President Trump ratcheted up his criticism of FBI Director Christopher Wray on Tuesday.
He hold reporters outside the White House that Wray gave a “ridiculous answer” about whether the FBI spied on his presidential campaign.
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“I didn’t understand his answer. Because I thought the attorney general answered it perfectly. So I certainly didn’t understand that answer. I thought it was a ridiculous answer,” Trump said.
Trump vs. The FBI, Part 85
The President says FBI Director Chris Wray gave a “ridiculous answer” in distancing himself from the term “spying” pic.twitter.com/CM3NfuiHII
— Josh Campbell (@joshscampbell) May 14, 2019
The debate over the term “spying” began at a hearing last month when Attorney General William Barr said “spying did occur” on the Trump campaign. He clarified that he hasn’t proven there was any wrongdoing and is looking into alleged misconduct within the Justice Department and FBI, but his “spying” declaration riled Democrats and others.
In a Senate Appropriations Committee, Wray disputed Barr’s use of the word “spying” to describe surveillance of Trump’s 2016 campaign. “That’s not the term I would use,” Wray testified. “To me the key question is making sure it’s done by the book, consistent with our lawful authorities. That’s the key question; different people use different colloquial phrases.”
Trump suggested his dismay with Wray in a tweet late Sunday quoting Fox Business’ Lou Dobbs, a staunch supporter of the president.
“Even Director James Clapper admits that the FBI actions against the Trump Presidential Campaign do in fact meet the definition of spying, perhaps FBI Director Christopher Wray will be the next to do so,” he quoted Dobbs as saying.
Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper conceded that what the FBI had been doing “meets the dictionary definition of spying” after it was revealed that the FBI sent an undercover agent to meet with onetime Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos in London in 2016.
Trump picked Wray as his nominee to be FBI director after he fired James Comey in May 2017.
