Democratic Rep. Confronts FBI Director for Being ‘Evasive’ on Trump-Era Subpoenas: This Is ‘Something We Would Expect in Putin’s Russia’

FBI Director Christopher Wray was on Capitol Hill Tuesday testifying before the House Oversight Committee on January 6th and the security failures that day.

One topic that came up was the revelation that the Justice Department during the Trump administration subpoenaed Apple for data belonging to top House Intel Committee Democrats Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell. Democrats have demanded hearings on the matter with testimony from Bill Barr and Jeff Sessions.

Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi (D- IL) noted Apple received the subpoena during Wray’s tenure, and he read part of this aloud from a recent CNN report:

The leak hunt began with the FBI sending a subpoena to Apple in February 2018, which included a gag order, seeking metadata on more than 100 accounts as part of an investigation into the disclosure of classified information, the person familiar with the matter said.

“You don’t dispute that report, correct?” Krishnamoorthi asked.

“I really can’t discuss a specific investigation. I really don’t want to get out in front of the Justice Department on this,” Wray responded.

He again didn’t answer when asked if the FBI interviewed witnesses during the leak investigation.

“The FBI was involved with these investigations, correct?” the congressman asked again.

“When there are leak investigations,” Wray just said, “typically the FBI’s the investigative agency.”

Krishnamoorthi directly asked Wray if he discussed the subpoenas with Sessions. When Wray again deferred on the matter, he followed up, “Sir, you’re just being asked a simple yes-or-no question.”

He called out Wray for being “evasive” and concluded by saying the following:

Serving these secret subpoenas to collect records on members of Congress is something we’d expect in Putin’s Russia, not the United States. And sir, your involvement needs to be probed, just like everyone else’s.

You can watch above, via C-SPAN 3.