Trump Continues to Pressure FBI
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n its 82-year history, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has taken great pride in the fact that it operates independently of the political winds of the moment. President Trump in word and deed has challenged that independence more than any other president since Nixon, and perhaps more than even him.
In a new report, Axios discloses that FBI director Christopher Wray has felt such intense pressure from the administration that he threatened to resign after only six months on the job. Wray became director following Trump’s controversial firing of James Comey, which many interpreted as an effort to undermine the investigation of special counsel Robert Mueller into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Andrew McCabe, Wray’s deputy, has drawn the president’s ire both for his involvement in the Mueller investigation and for his handling of the FBI’s review of Hillary Clinton’s emails during the 2016 campaign, which ended in no charges filed. Republican members of Congress have also called for McCabe to resign; he is said to be planning to retire later this spring.
The pressure this time seems to have come from the Department of Justice. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, already in the hot seat with the president over his recusal from the Russia investigation, urged Wray to fire McCabe. When Wray rejected the directive and threatened to resign, Axios reports, Sessions spoke to White House counsel Don McGahn. McGahn reportedly recommended that Sessions back off, on the grounds that a second FBI Director departure would be more harmful than gratifying for the Trump White House.
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