The FBI Director dramatically raised the possibility on Thursday of Hillary Clinton being charged with mis-handling classified material despite being cleared by his predecessor.

Chris Wray told the House Judiciary Committee that the FBI Inspector General was looking into whether 'improper political considerations' led to Clinton not being prosecuted, a decision made by James Comey who was later fired by President Donald Trump.

'If he were to conclude that that’s what happened, then I think at that point we’re in a situation where we have to assess what else might need to be done to un-ring that bell if you will,' Wray told members of Congress.

The possibility of a re-consideration of the Clinton probe would be a bombshell which could only be built on a damning verdict on James Comey and those around him.

But this week it was revealed that the top counter-intelligence agent who was involved in the Clinton probe, Peter Strzok, had exchanged anti-Trump and pro-Clinton texts with his lover Lisa Page, another FBI lawyer.

It's not over: Chris Wray, the FBI Director, told the House Judiciary Committee that the FBI would have to consider what to do if the Inspector General concludes political considerations had led to Hillary Clinton being cleared

Strzok (left) was dismissed from special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe over the messages he sent to Page (right) and was relocated within the FBI

Could they still lock her up? Hillary Clinton, seen this week at the Big Sister Association of Boston, Mass., could still have charges filed against her, Chris Wray hinted

And it was disclosed that Strzok had watered down language in a memo from Comey to remove the term 'grossly negligent' from the description of how Clinton handled intelligence and replaced it with 'extremely careless'.

Grossly negligent is the term which opens the way for charges to be brought. He also concluded that Huma Abedin, Clinton's right-hand woman, and Cheryl Mills, her State Department chief of staff, had not lied to the FBI, even though what they said in interviews was contradicted by emails they had sent and received.

Wray spoke to counter strident attacks on his agency from the president who appointed him, and told the committee: 'There is no finer institution, and no finer people, than the men and women who work there and are its very beating heart.'

Wray provided his first public defense of the nation's premier law enforcement agency since 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 revelations about Strzok.

Wray, who served as a top Justice Department official under President George W. Bush and was nominated as FBI director by Trump, faced a wave of Republican criticism over perceived political bias in special counsel Robert Mueller's probe of possible Trump campaign ties to Russia during the 2016 presidential election and in the handling a year earlier of an FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server that ended without criminal charges.

Although he did not mention Trump's criticism directly, Wray rebutted him directly, saying, 'My experience has been that our reputation is quite good.'

Wray sought to fend off the attacks on the agency by expressing 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 focus 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.

Those investigations have transformed routine oversight hearings, like the one Thursday, into platforms for tense questions about the political leanings of an agency that prides itself on being removed from partisan consideration.

Wray's defense of the FBI came after the committee's chairman, Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., said he was concerned by reports that Peter Strzok, a veteran counterintelligence agent involved in the Clinton investigation, was removed from Mueller's team last summer following the discovery of text messages seen as potentially anti-Trump.

Under attack: Chris Wray, the FBI Director, was presented with direct evidence of the president's assault on the agency's integrity but rose to his agents' defense

More questions: Trump's tweets attacking James Comey, the FBI Director Chris Wray's fired predecessor, were projected in the committee room where Wray was being questions

'It is absolutely unacceptable for FBI employees to permit their own political predilections to contaminate any investigation,' Goodlatte said.

'Even the appearance of impropriety will devastate the FBI's reputation.'

Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York, top Democrat on the House Judiciary panel, predicted Trump's attacks on the FBI will only grow louder as Mueller continues investigating.

'Your responsibility is not only to defend the bureau but to push back against the president when he is so clearly wrong, both on the facts and as a matter of principle,' Nadler told Wray.

Wray's tenure as the new FBI chief would be difficult even without the intense scrutiny of the Russia investigation.

Since he was sworn in on Aug. 2, the U.S. has experienced two of the deadliest shootings in its modern history and a terror attack on a bike path in Manhattan.

Trump's weekend tweets created a fresh dilemma for Wray. With his bosses, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Sessions' deputy, Rod Rosenstein, staying publicly silent, it fell to Wray to defend the agency.

But FBI directors traditionally have been low-key and stoic - with Wray's predecessor, James Comey, a notable exception.

And Trump's firing of Comey while he led the Russia probe shows what can happen to a director who antagonizes the president.

Wray repeatedly deflected questions about the FBI's handling of the Clinton investigation, saying the entire matter was under review by the Justice Department's inspector general.

Republicans repeatedly pressed him on reports that Strzok tweaked the language of the FBI's finding from 'grossly negligent' - the standard laid out in the relevant statute - to 'extremely careless,' which was the language that Comey ultimately used in discussing the Clinton case with the public.