President Donald Trump steered a legal investigation into Christopher Wray, his appointee to guide the bureau in his first time period, after a conservative media outlet reported the false declare that FBI brokers had been concerned within the assault on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
“I might think about. I would definitely think about. I might assume they’re doing that,” Trump mentioned in a cellphone interview with NBC Information when requested whether or not the Justice Division ought to examine Wray.
Trump appointed Wray to guide the bureau in 2017 after he fired former FBI Director James Comey. Comey was indicted in a grand jury final week on costs of creating false statements to Congress and obstructing a congressional investigation after Trump simply days earlier than publicly urged Legal professional Common Pam Bondi to behave “now” to prosecute his foes.
In a short video posted to his Instagram account, Comey mentioned, “My coronary heart is damaged for the Division of Justice. I’ve nice confidence within the federal judicial system and I’m harmless, so let’s have a trial, and hold the religion.”
Wray opted to depart the bureau earlier than Trump took workplace for his second time period as a result of he had fears that Trump firing him may trigger turmoil throughout the division. Wray had additionally drawn Trump’s ire over investigations into election interference from the Jan. 6 riot on the U.S. Capitol and Trump’s dealing with of categorized paperwork, each of which had been dropped after Trump gained the 2024 election.
FBI Director Christopher Wray speaks about Legal professional Common Merrick Garland throughout Garland’s farewell tribute within the Nice Corridor on the Robert F. Kennedy Division of Justice Constructing, Jan. 16, 2025, in Washington, D.C
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Photos
Trump first started suggesting Wray needs to be be investigated by the Justice Division after the conservative outlet The Blaze, citing an unidentified congressional supply, reported final week that 274 FBI brokers had been embedded within the pro-Trump mob that stormed the Capitol.
Trump promoted The Blaze’s story on his social media platform on Saturday, saying “It was simply revealed that the FBI had secretly positioned, towards all Guidelines, Rules, Protocols, and Requirements, 274 FBI Brokers into the Crowd simply previous to, and through, the January sixth Hoax. That is completely different from what Director Christopher Wray acknowledged, over and over! That is proper, because it now seems, FBI Brokers had been at, and in, the January sixth Protest, most likely performing as Agitators and Insurrectionists, however definitely not as “Regulation Enforcement Officers.”
“Christopher Wray, the then Director of the FBI, has some main explaining to do. That is two in a row, Comey and Wray, who received caught LYING, with our Nice Nation at stake.”
The DOJ’s Workplace of the Inspector Common discovered no proof that the FBI had undercover workers within the protest crowd in a December 2024 report. It additionally mentioned that the FBI deployed tactical assets to the Capitol after the constructing had been breached by rioters and experiences of two pipe bombs found on the Republican and Democratic nationwide celebration headquarters.
That report additionally mentioned whereas there have been 26 informants in Washington, D.C., who had been dubbed throughout the FBI as “confidential human sources,” or CHSs, the IG uncovered no proof suggesting that any had been instructed to affix the assault on the Capitol or in any other case encourage criminal activity by members of the mob.
The IG report didn’t discover fault with brokers being despatched to the Capitol the place legislation enforcement had been overwhelmed and hundreds of federal crimes had been dedicated, starting from trespass and assault on federal officers to seditious conspiracy.
It is not instantly clear whether or not Wray can be positioned underneath legal investigation, however Trump’s interview with NBC and his social media posts over the weekend present he seems to be more and more emboldened within the wake of Comey’s indictment to name for the prosecution of extra political foes.
In feedback to reporters outdoors of the White Home final week, Trump steered he anticipated extra legal costs to be introduced towards his opponents whereas denying he was making use of any direct strain to Justice Division management.
“It is not an inventory, however I feel there can be others,” Trump advised reporters. “I hope there can be others.”
