt.”
