FBI chief Chris Wray to step down ahead of Trump administration

Washington — Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) director Chris Wray will step down from his post in January, the agency said on Wednesday, after Republican president-elect Donald Trump signalled his intent to replace him with firebrand Kash Patel.

Trump had appointed Wray, a fellow Republican, to his 10-year term in 2017, after firing his predecessor James Comey, who the then-president soured on over the FBI’s investigations into alleged contacts between his 2016 campaign and Russia.

“After weeks of careful thought, I’ve decided the right thing for the bureau is for me to serve until the end of the current administration in January and then step down,” Wray told FBI employees on Wednesday.

Patel said in a statement he looked forward to a “smooth transition”.

“I will be ready to serve the American people on day one,” he said.

Trump and his hardline allies turned on Wray, and the FBI more generally, after agents conducted a court-approved search of Trump’s Florida resort in 2022 to recover classified documents that he had retained after leaving office.

That sparked one of two federal prosecutions Trump faced while out of power, neither of which went to trial. Trump denied wrongdoing and described all the cases against him as politically motivated. Federal prosecutors ended their efforts after his election, citing long-standing justice department policy not to prosecute a sitting president.

Trump’s Republican allies joined him in alleging that the FBI had become politicised, though there is no evidence that Democratic President Joe Biden interfered with its investigative processes.

“There are serious problems at the FBI. The American public knows it. They expect to see sweeping change,” Republican senator Bill Hagerty said in early December after Trump’s nomination of Patel.

Throughout his term, Wray said that he followed the law and strove to impartially carry out the FBI’s duties. During a 2023 hearing before a House of Representatives panel he rebuffed the idea that he was pursuing a Democratic partisan agenda, noting that he had been a lifelong Republican.

“The idea that I am biased against conservatives seems somewhat insane to me, given my own personal background,” Wray said.

FBI directors are appointed for 10-year terms, a measure meant to avoid the appearance of partisanship after political turnover in the White House every four years.

Wray’s term was due to expire in 2027.

Patel, who would need to be confirmed by the US senate, has never worked at the FBI and spent only three years at the justice department earlier in his career in the National Security Division’s counterterrorism section. If confirmed, he has pledged to shut down the FBI’s headquarters building in Washington and drastically redefine the bureau’s role with intelligence-gathering.

Throughout Trump’s first term, Trump repeatedly mused about the idea of replacing Wray for not being forceful enough in defending him from the 2016 investigation, but former attorney-general Bill Barr resisted such efforts, Barr recounted in his book One Damn Thing After Another. 

Wray, in his address to employees on Wednesday, urged them to continue to focus on their mission to keep Americans safe.

“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 said, according to excerpts provided by the bureau.

“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.”

The FBI has faced increasing criticism by Trump’s supporters for its various roles in investigating Trump over the years.

Some of the concerns predated Wray’s tenure, including several damning reports by the justice department’s inspector-general, which faulted the bureau for making numerous errors in its warrant applications to the foreign intelligence surveillance court during its early investigation into Trump’s 2016 campaign known as “Crossfire Hurricane.”

During his tenure, Wray has overseen reforms of the FBI’s processes for securing warrants.

The FBI during Wray’s time has also played a major role in helping to investigate and arrest many of Trump’s supporters who stormed the Capitol on January 6 2021, in a failed bid to block Congress from certifying Biden’s election victory.

More than 1,500 people were criminally charged in the attack.

Trump has pledged to grant clemency to some of the January 6 defendants, though he has not provided details.

Throughout his time as FBI director, Wray has been known for his hawkish views on China, and has frequently warned that China represents the biggest national and economic security threat facing the US.

Wray started his career at the justice department in 1997 as a federal prosecutor in the Atlanta-based Northern District of Georgia.

He was nominated by President George W Bush in 2003 to lead the department’s Criminal Division, where he oversaw a variety of investigations including post-9/11 efforts to combat terrorism and the Enron task force.

Wray also practised law for about 17 years with the law firm King & Spalding, and he was a clerk for former judge J Michael Luttig in the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit after earning his law degree from Yale Law School.

Reuters