CHRIS WRAY/FBI/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Donald Trump denied Tuesday [1-23-18] that FBI Director Christopher Wray threatened to resign in the wake of pressure from Attorney General Jeff Sessions to make staffing changes among the senior ranks at the FBI.
Sessions communicated to Wray, who was hand-picked by Trump and sworn in in August, that he needed a fresh start with his senior team at the FBI, a source familiar with the conversation told CNN. Sessions specifically suggested the bureau’s deputy director, Andrew McCabe, and its top lawyer, James Baker, should go.
It is not clear if Sessions explicitly told Wray to fire the two men or simply reassign them, according to the source. Wray, in turn, threatened to quit if McCabe was removed or reassigned from his post. Baker was reassigned late last year…
Axios first reported Monday that Wray threatened to resign if Sessions did not stop pressuring him to fire McCabe.
McCabe has come under public criticism by Trump and his allies in recent weeks over the FBI’s handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation and his connections to anti-Trump messages sent between two FBI employees during the campaign.”
-Kaitlan Collins and Eli Watkins, “Trump denies new FBI director threatened to resign under pressure from Sessions,” Jan. 23, 2018 05:13pm