Chris Wray Pushes Back on FBI ‘Spying’ of Trump Campaign: ‘Not the Term I Would Use’

FBI Director Chris Wray objected to the characterization Attorney General William Barr used to describe the surveillance his bureau conducted on alleged Russian contacts with President Donald Trump‘s 2016 campaign.

During Wray’s testimony before the Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday, Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) asked him for what he thinks about Barr’s repeated use of the word “spying” and the negative connotations inherently implied.

“When FBI agents conduct investigations against alleged mobsters, suspected terrorists, other criminals, do you believe they’re engaging in ‘spying’ when they’re following FBI investigative policies and procedures?” Shaheen asked.

“That’s not the term I would use,” Wray responded, though he acknowledged that people have different manners of speaking about this topic.

“There are a lot of people who have different colloquial phrases. I believe the FBI is involved in investigative activity. Part of that includes surveillance activities of different shapes and sizes, and to me, the key is making sure it’s done by the book, consistent with our lawful authorities. That’s the key question. Different people have different colloquial phrases.”

As Shaheen asked Wray about the FBI’s processes for gather warrants and conducting investigations, she eventually asked: “do you believe, Director Wray, that the FBI and its agents spied into the 2016 presidential campaign operation?”

Wray hesitated by citing the sensitivity of the inspector general’s ongoing investigation on the matter, but when asked if he has any evidence of “illegal surveillance” that took place, he said, “I don’t think I personally have any evidence of that sort.”

Watch above, via C-SPAN 3

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