Christopher Wray became FBI director in 2017 after James Comey was fired.
On Tuesday, Wray rebuked Atty. Gen. William Barr's "spying" claims against the Trump administration.
Wray testified during today's Senate Appropriations Committee hearing.
Asked about Attorney General Barr's claim that the FBI was "spying" on the Trump campaign, Wray said that is not the term he would use.
Later in his testimony, he also asserted he had no personal knowledge that any campaign was being illegally spied on.
Sen. Jean Shaheen (D-NH) expressed her concern over William Barr's testimony and the use of the Trump-friendly term "spying."
William Barr made a mockery out of his powerful AG position by telling the Senate he was going to investigate spying charges against the Trump administration. This has been a mantra coming out of Fox News for over a year now to mislead the public regarding the lawful investigations into Russia and Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.
Sen. Shaheen said spying, “is a very loaded word. It conjures a criminal connotation.”
She continued, "Do you believe there spying on their following FBI investigative policies and procedures?"
"Well, that's not the term I would use."
"That's a no."
The FBI director then tried to soften the blow from the most probable upcoming Trump Twitter rage. Wray said people use all sorts of colloquial phrases to describe different things but he was concerned that any investigation was done by the book.
The Democratic Senator attempted to get Mr. Wray to openly say no spying had occurred since the FBI legally acquired warrants to carry out their investigations but he was being careful to honor the IG's ongoing investigation.
"Do you believe, Director Wray, that the FBI and its agents spied into the 2016 presidential campaign operation?”
“Well, I want to be a little bit careful about what I can discuss here, but I think it’s been publicly disclosed that there were a number of relevant warrants that were secured in course of that investigation.”
“And at this time, do you have any evidence that any illegal surveillance into the campaigns or individuals associated with the campaigns by the FBI occurred?” asked Shaheen.
“I don’t think I personally have any evidence of that sort,” said Wray.
