william webster
© David Hume Kennerly/CBS NewsWilliam Webster
The former director of the FBI and the CIA assailed President Trump and Attorney General William Barr's attacks on the bureau, calling it "dangerous and unwarranted."

Last week, Trump suggested he lacked confidence in his own FBI director, Christopher Wray, and Barr said he disagreed with the finding of a report by the Justice Department watchdog, who concluded the FBI lawfully opened its Russia investigation.

"The aspersions cast upon them by the president and my longtime friend, Attorney General William P. Barr, are troubling in the extreme," William Webster, 95, who was director of the FBI from 1978 to 1987 and the CIA from 1987 to 1991, wrote in a scathing opinion article for the New York Times.
"Calling FBI professionals 'scum,' as the president did, is a slur against people who risk their lives to keep us safe. Mr. Barr's charges of bias within the FBI, made without providing any evidence and in direct dispute of the findings of the nonpartisan inspector general, risk inflicting enduring damage on this critically important institution."
Webster called the attacks a "dire threat" [to] the country.

Webster, a Republican, argued that Barr is doing a disservice to the country by disputing Inspector General Michael Horowitz's conclusion and claiming that the FBI investigation was based on "a completely bogus narrative."
"In fact, the report conclusively found that the evidence to initiate the Russia investigation was unassailable. There were more than 100 contacts between members of the Trump campaign and Russian agents during the 2016 campaign, and Russian efforts to undermine our democracy continue to this day."

Comment: Does he have 'evidence of over 100 contacts' to bolster his claim?


Webster also accused Trump and Barr of interfering with the bureau's independence and called for lawmakers of both parties to defend the rule of law.
"This difficult moment demands the restoration of the proper place of the Department of Justice and the F.B.I. as bulwarks of law and order in America. This is not about politics."

Comment: ...ah, but it was and much more. Restoring them to 'their proper place' is exactly what should happen.


In his report, Horowitz said the FBI made serious errors and omissions in its applications for surveillance warrants on former Trump campaign aide Carter Page, but he said he could not find evidence that the decision to open an investigation was motivated by political bias.

Former FBI Director James Comey, who was fired by Trump, admitted Sunday he was "overconfident" in defending the bureau's use of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act in the Russia investigation.