House Oversight Chairman James Comer on Wednesday said that FBI Director Christopher Wray's departure from the bureau comes as its reputation is "tarnished" and "in the commode."
Wray, who has been heavily criticized by Congress throughout his tenure, announced on Wednesday that he would be resigning next month. President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Kash Patel to lead the agency in his stead.
Comer said that he has done all that he can in conducting oversight of the bureau, but that Patel will need to come in and repair the agency's reputation.
"It's tarnished. The FBI today is a fraction of what it once was. Its reputation is in the commode," Comer said on the "Just The News, No Noise" TV show. "So Patel is going to have to come in and flush the commode and try to bring in new people at the top."
Comer said that he believes the rank-and-file agents at the bureau are largely "good and upstanding people," but that the leadership within the agency is more corrupt, and primarily made up of lawyers from the Justice Department who were transferred over.
"They politicized and weaponized the FBI to the tune that the American people don't trust the FBI," the chairman said. "So if you're sitting on a jury and the FBI presents evidence to get the real criminal. You're sitting there thinking, Well, I don't believe anything the FBI says. That's what the average American thinks about the FBI right now."
Comer said Wray is now leaving a lot of work for Trump and Patel to do in order to rebuild the trust, and claimed Trump and Patel should promote the "best and brightest" from within the bureau in order to clean the agency up.
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