WASHINGTON (CN) — President Donald Trump appeared ready to sack a second FBI director Tuesday, following the release of a Justice Department report that refutes Trump’s claim that the investigation into his campaign’s ties to Russia was a politically motivated “witch hunt.”
“I don’t know what report current Director of the FBI Christopher Wray was reading, but it sure wasn’t the one given to me,” Trump tweeted. “With that kind of attitude, he will never be able to fix the FBI, which is badly broken despite having some of the greatest men & women working there!”
The internal report by Inspector General Michael Horowitz found no evidence that bias in the FBI against Trump’s campaign led to the 2016 opening of the Russia probe, codename Crossfire Hurricane, later taken up by former special counsel Robert Mueller.
But Horowitz did find “errors in judgment” by agents, including when the FBI sought a surveillance warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to monitor Trump campaign adviser Carter Page after the investigation launched.
Wray, who took over the FBI in 2017 after Trump fired former Director James Comey, accepted the department’s findings in a statement Monday, drawing Trump’s ire for acceding that the bureau’s Russia investigation was predicated on an authorized purpose.
As for the report’s finding that certain agents violated existing policies and showed improper diligence, Wray said the bureau is already taking remedial steps.
“We are vested with significant authorities, and it is our obligation as public servants to ensure that these authorities are exercised with objectivity and integrity,” Wray wrote. “Anything less falls short of the FBI’s duty to the American people.”
Speaking at the White House on Monday, Trump repeated his claim that the Russia investigation should never have happened.
“It’s everything that a lot of people thought it would be, except far worse,” he said.
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