FBI nominee: If Russia contacts you and offers campaign dirt, "the FBI would want to know"

Pressing Christopher Wray as he testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on his nomination to be the next FBI director, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham urged him to make to clear to all American politicians that if the Russian government offers to deliver dirt on your political opponent, the first call should be to the FBI.

At the hearing, Graham read aloud the 2016 emails that Donald Trump Jr. released Tuesday, which confirmed that he met with an operative from “the Russian government” in hopes of derailing Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.

Wray agreed with Graham and told the assembled senators that “any threat or effort to interfere with our elections from any nation-state, or any non-state actor” should be reported to law enforcement.

 

GRAHAM: Let me ask you this. If I got a call from somebody saying the Russian government wants to help Lindsey Graham get re-elected, they’ve got dirt on Lindsey Graham’s opponent, should I take that meeting?

WRAY: Well, Senator, I would think you’d want to consult with some good legal advisers before you did it.

GRAHAM: So the answer is, Should I call the FBI?

WRAY: I think it would be wise to let the FBI—

GRAHAM: You’re going to be director of the FBI, pal. So here’s what I want you to tell every politician. If you get a call from somebody, suggesting that a foreign government wants to help you, by disparaging your opponent, tell us all to call the FBI.

WRAY: To the members of this committee, any threat or effort to interfere with our elections from any nation-state, or any non-state actor, is the kind of thing the FBI would want to know.

GRAHAM: All right, so I’ll take it that we should call you, and that’s a great answer.

Under questioning about Trump’s firing of former FBI Director James Comey, Wray also said nobody at the White House had requested a loyalty oath from him — as Trump did from Comey — and that Wray “sure as heck didn’t offer one.”

He added that any outside interference into special prosecutor Robert Mueller investigation into possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign would be “unacceptable and inappropriate.”