Attorney General Jeff Sessions praised FBI Director Christopher Wray’s testimony on the Justice Department Inspector General report while discussing immigration and law enforcement in Scranton, Pennsylvania Friday.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions "real proud" of FBI Dir. Wray's statements on critical IG report.
"We're going to confront any problems, and we're going to deal with them one-by-one…if we make a mistake, we're going to confront it." https://t.co/Ahuz36W3fl pic.twitter.com/1jCQdFQibV
— ABC News (@ABC) June 15, 2018
“I was real proud of Chris Wray, the new director of the FBI, yesterday for his statements on the IG report,” Sessions told Lackawanna College. “We’re not going to be defensive. We’re going to confront any problems, and we’re going to deal with them one-by-one, in a proper, fair, and appropriate way.”
“We’re going to reaffirm and recommit ourselves to the first ideals of that great agency — the FBI — One of the greatest investigative agency, maybe the greatest in the history of the world, as far as I’m concerned,” he added. “If we make a mistake, we’re going to confront it.”
Wray defended the FBI Thursday in response to a scathing inspector general report that heavily criticized the actions of his predecessor in the Hillary Clinton email investigation.
Wray said the report only addresses a specific set of facts and the actions of a handful of officials. He says “nothing” in the report “impugns” the integrity of the FBI workforce as a whole.
“While the Inspector General didn’t find any evidence of political bias or improper consideration impacting the investigation under review, all of us at the FBI take this report seriously, and we accept its findings and recommendations, Wray said.
“We’ve already taken steps to address many of the concerns it raises. We’ll change what we need to change and improve what can be made better and stronger, and we’ll move forward with renewed focus and determination. Because that is the essence of the FBI — we learn from the past, we get better at what we need to do, and we continually strive to be the very best we can be,” he added.
Wray also said the report found “errors in judgment” and policy violations, but it found no evidence of political bias or improper consideration “actually impacting the investigations under review.”
The report released Thursday criticizes former FBI Director James Comey, calling him “insubordinate” and saying he broke with longstanding policy. It also criticizes the politically charged texts of a handful of agents.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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