FBI director rejects Trump's vow to investigate political rivals

Reacting for the first time to former President Donald Trump’s vow to order the Justice Department to investigate his political opponents, FBI Director Christopher Wray said he would not allow his agents to conduct any investigation that doesn’t comply with “our rules, our procedures, our best practices, our core values.”

In an interview Tuesday with NBC News' Lester Holt at FBI headquarters, Wray said that, as long as he is FBI director, he is “going to make sure … we do the right thing in the right way."

"And that means following the law, following our rules, staying faithful to our core values, enforcing the law without fear or favor," he added.

FBI rules prohibit agents from opening an investigation without evidence of criminality, and Justice Department rules say agents may never make a decision regarding an investigation or prosecution for the purpose of giving an advantage or disadvantage to any candidate or political party.

Wray was appointed by Trump to a 10-year term in 2017. Asked if he would want to continue serving as FBI director if Trump was re-elected, Wray responded, “I’m enjoying doing this job. I love the people, the men and women of the FBI, who are some of the finest people I’ve ever had a chance to work with. And as long as I think I can continue doing that in a way that adheres to all those rules and norms, it’s what I’d like to keep doing.”

Trump repeatedly publicly criticized Wray before he left office in 2021, and he has blasted the FBI ever since, especially for its role in the 2022 search of his Mar-a-Lago home for classified documents. So it’s widely believed Trump would seek to remove Wray and appoint a new director if he was elected.

In response to a question, Wray also broke with Trump