Jeff Sessions Almost Caused the New FBI Director to Resign: Report

FBI Director Christopher Wray reportedly was prepared to resign over calls that he fire his deputy, Andrew McCabe, according to Axios Monday night.

The report came after the website said in another article that Attorney General Jeff Sessions had pressured Wray to make a “fresh start” by purging senior staff members at the bureau. Those included McCabe, who Trump and other Republicans have accused of bias.

Trump, his allies in Congress and the media have intensified their attacks on the credibility of the Department of Justice and FBI in recent months. Multiple congressional committees across the House and Senate are reviewing how the FBI handled its investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a personal email server while she was secretary of state. Trump and other Republicans have called for a special counsel to look into how the FBI operated under then-Director James Comey, and the Justice Department Office of the Inspector General is also conducting a review.

Prior to Wray’s swearing-in, Newsweek reported that the new director intended to keep McCabe as deputy, the role he had during Comey’s tenure—a move that FBI analysts said was not unusual. But Trump and his allies have accused the deputy director of having a pro-Clinton bias because his wife received campaign contributions from entities associated with Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe, a friend of the Clintons, for a state senate campaign. The FBI has said McCabe did nothing improper. He is expected to retire soon.

http://www.newsweek.com/fbi-director-wray-threatened-resign-sessions-mccabe-787528