FBI Director Christopher Wray is the biggest obstacle to transparency regarding to Justice Department inspector general report on alleged surveillance abuses, according to one Republican figure.
John Sununu, the former governor of New Hampshire and White House chief of staff for President George H.W. Bush, reacted Monday to South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, who said he wants “as much as possible” declassified from Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s inquiry into alleged misconduct with using the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
“I think they should see it all because frankly there’s nothing there of substance that applies to any real intelligence process. It was all a fabricated set of intelligence relationships that were being used to entrap, if you will, the Trump administration,” Sununu said on Fox News.
Sununu said he believes the American public will see “a great deal” of the report, which is expected to be released as early as September, though he warned Wray might try to hide some of its findings.
“The only person over there that I think is going to try and prevent that is Christopher Wray who I think has really been co-opted by the FBI bureaucracy,” Sununu said.
Republicans have criticized Wray, who was nominated to lead the FBI by President Trump, because of the FBI’s resistance to certain document requests and also because he disputed Attorney General William Barr’s use of the word “spying” to describe the government surveillance of Trump’s 2016 campaign. Barr has praised Wray amid the criticism.
During his Sunday interview, Graham, who is the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said he believes the inspector general report would be “ugly and damning” for the Justice Department and its handling of the Russia investigation.
