While President Donald Trump and his political allies have repeatedly sought to raise doubts about the impartiality of Robert Mueller and his top aides, FBI Director Christopher Wray (pictured) said he has no such worries. | Alex Wong/Getty Images Wray: No ‘whiff of interference’ with Trump-Russia probe

FBI Director Christopher Wray said Thursday that he has not picked up any indication that either President Donald Trump or the White House is seeking to interfere with the ongoing probe into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

“I can say very confidently that I have not detected any whiff of interference with that investigation,” Wray said during an intelligence-focused conference in Washington.


Wray stressed that the probe is being directed by special counsel Robert Mueller, a former FBI director who was appointed in May to take over the inquiry.

“I have enormous respect for former Director Mueller, who I got to work with almost daily in the early 2000s, as a consummate professional,” Wray added. “He’s really running that investigation.”

While Trump and his political allies have repeatedly sought to raise doubts about the impartiality of Mueller and his top aides, Wray said he has no such worries.

“There’s a great group of people working on it, and I have confidence in them to be able to do their job,” added Wray, in his first public remarks since being sworn in as FBI chief just over a month ago.

Trump nominated Wray in June following a tumultuous search process set in motion by Trump’s firing of former FBI Director James Comey. White House officials initially attributed the firing to Comey’s handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email account, but Trump later acknowledged that the dismissal was due at least in part to Comey’s conduct of the Russia-focused probe.

Wray’s comments on the Russia investigation came in response to questions from Washington Post columnist David Ignatius as he moderated a panel discussion at the Intelligence and National Security Summit.

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Wray said he stands by comments he made at his confirmation hearing in July that Russia made a significant effort to interfere in last fall’s presidential election.

“Now, I’ve had the opportunity to see a lot more fully, highly classified information….I have no reason to doubt the conclusions that the hardworking people who put that together came to,” the FBI director said, referring to an intelligence community assessment produced in both classified and unclassified versions in January.

Wray noted that while Mueller is focused on what happened last year, the FBI is tasked with combating Russian intelligence operations directed at future U.S. elections.

“There’s overlapping mission there. And I’m impressed with the strides that have been made on that front as well,” the FBI director said, adding: “You can’t cover everything all the time. And that’s something I worry about.”

The new FBI chief also reported that agency is working hard on another task of keen interest to Trump: rooting out leakers.

“This is a topic that’s a very high priority for us. It’s something we take very seriously,” Wray said.

Wray, who served as a federal prosecutor before heading up the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, said he believes many leaks of national security information don’t come from individuals with first-hand knowledge.

“More often than not the leaks are not coming from somebody who’s in the inside circle of knowledge in the first instance....There’s an enormous amount of attention focused on this issue. I think a lot of people are taking it very seriously,” the FBI chief said.

