Trump appears to threaten FBI director for not repeating debunked conspiracy theory

Donald Trump is apparently losing faith in FBI director Christopher Wray, after the intelligence chief contradicted the president’s misinterpretation of a new inspector general report indicating the 2016 Trump campaign was not targeted for surveillance for political reasons.

Mr Trump made that displeasure known in a tweet following an interview with Mr Wray on ABC News in which the intelligence official lamented inadequacies by FBI agents found in the new report, but affirmed the inspector general’s findings that the initiation of surveillance was overall appropriate.

“I don’t know what report current Director of the FBI Christopher Wray was reading, but it sure wasn’t the one given to me,” Mr Trump wrote, apparently in reference to a conspiracy theory that he and his campaign were targeted by the intelligence agencies for political reasons.

He continued: “With that kind of attitude, he will never be able to fix the FBI, which is badly broken despite having some of the greatest men & women working there!”

Mr Trump’s attack on Mr Wray come just a day after the Justice Department inspector general’s report was released, after an investigation into whether the investigation into the 2016 Trump campaign's connections to Russia had political roots.

The report found that it did not. But, it did note that FBI agents on the case had shown a bias towards potentially damaging evidence against the president and his allies when pursuing wiretap applications, and against potentially exculpatory evidence.

Mr Wray, in the ABC News interview, expressed regret for the “actions described in this report that [he] considered unacceptable and unrepresentative of who we are as an institution”.

But, he also said it was “important that the inspector general found that, in this particular instance, the investigation was opened with appropriate predication and authorisation”.

Mr Trump had previously signalled he believed the report showed that the FBI had acted inappropriately by opening its investigation into his 2016 campaign, even as Mr Wray and the president’s political enemies have noted the report says the exact opposite.

Mr Wray was chosen by Mr Trump in June 2017 to replace former FBI director James Comey, who the president unceremoniously fired after requesting he drop investigations into the 2016 election.

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