The incoming chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee delivered a “vote of no confidence” in FBI Director Christopher Wray on Monday in a letter accusing him of politicizing the agency against President-elect Donald Trump.
Across 11 pages, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) said that Wray, appointed in 2017 to replace James Comey, had run the agency no differently than his predecessor, comparing the 2022 search of Mar-a-Lago under Wray to the Russia investigation that prompted Trump to fire Comey.
Grassley also denounced what he called an “outright disdain for congressional oversight” during Wray’s seven years leading the FBI.
“Rather than turn over a new leaf at the FBI, you’ve continued to read from the old playbook of weaponization, double standards, and a relentless game of hide-and-seek with the Congress,” the Iowa Republican wrote.
The letter, addressed to Wray, amounts to the clearest sign yet that Senate Republicans are open to Trump’s plan to reshuffle the Justice Department’s leadership. Trump has nominated Kash Patel, a loyalist attorney, to take over the FBI when his second term begins in January.
Pam Bondi, the former Florida attorney general, would replace Merrick Garland at the top of the Justice Department if confirmed.
Both have been visiting with Republicans on the Judiciary Committee in recent days, including a meeting between Bondi and Grassley last week.
Grassley used the letter to relitigate familiar claims against the Justice Department, which has been viewed with suspicion by Republicans since Trump’s election in 2016.
He questioned why the FBI did not treat a since-discredited document alleging bribery by the Biden family more seriously when it acted on Russian collusion claims detailed in the Steele dossier.
It later came to light the FBI had reason to question the validity of the dossier, written by the former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele.
Grassley also suggested the search of Mar-a-Lago, connected to the now-dismissed classified documents case against Trump, was heavy-handed.
“This is some of the most egregious, Orwellian conduct I’ve witnessed in my nearly 50 years in the Congress, and the rightful dismissal of Director Comey should’ve closed the book on such weaponization,” the senator said. “Unfortunately for the nation, it didn’t.”
Trump himself expressed his disapproval of Wray on Sunday, citing the Mar-a-Lago raid and Wray’s initial suggestion that shrapnel, not an intact bullet, grazed his ear during the July assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“He invaded my home,” Trump told NBC News. “He invaded Mar-a-Lago. I’m very unhappy with the things he’s done.”
The FBI did not respond to a request for comment, but Wray has previously defended the agency against allegations of bias in congressional testimony.
“The work the men and women of the FBI do to protect the American people goes way beyond one or two investigations that seem to capture all the headlines,” Wray, a registered Republican, told House Republicans on the Judiciary Committee last year.
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Grassley spent the remainder of his letter accusing Wray of stone-walling Congress as Republicans investigated the Afghanistan withdrawal and sexual misconduct allegations at the FBI. He said that Wray had fallen short of his obligation to protect whistleblowers as well.
“I’ve spent my career fighting for transparency, and I’ve always called out those in government who have fought against it,” Grassley said. “For the public record, I must do so once again now. I therefore must express my vote of no confidence in your continued leadership of the FBI.”