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FBI Director Chris Wray will step down early next year, the bureau said Wednesday, after US President-elect Donald Trump signaled his intention to fire the veteran official and replace him with Kash Patel.
Trump himself had appointed Wray, a fellow Republican, to his 10-year term in 2017 after firing his predecessor James Comey, whom the then-president assaulted over FBI investigations into alleged contacts between his 2016 campaign and Russia.
“After weeks of careful consideration, I have decided that the right thing to do for the office is to serve until the end of the current administration in January and then step down,” Wray told FBI employees today, the agency in a statement.
Trump celebrated Wray’s resignation in a post on the social media platform Truth Social on Wednesday, calling it “a great day for America” that would “end the weaponization (sic) of what has been known as the United States Department of Justice.”
Trump and his hardline allies targeted Wray, and the FBI in general, after agents conducted a court-approved search of Trump’s Florida resort in 2022 to recover classified documents he had kept after leaving office.
That led to one of two federal prosecutions Trump faced while out of office, neither of which went to trial. Trump denied wrongdoing and called all cases against him politically motivated. Federal prosecutors ended their efforts after his election, citing the Justice Department’s longstanding policy of not prosecuting a sitting president.
In his reaction to Wray’s resignation, Trump referenced those incidents, saying his home was “unlawfully attacked … without cause.”
Trump’s Republican allies have also alleged that the FBI has become politicized, although there is no evidence that Democratic President Joe Biden has interfered in its investigative processes.
“There are serious problems at the FBI. The American public knows it. They expect to see radical change,” Republican U.S. Sen. Bill Hagerty said in early December after Trump’s nomination of Patel.
In a statement to Reuters, Patel said he looked forward to a “smooth transition”.
“I will be ready to serve the American people on Day 1.”
Throughout his tenure, Wray said he followed the law and strove to impartially carry out the FBI’s duties. During a 2023 hearing before a House panel, he rejected the idea that he was pursuing a Democratic partisan agenda, noting that he had been a lifelong Republican.
“The idea that I’m biased against conservatives seems a little crazy to me, given my personal background,” Wray said.
Wray for finishing the course early
FBI directors are appointed to 10-year terms, a measure intended to avoid the appearance of partisanship after political turnover in the White House every four years.
Wray’s term was not due to expire until 2027.
As he has built his list of cabinet officials in recent weeks, Trump has assembled a team ready to carry out two of his top priorities: retribution against his political adversaries and a sweeping reshaping of the US government.
Trump said Patel, who has never worked for the FBI and spent only three years at the Justice Department before his career in the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section, was “the most qualified candidate to lead the FBI in the history of the Agency (sic).”
Patel, who must be confirmed by the US Senate, has pledged to close the FBI’s headquarters building in Washington and dramatically redefine the bureau’s role in intelligence gathering.
During Trump’s first term, Trump repeatedly considered replacing Wray for not being forceful enough to defend him from the 2016 investigation, but former Attorney General Bill Barr resisted those efforts, Barr told the his book One damn thing after another.
Wray, in his speech to employees Wednesday, urged them to remain focused on their mission of keeping Americans safe.
“My goal is to keep the focus on our mission: the indispensable work you are doing every day on behalf of the American people,” Wray said, according to excerpts provided by the office.
“In my view, this is the best way to avoid dragging the office deeper into the fray, while reinforcing the values and principles that are so important to how we do our work.”
FISA warrants, January 6 probes
The FBI has faced growing criticism from Trump supporters for its various roles in the Trump investigation over the years.
Some of the concerns predate Wray’s tenure, including several damning reports from the Justice Department’s inspector general that faulted the office for making numerous errors in its warrant requests to the Surveillance Court. ‘Foreign Intelligence during its first investigation into the 2016 Trump campaign, known as “Hurricane Crossfire.”
During his tenure, Wray has overseen reforms to the FBI’s processes for securing FISA warrants.
The FBI during Wray’s time has also played an important role in helping to investigate and arrest many of the Trump supporters who stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, in a failed attempt to block Congress from certify Biden’s electoral victory.
Trump has pledged to grant clemency to some of the roughly 1,500 people charged criminally in the attack, though he has not given specifics.
Wray has been known during his tenure for his hawkish views on China, and has often warned that China represents the greatest national security and economic threat facing the United States.
He began his career at the Department of Justice in 1997 as a federal prosecutor in the Northern District of Georgia, based in Atlanta.
He was appointed by then-President George W. Bush in 2003 to lead the department’s Criminal Division, where he oversaw investigations that included post-9/11 counterterrorism efforts and the Enron task force.
Wray also practiced law for about 17 years with the law firm of King & Spalding, and clerked for former Judge J. Michael Luttig on the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit after degree in law from Yale Law School.
