Sources: Trump Talking About Giving FBI Chief the Boot

President reportedly wants a repeat of what happened in 2016
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 22, 2020 7:50 AM CDT
Sources: Frustrated Trump Toying With Firing FBI Chief
President Donald Trump walks on the South Lawn of the White House after returning from a campaign rally in North Carolina on Wednesday.   (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Washington is "abuzz" about FBI Director Christopher Wray's potential dismissal, reports the AP, and a new report from the Washington Post digs in. The Post's sources say President Trump has toyed with the idea of firing Wray after Election Day over his disappointment that Wray and Attorney General William Barr have not indicated that Joe Biden, son Hunter, or others in their orbit are being investigated. The sources say the incumbent is looking for an 11th-hour move similar to the one that occurred less than 2 weeks before the 2016 election, when then-FBI Director James Comey announced an investigation into Hillary Clinton's private email server had been reopened "We've got to get the attorney general to act," Trump said Tuesday on Fox News, alluding to information about Hunter Biden obtained by his lawyer, Rudy Giuliani.

"This is major corruption and this has to be known about before the election," Trump continued. Asked to weigh in on that this week, the FBI was noncommittal. The agency said it had "nothing to add" to Director of National Intelligence John Rat­cliffe's statement that there is no intelligence suggesting the information is part of a Russian disinformation campaign. But the bureau also said it "can neither confirm nor deny the existence of any ongoing investigation or persons or entities under investigation." It's apparently not Trump's only beef with Wray, who is 4 years into a 10-year term. Last week, he said Wray is "not doing a very good job" if he won’t admit the chance of voter fraud, which Wray has said is not an extensive problem. (Meanwhile, Barr has come under fire for not delivering a report on the Russia investigation's origins.)

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