FBI director blasts ‘mind-boggling’ shutdown impact in message to unpaid employees
FBI Director Christopher A. Wray decried the government shutdown’s impact on the bureau’s employees in a video message released amid rising anxiety among thousands of agents and other personnel who have spent more than a month working without pay.
In the unusual video message, Wray also offered a seeming apology for why the FBI’s top officials were not publicly arguing for their employees, suggesting that they have not spoken out because of the repeated political criticisms of the bureau from President Trump and others in recent years.
“You know better than most that we’ve been thrust into the political spotlight more than we would have liked over the past few years,” Wray said in the message, which was directed to FBI staff. “And the last thing this organization needs now is its leadership to wade into the middle of a full-on political dispute.”