Analysis: FBI Director Wray’s implicit admonitions of Trump and Barr
By Aaron Blake Aaron Blake Senior political reporter, writing for The Fix Email Bio Follow May 7 at 1:36 PM Attorney General William P. Barr expressed exasperation last week that anybody would take exception to his use of the word “spying” to describe how the FBI surveilled and collected information about Trump associates with Russia ties in 2016. “I’m not going abjure the use of the word spying,” Barr said, adding that he didn’t believe it was “pejorative.
Wray was asked about the allegation, favored by Trump, that this surveillance was conducted illegally. Trump and some supporters have cited this surveillance to argue that it was a “coup” attempt. But Wray said there’s no reason to believe it was untoward. “I don’t think I personally have any evidence of that sort,” he said.
It’s tempting to view this as not that significant. Wray was merely expressing his own personal word preference, and he quickly moved on to echo Barr’s broader point. But if this wasn’t an area of contention, Wray could simply have said that. Instead, he felt the need to assert — however diplomatically and briefly — that this wasn’t the preferred nomenclature.
VAN HOLLEN: But would you agree that the best defense would be an ability to deter that kind of interference in the first place? In other words, if Putin understood that the costs of interfering in our election outweigh the relatively low cost he’s facing right now, should we explore that option? This was the first reported conversation between the two leaders since the special counsel report last month concluded Russia had waged a “sweeping and systematic” 2016 election interference effort.
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