Posted on 02/01/2018 11:07:18 AM PST by Red Badger
As Trump prepares to release a GOP document accusing the FBI of abuses, bureau alums hope Director Chris Wray holds the line—but has to be ready to walk.
Former FBI agents are warning that FBI Director Christopher Wray has to be prepared to quit, should President Donald Trump assent over bureau objections to the release of a memo calling the FBI’s integrity into question.
The release of the memo, considered imminent, shows no signs of stopping, even as the leader of Democrats in the House called on its Republican author, Devin Nunes, to be removed from his chairmanship of the House intelligence committee. It was the latest move in an extraordinary episode that appears set to spark a crisis over the criminal investigation into Trump’s potential ties to Russia.
At the center of the storm is Wray, Trump’s hand-picked FBI director. Wray got his job after Trump fired James Comey last year for what Comey described as insufficient personal “loyalty” over the Russia investigation.
On Wednesday, Wray’s FBI publicly attacked Nunes’ memo for “material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo’s accuracy.” Trump overriding Wray will immediately call Wray’s future in the Trump administration into question six month into his tenure.
Former FBI agents say that they hope Wray can remain in office, and pull Trump and House Republicans back from the precipice of what may be a pivotal moment in the bureau’s history. But they also say Wray needs to show his willingness to walk.
“Given the climate and the recent activities, going as far back as Director Comey’s departure, Wray definitely must be prepared to resign,” said Erroll Southers, a retired FBI special agent now at the University of Southern California.
“I don’t think the director has to resign. He should be prepared to publicly discredit this cherry-picked, fake memo and expose Nunes,” added former FBI counterterrorism special agent Ali Soufan. Soufan cited the bad blood between Director Louis Freeh and President Bill Clinton in the 1990s as a sign that the FBI can continue investigating a president despite their relationship collapsing.
Former FBI agents are warning that FBI Director Christopher Wray has to be prepared to quit, should President Donald Trump assent over bureau objections to the release of a memo calling the FBI’s integrity into question.
The release of the memo, considered imminent, shows no signs of stopping, even as the leader of Democrats in the House called on its Republican author, Devin Nunes, to be removed from his chairmanship of the House intelligence committee. It was the latest move in an extraordinary episode that appears set to spark a crisis over the criminal investigation into Trump’s potential ties to Russia.
At the center of the storm is Wray, Trump’s hand-picked FBI director. Wray got his job after Trump fired James Comey last year for what Comey described as insufficient personal “loyalty” over the Russia investigation.
On Wednesday, Wray’s FBI publicly attacked Nunes’ memo for “material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo’s accuracy.” Trump overriding Wray will immediately call Wray’s future in the Trump administration into question six month into his tenure.
Former FBI agents say that they hope Wray can remain in office, and pull Trump and House Republicans back from the precipice of what may be a pivotal moment in the bureau’s history. But they also say Wray needs to show his willingness to walk.
“Given the climate and the recent activities, going as far back as Director Comey’s departure, Wray definitely must be prepared to resign,” said Erroll Southers, a retired FBI special agent now at the University of Southern California.
“I don’t think the director has to resign. He should be prepared to publicly discredit this cherry-picked, fake memo and expose Nunes,” added former FBI counterterrorism special agent Ali Soufan. Soufan cited the bad blood between Director Louis Freeh and President Bill Clinton in the 1990s as a sign that the FBI can continue investigating a president despite their relationship collapsing.
But Nunes has the support of Trump, on whose transition team he served. Trump is widely expected to assent to the memo’s release as soon as Thursday, though Fox News is reporting it will come Friday. That is the day when the House of Representatives’ parliamentary rules compel Trump to register any objections to declassification of the memo the FBI considers fundamentally misleading.
Southers expects Wray’s tenure after the memo’s release to be “very tense. The pressure is going to continue mounting. I never thought I’d see the FBI deemed the enemy of the state by anyone, let alone people in this country,” he said.
Should Wray remain in office, Southers continued, “he’s going to have to be a rock going forward, making clear to people that his only objective [will be] to stay focused on the mission. Certain things will be out of his control, and that includes his future, as it relates to the president.”
That’s how things work. You’d know that if you worked for a Cabinet Secretary.
I am thinking that everyone on the Seventh Floor should quickly learn how to make prison wine.
Place a gag order on Congress??? That’d be a hoot!I have a bad feeling about someone getting to Nunez by tomorrow or an injunction by some lefty District Court Judge. - dan on the right
Wouldn’t it! Especially if Nunes simply read the memo into the Congressional Record . . .
Good do so
Then we can get someone who cares about the country in there
So, the current FBI director should commit suicide for the acts of the previous one? Riiight.
You, da man!
Wray can either get on the ball or he has to go anyway - he seems to be trying to protect some of the deep state folks rather than aggressively hunt them down and purge them.
Close it down!
Sounds like the FBI Director is being threatened.
GO AWAY WRAY!
Calling James Kallstrom! Calling James Kallstrom!
James, get your suit pressed and your gun oiled man! The Donald needs you to take out some nasty swamp creatures!
“unrolled” thread of LS’s twitter posts - easy reading:
thanks...unfortunately, my pc’s Chrome doesn’t open up a threadreader... :(
But where has the FBI posted our instructions on who to vote for in the upcoming election?
The FBI has been trying to move out of Wash. DC.
They've been looking at Prince Georges Co. MD. or
some place in Northern VA. They say the current FBI
headquarters building is old, inadequate, and falling apart.
He did not have the power to indict, prosecute, convict, etc. Only hold hearings. Don’t dis my man, Trey.
**The thought crossed my mind that the center of Federal Government needs to move.**
Victor Davis Hanson made precisely that point in his essay today: Rethinking the Geography of Power
“He did not have the power to indict, prosecute, convict, etc. Only hold hearings. Don’t dis my man, Trey.”
That is true.
A question for all: Do these hearings ever result in offenders being arrested, prosecuted, etc? It seems that hearings are going on all the time, and we learn things. But it seems that that’s end; nothing more happens. For example, look at the crooks Lerner and her partner in crime. They committed definite crimes, yet there she goes, sashaying into the sunset with full pension. Why do we even bother?
So what’s the latest? Has the memo been release yet? Are we still waiting? Why?
Today......................
Thanks....................
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