Fox News host Sean Hannity has reservations about FBI Director Christopher Wray as the Justice Department reviews the first draft of a report on alleged surveillance abuses.
On his show Wednesday evening, Hannity said Wray appears “hesitant” as he and Attorney General William Barr decide what needs to be redacted in DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s findings.
“The inspector general’s completed report is now in the hands of the attorney general, Barr, who along with the FBI Director Wray is reviewing this material for possible redactions. Now, Director Wray seems to be hesitant, he really does, in wanting to fix what is the greatest, the premier law enforcement agency in the entire world,” Hannity said.
“I hope Director Wray changes course and commits himself to implementing the changes so that 99.9% of law-abiding FBI agents that keep us safe every day that we can have confidence in all of them. This is about one-tenth of 1%,” he added. “Now, the changes here that’s he needs to look at are so we prevent the massive abuse of power, so that it will never happen again.”
Republicans and their conservative allies have been particularly skeptical of Wray ever since he disputed Barr’s use of the word “spying” to describe surveillance of President Trump’s 2016 campaign. They have also been frustrated by the FBI’s resistance to certain document requests.
Horowitz’s team examined the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act application and three renewals beginning in October 2016 to surveil former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. The watchdog informed Congress last week that his team is in the “process of finalizing our report by providing a draft of our factual findings to the Department and FBI for classification determination and marking.”
Lawmakers expect the report to be released in the coming weeks. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes said this week he does not “want to see it all blacked out” and wants U.S. Attorney John Durham, who is leading a review of the Russia investigation origins, to get as much evidence as possible “to actually do a prosecution of these dirty cops” who Republicans believe misled the FISA Court using an unverified dossier.
Among these individuals are former FBI Director James Comey, who said this week he is “highly confident” he will not face prosecution.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, who has promised a “deep dive” investigation into alleged FISA abuse, says the FISA Court needs to take “corrective action” and advocated for somebody to “go to jail” to help “restore the rule of law.”
