The incoming head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, blasted FBI Director Christopher Wray on Monday for what he called “failed” leadership of the law-enforcement agency and said it was time for Wray to leave.
In a letter to Wray that repeated many of President-elect Donald Trump’s complaints about the FBI, Grassley, R-Iowa, criticized the FBI search of Trump’s home at Mar-a-Lago, which recovered missing classified documents and led to federal charges against the former president, as “invasive and unwarranted.” Grassley also faulted the FBI investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election for targeting Trump after not similarly scrutinizing former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and for failing to provide more information about alleged sexual misconduct at the agency.
“These failures, are serious enough and their pattern widespread enough to have shattered my confidence in your leadership and the confidence and hope many others in Congress placed in you,” Grassley wrote in the 11-page letter.
Trump appointed Wray, who has served seven years of a 10-year term. But Trump has been critical of Wray for years. After being reelected to the White House, Trump named Kash Patel, a former national security official, to succeed Wray as FBI director, implying that he plans to fire Wray. Grassley said Wray and Deputy Director Paul Abbate should each leave.
“For the good of the country, it’s time for you and your deputy to move on to the next chapter in your lives,” Grassley wrote.
The FBI issued a statement saying the agency has repeatedly demonstrated its commitment to responding to congressional oversight.
“Director Wray and Deputy Director Abbate have taken strong actions toward achieving accountability in the areas mentioned in the letter and remain committed to sharing information about the continuously evolving threat environment facing our nation and the extraordinary work of the FBI,” the statement said.
Grassley’s letter comes a month before he reclaims the chairmanship of the committee that oversees the FBI, due to Republicans’ flipping control of the Senate in the recent election. Grassley would lead the potential confirmation hearing for Patel.
Patel, who advised the director of the national intelligence and the defense secretary during Trump’s first term, is a polarizing choice to lead the FBI. Republican supporters such as House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana said he will bring a needed overhaul to the agency.
But Patel has threatened to investigate Trump’s political enemies and shut down FBI’s headquarters in Washington to decentralize workers across the country. Bill Barr, a former attorney general for Trump, wrote in his memoir Patel’s appointment as deputy director of the FBI would happen “over my dead body.”
Trump refused to confirm on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that he would fire Wray, whom he appointed seven years ago, but said Patel would take his place.
Trump criticized Wray for the 2022 raid on Mar-a-Lago, when FBI agents seized thousands of documents including hundreds classified records. Trump was charged with unlawfully retaining national defense records after leaving the White House, but a judge dismissed those charges in July on the grounds that the investigation was run by a special counsel whose appointment was ruled invalid.
“I can’t say I’m thrilled with him. He invaded my home. I’m suing the country over it,” Trump said about Wray. “I’m very unhappy with the things he’s done.”
Trump also complained that Wray initially testified at a House hearing the former president might have been hit in the ear by shrapnel rather than a bullet during an assassination attempt in July in Butler, Pa. Wray clarified the next day that Trump was struck by a bullet.
“Where’s the shrapnel coming from?” Trump asked facetiously. “Is it coming from heaven? I don’t think so.”
Grassley echoed several of Trump’s complaints about the FBI.
The Mar-a-Lago raid occurred 18 months after Trump left office. Agents found boxes of records stashed around the property in unsecured locations, including a restroom. But Grassley wrote that Trump was cooperating because he had returned 15 boxes of records voluntarily.
“This raid occurred despite serious questions about the need for it,” Grassley said.
Trump has long complained about the FBI investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election before Wray took the agency’s helm. Grassley wrote the FBI failed to vet derogatory information to obtain a search warrant for a Trump campaign aide.
Grassley called the lapse “some of the most egregious, Orwellian conduct I’ve witnessed” in nearly 50 years in Congress.
An inspector general blasted the wiretapping program. Wray overhauled training and how warrants are obtained from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, but defended the need for the surveillance program.
Grassley also slammed the FBI after a Justice Department review found 665 former FBI employees, including 45 members of the senior executive staff, retired or resigned from 2004 to 2020 after allegations of sexual misconduct and before final disciplinary records were issued. Grassley said the FBI failed to provide more information about the allegations despite public pledges to do so.
“Contrary to the assurances you made to gain confirmation to your position, the FBI has shown outright disdain for congressional oversight during your tenure,” Grassley wrote. “You didn’t live up to your word.”
