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July 13, 2017

Senate Panel Questions FBI Director Nominee on Trump Probe, Torture
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Elsewhere on Capitol Hill, President Trump's pick to replace fired FBI
Director James Comey, Christopher Wray, told the Senate Judiciary
Committee Wednesday he will act independently from the White House, if
confirmed. Christopher Wray said no one had asked him for a loyalty
oath, as Trump reportedly asked Comey to give. South Carolina Republican
Senator Lindsey Graham asked Wray about Trump's claim on Twitter
Wednesday that special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into ties
between Russia and Trump's associates is "the greatest Witch Hunt in
political history."

Christopher Wray: "Well, Senator, I can't speak to the basis for those
comments. I can tell you that my experience with Director Mueller"-

Sen. Lindsey Graham: "I'm asking you, as the future FBI director, do you
consider this endeavor a witch hunt?"

Christopher Wray: "I do not consider Director Mueller to be on a witch
hunt."

Christopher Wray is a defense lawyer and former federal prosecutor who
served as assistant attorney general under George W. Bush from 2003 to
2005, at a time when the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel
signed off on the use of torture against detainees in CIA and military
custody. At Wednesday's confirmation hearing, Illinois Senator Dick
Durbin asked Wray whether he approved a memo that retained a policy by
then-Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee approving of waterboarding and
other forms of torture.

Sen. Dick Durbin: "In a footnote, the memo indicates that under the new
analysis, all of the torture techniques that were approved under the
Bybee memo, like waterboarding, would still be legal under the new memo.
In other words, nothing changed. And it says that expressly had the
approval of your division. Do you recall reviewing and approving that
memo?"

Christopher Wray: "I do not recall approving-reviewing and approving
that memo."

After the 9/11 attacks in 2001, Christopher Wray played a key role in
the FBI PENTTBOM investigation, which saw more than 750 mostly Arab or
Muslim men rounded up and detained under often harsh conditions.