WASHINGTON _ President Donald Trump's nominee to head the FBI during the highly sensitive investigation into Russia's efforts to sway the 2016 election pledged Wednesday to make sure the probe would go on free of political interference.
Christopher Wray, nominated by Trump to replace the fired James B. Comey, said at his confirmation hearing that he believes that Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel now running the Russia probe, is the "ultimate straight shooter."
"I would consider an effort to tamper with Director Mueller's investigation to be unacceptable and inappropriate," he said at the hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Responding to questions from Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the committee's top Democrat, Wray said he would blow the whistle on such an attempt, if he could do so without compromising the case, saying it "would need to be dealt with very sternly, indeed."
The fate of the Russia probe and Wray's willingness to withstand political pressure were at the center of the hearing.
The president fired Comey on May 9 after Comey resisted what he said was Trump's request to back off on the Russia inquiry _ and dodged what he described as the president's pressure to declare his loyalty.
The firing led to the Justice Department's appointment of Mueller, himself a former FBI director, as a special counsel. He heads a team of prosecutors who are directing the investigation into Russia's role in the election, any possible collusion by people close to Trump's campaign as well as whether the president was trying to obstruct justice with Comey's firing.
Comey said he was fired after he rebuffed Trump's requests for a loyalty pledge, and declined to back off the investigation into Trump's former national security adviser, Michael Flynn.
Trump has continued to denounce Mueller's investigation as a "witch hunt," but the pressure facing his administration only got more intense this week after revelations about his son Donald Trump Jr. by The New York Times.
On Tuesday, the younger Trump released some of his emails from June 2016 _ knowing The Times was about to publish them _ that showed he met with a Russian lawyer said to have damaging information about Hillary Clinton that was part of a broader Kremlin attempt to help his father's candidacy.
Under pointed questioning by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R- S.C., Wray said he had a different opinion than the president.
"I do not consider Director Mueller to be on a witch hunt," Wray said.
Wray testified that no one in the administration has asked him for a loyalty oath or pressured him about the special counsel's case.
"No one as asked me for any kind of loyalty oath at any point in this process and I sure as heck did not offer one," Wray said. "My loyalty is to the Constitution and the rule of law," he said.
Trump interviewed politicians and other lawyers before choosing Wray, 50, who has a deep background in the Justice Department, along with ties to both Comey and Mueller. From 2003 to 2005, Wray served as head of the department's criminal division under President George W. Bush _ a time when Mueller was FBI director and remaking the agency in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, and Comey was deputy attorney general.
In 2004, when Comey and Mueller confronted White House officials in a showdown over a secret surveillance program, Wray was one of the officials who sided with the two men and threatened to resign if the program was renewed without restrictions.
Wray also worked at the Justice Department when White House lawyers wrote memos that critics say sanctioned torture of terrorism detainees. But Wray said Wednesday he never saw those memos. He says he believes torture is illegal and ineffective and would not allow the FBI to use them during interrogations.
Wray said he spent much of his tenure at the department focused on counterterrorism cases. He also supervised high-profile investigations into corporate wrongdoing, including the prosecution of executives of Enron Corp., the energy company that collapsed in 2001. While an assistant U.S. attorney in Georgia, Wray prosecuted cases of kidnapping, securities fraud, gun dealing and bank robbery.
In one 1999 case, involving prosecution of a sheriff for public corruption, he teamed with Sally Yates, whom Trump fired as acting attorney general in January after she refused to defend his executive order barring visitors and refugees from several Muslim-majority countries.
Wray now is a criminal defense lawyer in the Atlanta-based law firm of King & Spalding, where he earned a $9.2 million partner's share last year, according to his financial disclosure. Among his more prominent clients was New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who hired him after the Bridgegate scandal broke in 2015. If he is confirmed, Wray said he will recuse himself from any involvement in cases involving the firm's clients.
He said he realized the difficulty of the job of taking over the FBI at an extraordinary time in American political history. "This is not a job for the faint of heart, and I can assure this committee I am not faint of heart."
