Page 8A
NATION/WORLD
East Oregonian
Friday, December 8, 2017
FBI director defends his agency against Trump’s attacks
Associated Press
WASHINGTON
—
Countering strident attacks
on his agency from the presi-
dent who appointed him, FBI
Director Christopher Wray
on Thursday defended the
tens of thousands of people
who work with him and
declared, “There is no finer
institution.”
Wray, who has led the
agency just four months,
fended off politically charged
questions from lawmakers of
both parties during a routine
oversight hearing that was
overtaken by questions about
Hillary Clinton’s emails and
President Donald Trump’s
campaign. Citing pending
investigations, he repeatedly
declined to answer questions
about either, while also
refusing to give an opinion
on whether Trump could
be accused of obstructing
justice.
AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster
FBI Director Christopher Wray testifies during a House
Judiciary hearing on Capitol Hill Thursday, on over-
sight of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
But he did not hesitate to
defend the nation’s premier
law enforcement agency
following a weekend of
Twitter attacks by Trump,
who called the FBI a biased
institution whose reputation
is “in Tatters — worst in
History!” and urged Wray to
“clean house.”
The outburst from the
president followed a guilty
plea from his former national
security adviser for lying to
the FBI and the revelation
that an agent had been
removed from a special team
investigating the Trump
campaign because of text
messages seen as potentially
anti-Trump.
Wray, who was nominated
as FBI director by Trump,
faced Republican criticism
over perceived political bias
in special counsel Robert
Mueller’s probe of possible
Trump campaign ties to
Russia during the 2016 pres-
idential election and in the
handling a year earlier of an
FBI investigation Clinton’s
use of a private email server
that ended without criminal
charges.
When
asked
about
Trump’s harsh tweets, Wray
rebutted him directly, saying,
“My experience has been that
our reputation is quite good.”
Wray expressed pride
in the agents, analysts and
other personnel who he said
were working to protect
Americans. But he also
conceded that agents do
make mistakes and said there
are processes in place to hold
them accountable.
“There is no shortage of
opinions out there, but what
I can tell you is that the FBI
that I see is tens of thousands
of agents and analysts and
staff working their tails off
to keep Americans safe,”
Wray said of the agency he
has led for just four months.
“The FBI that I see is tens of
thousands of brave men and
women working as hard as
they can to keep people they
will never know safe from
harm.”
The White House on
Thursday tried to soften
Trump’s message, denying
any discrepancy between
his comments and those
of the FBI director. Press
secretary Sarah Huckabee
Sanders said Trump agrees
field agents are “appreciated
and respected,” but said the
president’s “issues are with
the political leaders in the
FBI under former director
Comey, particularly those
that played politics with the
Hillary Clinton email probe.”
The emphasis on the
Clinton and Trump probes
reflected how the FBI in
the last two years has found
itself entangled in American
politics, with investigations
focused on the Democratic
presidential nominee and the
Republican president and his
successful campaign.
Wray’s defense of the
FBI came after the commit-
tee’s chairman, Rep. Bob
Goodlatte, R-Va., said he
was concerned by reports
that Peter Strzok, a veteran
counterintelligence
agent
involved in the Clinton inves-
tigation, was removed from
Mueller’s team last summer
following the discovery of
text messages seen as poten-
tially anti-Trump.
BRIEFLY
Combative
Franken quits,
points to GOP
tolerance of Trump
Congress averts
shutdown, sends
Trump stopgap
spending bill
WASHINGTON (AP)
— Sen. Al Franken, a rising
political star only weeks
ago, reluctantly announced
Thursday he’s resigning
from Congress, succumbing
to a torrent of sexual
harassment allegations and
evaporating support from
fellow Democrats. But he
fired a defiant parting shot at
President Donald Trump and
other Republicans he said
have survived much worse
accusations.
“I of all people am
aware that there is some
irony in the fact that I am
leaving while a man who
has bragged on tape about
his history of sexual assault
sits in the Oval Office, and
a man who has repeatedly
preyed on young girls
campaigns for the Senate
with the full support of his
party,” Franken said.
The 66-year-old
Minnesotan, a former
“Saturday Night Live”
comedian who made a
successful leap to liberal
U.S. senator, announced
his decision in a subdued
Senate chamber three weeks
after the first accusations of
sexual misconduct emerged
but just a day after most of
his Democratic colleagues
proclaimed he had to go.
His remarks underscored
the bitterness many in the
party feel toward a GOP that
they say has made a political
calculation to tolerate Trump
and Alabama GOP Senate
candidate Roy Moore,
who’ve both been accused of
sexual assaults that they’ve
denied.
WASHINGTON (AP)
— Congress on Thursday
passed a stopgap spending
bill to prevent a government
shutdown this weekend and
buy time for challenging
talks on a wide range of
unfinished business on
Capitol Hill. The shutdown
reprieve came as all sides
issued optimistic takes on
an afternoon White House
meeting between top
congressional leaders and
President Donald Trump.
The measure passed the
House 235-193, mostly
along party lines, and
breezed through the Senate
on a sweeping 81-14 tally
barely an hour later. It
would keep the government
running through Dec. 22,
when another, and more
difficult, shutdown problem
awaits.
The bill now heads to
Trump for his signature.
Topics at the White
House session included
relief from a budget
freeze on the Pentagon
and domestic agencies,
extending a key children’s
health program and aid to
hurricane-slammed Puerto
Rico, Texas and Florida.
The trickiest topic, and a
top priority for Democrats,
involves protections for
immigrants brought to the
country illegally as children.
Arizona GOP
lawmaker resigns
over surrogacy
allegation
WASHINGTON
(AP) — Republican Rep.
Trent Franks of Arizona said
Thursday he is resigning
next month after revealing
that he discussed surrogacy
with two female staffers.
The eight-term lawmaker,
a staunch conservative and
fierce opponent of abortion,
claims in a statement that he
never physically intimidated,
coerced or attempted to have
any sexual contact with any
member of his congressional
staff.
Instead, he says, the
dispute resulted from a
discussion of surrogacy.
Franks and his wife,
who have struggled with
infertility, have 3-year-old
twins who were conceived
through surrogacy.
Franks, 60, says he
had become familiar with
the surrogacy process in
recent years and “became
insensitive as to how the
discussion of such an
intensely personal topic
might affect others.”
He said he regrets that
his “discussion of this
option and process in the
workplace” with two female
staffers made them feel
uncomfortable.
In a statement, Speaker
Paul Ryan, R-Wis., called
the allegations “serious and
requiring action” and said he
told Franks he should resign.
Ex-cop gets 20
years for Walter
Scott slaying
CHARLESTON, S.C.
(AP) — One by one,
relatives of the late Walter
Scott urged a judge to mete
out a significant punishment
for Michael Slager, the
white former police officer
who fatally shot Scott, an
unarmed black man, in the
back after a 2015 traffic stop.
Through tears, Scott’s
family told Slager they felt
sorrow for him and the loss
his young children would
feel in his absence. In the
end, a judge sentenced
Slager to 20 years in prison,
giving the Scott family
the justice they had sought
ever since a stranger came
to them with the shocking
video of Scott being killed.
“I forgive Michael Slager.
I forgive you,” Scott’s
mother, Judy, said as she
turned toward her son’s
killer.
Sitting just a few feet
away, Slager wiped tears
from his eyes and mouthed:
“I’m sorry.”
The punishment wrapped
up a case that became a
rallying cry for the Black
Lives Matter movement.
Slager, 36, is one of only a
few police officers to go to
prison for a fatal shooting,
and his sentence is by far the
stiffest since the shootings
came under extra scrutiny in
recent years.
Attorneys for the former
North Charleston officer said
he shot the 50-year-old Scott
in self-defense after the two
fought and Scott grabbed
Slager’s stun gun. They said
race didn’t play a role in the
shooting and Slager never
had any “racial animus”
toward minorities.
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