President Trump said Sunday he «would certainly imagine» that the Justice Department is scrutinizing former FBI Director Christopher Wray for potential criminal charges.<\/b>
\nPresident Trump said Sunday he \u201cwould certainly imagine\u201d that the Justice Department is scrutinizing former FBI Director Christopher Wray.
Over the weekend, Trump blasted Wray over a report alleging the FBI had plainclothes agents at the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the Capitol \u2014 something Director Kash Patel later clarified included agents who showed up after the riot began.
\u201cI would imagine. I would certainly imagine. I would think they are doing that,\u201d Trump told NBC News on the phone when asked if the DOJ is investigating Wray.
\u201cI think it\u2019s very inappropriate what he, what he did. And I think a lot of his service was very inappropriate,\u201d he went on. \u201cBut we haven\u2019t gone beyond that. Don\u2019t forget, we just found out about all of these FBI agents being there.\u201d
On Saturday, the president noted a report by the Blaze that cited a congressional source claiming that the FBI confirmed it had 274 plainclothes agents in the crowd on the day of the riot.
\u201cChristopher Wray, the then Director of the FBI, has some major explaining to do. That\u2019s two in a row, Comey and Wray,\u201d Trump raged in a Truth Social post.
The president further speculated \u2014 without evidence \u2014 that the agents there were \u201cprobably acting as Agitators and Insurrectionists,\u201d but not as \u201cLaw Enforcement Officials.\u201d
Soon after, Patel provided a clarification.
\u201c274 FBI agents were thrown into crowd control on Jan 6 against FBI standards. That failure was on corrupt leadership. Thanks to agents stepping up, the truth is coming out,\u201d he explained on X.
The official Justice Department watchdog claimed \u201cwe found no evidence in the materials we reviewed or the testimony we received showing or suggesting that the FBI had undercover employees in the various protest crowds, or at the Capitol, on January 6,\u201d according to a report released last year.
That report had acknowledged that FBI informants were in the crowd.
Trump had tapped Wray to succeed James Comey as head of the bureau in 2017. The president has since complained that Wray had been recommended to him by former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
Wray resigned earlier this year, one day before Trump took office as the 47th president.
Last week, a grand jury handed up an indictment of Comey on charges of making false statements to Congress about the leaking of information regarding the bureau\u2019s investigation of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Critics of Wray have cited his past testimony to Congress about whether there were agents on scene at the Capitol riot. But Wray was also very careful with how he answered those questions, telling lawmakers in 2023, \u201cI\u2019m not sure there were undercover agents.\u201d
\u201cThat\u2019s a place where I want to be careful.\u201d<\/p>\n