Exclusive: Ex-intel chief urged Trump to fire FBI Director Wray in 2020
August 8, 2022
Part 1 of 2
Former acting Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell is warning that the FBI is facing a "real crisis" from partisan tampering with investigations, revealing he actually urged then-President Donald Trump to fire Director Chris Wray back in 2020 when such concerns first became obvious.
"I told President Trump we got to get rid of him," Grenell said Monday in an interview with Just the News on the John Solomon Reports podcast. "[Wray] was terrible. First of all, he didn't understand what was happening. He was so aloof to what was happening down below and had just a knee jerk reaction to everything just to protect the status quo."
Grenell made the comments just hours before Trump announced Monday the FBI raided his Mar-a-Lago home and office in Florida, cracking a safe and removing documents in an apparent probe into suspected missing classified documents.
Grenell, who also served as U.S. ambassador to Germany, said the reasons he urged Wray's dismissal two years ago were rooted in his inability to see politics ruining the storied law enforcement agency,
"He's a creature of the FBI," Grenell said. "And he views everything as a PR exercise. Don't criticize the FBI. Don't talk about any failures at the FBI because he loves the brand. And it was a brand exercise."
Ric Grenell told Trump to fire FBI Director Wray due to inaction during Russian collusion coverupRic Grenell told Trump to fire FBI Director Wray due to inaction during Russian collusion coverup
Several former Trump officials, including former Attorney General Bill Barr, reportedly learned the 45th president was contemplating firing Wray in 2020 and advised against it. Trump had already fired ex-Director James Comey for misconduct in the Hillary Clinton email probe back in 2017.
Grenell described an episode in spring 2020 when he was acting DNI and was trying to declassify documents about FBI misconduct in the Russia collusion probe and its pursuit of former National Security Advisor Mike Flynn, and there "was a lot of pushback."
He said FBI leaders told him frontline agents adamantly didn't want the memos declassified and released to the public because they would reveal investigative sources and methods.
"I said I'd like to talk to these FBI agents who actually redacted this information," he recalled. "And oh, boy, they did not want me to. But I did. I pushed through, and because I had the position, I was able to do it. I said, 'You know look, I'm about to release this information. But I'm asking you to tell me. If this is really a source or a method, point it to me. What am I missing here?'
"Did you know, John, that the FBI rank and file agents who did that said to me, 'We agree with you. We didn't redact this. Our bosses did.' And it was so obvious to me that there was a political manipulation from up top."….
https://justthenews.com/accountability/russia-and-ukraine-scandals/ex-intel-chief-urged-trump-fire-fbi-director-wray-2020