'Doesn't make sense': FBI director issues warning on 'frightening' Project 2025
FBI Director Christopher Wray issued a warning Wednesday about how a controversial right-wing plan for Donald Trump's second term would impact law enforcement.
In a House Judiciary Committee hearing that focused on the attempted assassination of Trump, Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) asked Wray about the dangers of Project 2025, a presidential transition initiative organized by the Heritage Foundation.
"What he wants to do is to force the FBI director to appoint, to report directly to him," Johnson said of the plan. "That's what he wants to do within the first 120 days. He also wants to eliminate the position of FBI General Counsel."
"I think the FBI's Office of General Counsel serves an incredibly important role, including in terms of advising our workforce," Wray explained. "The idea of having an organization like ours, an independent law enforcement agency like ours that doesn't have its own general counsel's office doesn't make sense to me."
"That seems like it's an attempt to neuter the FBI and render it accountable only to the president," Johnson noted.
Wray acknowledged that he served at the pleasure of the president but said Project 2025 would undermine FBI independence.
"We need to be able to do our work in a way that is free from political interference," he pointed out.
"You wouldn't be able to do that by reporting everything you do to the president and getting his authority and approval before you take action, correct?" Johnson asked.
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"I don't think that would be a wise approach," Wray agreed.
He also refused to endorse a plan to replace 38,000 civil servants in the FBI with what Johnson called "a MAGA group that has pledged its allegiance to Donald Trump."
"It would be crazy to take 38,000 MAGA loyalists and put them at the FBI," Johnson argued. "That's frightening."
"That's what Project 2025 proposes and I'm glad to know that you are not with that program."
Watch the video below from the House Judiciary Committee or click the link here.