FILE - FBI Director Christopher Wray speaks during a hearing of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill, March 11, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)
FBI Director Christopher Wray told the bureau workforce Wednesday that he plans to resign at the end of President Joe Biden’s term in January, an announcement that came a week and a half after President-elect Donald Trump said he would nominate loyalist Kash Patel for the job.
Wray said at a town hall meeting that he would be stepping down “after weeks of careful thought,” three years short of the completion of a 10-year term marked by high-profile and politically charged investigations, including that led to two separate indictments of Trump last year.
Wray’s intended resignation is not unexpected considering that Trump had settled on Patel to be director and had repeatedly aired his ire at Wray, including in a television interview broadcast Sunday. By stepping down rather than waiting to be fired, Wray is trying to avert a collision with the new Trump administration that he said would have further entangled the FBI “deeper into the fray.”
“My goal is to keep the focus on our mission — the indispensable work you’re doing on behalf of the American people every day,” Wray told agency employees. “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 was put in the job by Trump and began the 10-year term — a length meant to insulate the agency from the political influence of changing administrations — in 2017, after Trump fired then-FBI Director James Comey amid an investigation into ties between Russia and the Republican president’s campaign.
Trump had telegraphed his anger with Wray on multiple occasions. Trump said in the recent interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” that “I can’t say I’m thrilled with him. He invaded my home,” a reference to the FBI search of his Florida property, Mar-a-Lago, two years ago for classified documents from Trump’s first term as president.
But the soft-spoken director rarely seemed to go out of his way to publicly confront the White House.
In fact, Wray was quick to distance himself and his leadership team from the FBI’s Russia investigation.
On the same day of a harshly critical inspector general report on that inquiry, Wray announced more than 40 corrective actions to the FBI’s process for applying for warrants for secret national security surveillance. He said mistakes made during the Russia inquiry were unacceptable and he helped tighten controls for investigations into candidates for federal office.
FBI officials actively trumpeted those changes to make clear that Wray’s leadership had ushered in a different era at the bureau.
Even then, though, Wray’s criticism of the investigation was occasionally measured — he did not agree, for instance, with Trump’s characterization of it as a “witch hunt” — and there were other instances, particularly in response to specific questions, when he memorably broke with the White House.
Last December, he said that there was “no indication” that Ukraine had interfered in the 2016 election, countering a frequent talking point at the time from Trump. When the Trump White House blessed the declassification of materials related to the surveillance of a former Trump campaign aide, Wray made known his displeasure.
Wray angered Trump for saying that antifa was a movement and an ideology but not an organization. Trump had said he would like to designate the group as a terrorist organization.
Wray described in detail Russian efforts to interfere in the 2020 election that Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden, even though Trump and senior officials in his administration, including his attorney general and national security adviser, maintained that China was the more assertive threat. Wray also said the FBI had not seen evidence of widespread voter fraud, a claim that Trump repeatedly pushed.
Before being named FBI director, Wray worked at a prestigious law firm, King & Spalding, where he represented former Gov. Chris Christie, R-N.J., during the “Bridgegate” affair. He also led the Justice Department’s criminal division for a period during President George W. Bush’s administration.