Former AG Bill Barr Reportedly Threatened to Resign Over Trump’s Push to Fire Chris Wray

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Former Attorney General Bill Barr reportedly threatened to step down if former President Donald Trump fired FBI Director Christopher Wray.

Back in 2020, Trump repeatedly expressed resentment for Wray, and there are reports that Trump considered firing the FBI chief after the election. Wray prominently contradicted Trump’s rhetoric on multiple key issues, but the former president’s ire reportedly reached a high point last year because Wray wouldn’t launch the investigations he wanted into his political enemies.

According to a source who spoke to Business Insider, Barr attended a meeting last year at the Trump White House where he was introduced to counterintelligence official Bill Evanina. Barr realized that the administration was asking for his approval to replace Wray with Evanina, and he left the meeting shortly after.

“When told of the plotting, Barr threatened to resign in protest,” the report says. “It was the closest Wray, who has held onto his position under the Biden administration, ever came to getting fired during Trump’s tenure, the person briefed on the matter said.”

Barr’s relationship with Trump has come under renewed scrutiny amid revelations that the DOJ obtained the phone records of three Washington Post journalists, and also sought their email records. Barr resigned from his post in December as his relationship with Trump seemed to be deteriorating, and he had his own prominent breaks with the former president.