James Baker, the FBI’s leading lawyer who was a confidante of fired FBI Director James Comey, has been reassigned from his post, as the agency’s top personnel are under high scrutiny.
Baker told colleagues he will assume different duties for the bureau, the Washington Post reported.
Baker oversees the bureau’s Office of General Counsel, and has received such awards as the George H.W. Bush Award for Excellence in counter-terrorism in 2006.
He also was the subject of a leak investigation over the summer after Attorney General Jeff Sessions ordered a crackdown on leakers.
James Baker, the top lawyer at the FBI, has been reassigned, as the bureau comes under heightened scrutiny by congressional Republicans
People familiar with the probe told the Post it had ended with a decision not to bring charges against any officials.
The FBI had no comment when asked why Baker was being reassigned and what he would be doing.
His reassignment comes at a time of increased scrutiny and pressure on the agency, following the release of private text messages between agents working in the Hillary Clinton email probe.
Peter Strzok, the FBI’s deputy head of counter intelligence, was removed from special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of Russian election interference in August following the revelation that he and Lisa Page, a senior FBI lawyer, exchanged 10,000 texts in which they called Trump an ‘idiot’ whose election was ‘f***ing terrifying’.
The disclosure has led to hearings in Congress, with the deputy FBI director quizzed this week for eight hours on apparent anti-Trump bias in his agency.
President Trump has asked FBI Director Chris Wray to ‘clean house’
Baker was close to former FBI Director James Comey, who President Trump fired after Comey testified Trump asked him for ‘loyalty’
Could be questioned: Two House committees are to make formal requests to interview Lisa Page, Strzok’s FBI lawyer lover, after their exchange of anti-Trump texts was revealed
The Department of Justice released scores of their texts, revealing that the lovers discussed an ‘insurance policy’ if Trump won the election.
President Trump, who fired Comey, has tweeted that the FBI is ‘in tatters’ and called on Wray to ‘clean house.’
Comey appointed Baker to his General Counsel post. Circa reported in July he was the subject of the leak probe.
According to reporting by the Post into the leak probe, NSA officials were concerned that information about a classified program was revealed, in the course of efforts to correct an earlier report.
‘Jim was distressed about it but was confident he hadn’t leaked anything’ a U.S. official told the paper.
FILE – In this June 7, 2017, file photo, FBI acting director Andrew McCabe listens during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing about the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, on Capitol Hill in Washington
President Trump tweeted Dec. 3: ‘After years of Comey, with the phony and dishonest Clinton investigation (and more), running the FBI, its reputation is in Tatters – worst in History! But fear not, we will bring it back to greatness.’
He also suggested that Wray, who he nominated to succeed Comey, ‘needs to clean house.’
On Thursday, House Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform committees grilled Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe over his involvement of the probe of Hillary Clinton’s emails, an inquiry that ultimately did not result in charges.
Republicans also pushed him on the origins of the ‘dirty dossier’ on President Trump, and whether it was the foundation for surveillance of Americans.