Christopher Wray to step down as FBI director
President-elect Donald Trump chose Wray for the post in 2017, but soured on him and the bureau more broadly after years of federal investigations into his conduct.
FBI Director Christopher Wray is stepping down before the end of his 10-year term, after President-elect Donald Trump made clear he would fire him in favour of a loyalist intent on shaking up the bureau.
Wray told employees Wednesday he would resign before the new Trump administration begins.
“In my view, this is the best way to avoid dragging the Bureau deeper into the fray, while reinforcing the values and principles that are so important to how we do our work,” Wray said during a town hall for the workforce.
Trump chose Wray for the post in 2017, but the former president soured on him and the bureau more broadly after years of federal investigations into his conduct. Wray, a fellow Republican, tried to keep the spotlight on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s other work but instead watched it become further entangled in partisan politics.
His decision to step aside comes weeks after Trump said he would nominate a replacement: Kash Patel, a hard-line critic of the FBI who, echoing the president’s own criticism of the bureau, has said he would shrink its power, close its Washington headquarters, fire its top ranks and seek to prosecute agents he accuses of corruption.
Patel’s bombastic approach stands in contrast to that of Wray, a restrained and circumspect leader who has stressed the bureau’s independence and defended his workforce as dedicated to objectivity and the rule of law.
“Those fundamental aspects of who we are must never change,” Wray said in the town hall. “It’s an unshakeable foundation that’s stood the test of time and cannot be easily moved.” Republicans, who once supported the FBI as the party of law and order, for years have accused the FBI of zealously targeting conservatives, a charge Wray, a fellow Republican, previously has called “somewhat insane to me considering my own personal background.” Trump’s breaking point with Wray came in August 2022, after a team of FBI agents conducted an unprecedented search of his Mar-a-Lago home in search of classified documents they determined he had refused to relinquish. Trump continues to describe that extraordinary move — which was approved by Wray, the Justice Department and a federal judge — as an assault on his home.
“He invaded my home, I’m very unhappy with the things he’s done,” Trump said in an interview with NBC’s “Meet The Press” that aired Sunday.
The Wall Street Journal
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