FBI Director Christopher Wray told bureau staff on Wednesday that he intends 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 announced he would nominate loyalist Kash Patel for the job. .
Wray said at the town hall meeting that he would step down “after weeks of careful consideration,” three years before the end of his 10-year term that has been marked by high-profile, politically charged investigations, including one that led to separate indictments. Trump last year.
Wray’s intended resignation is not unexpected given that Trump has settled on Patel to be manager and has repeatedly expressed his anger at Wray, including in a television interview that aired Sunday.
Trump called Wray’s resignation “a great day for America” in a post on his Truth Social account on Wednesday, adding that it would “end the weaponization of what has become known as the US Department of Injustice.”
By stepping down rather than waiting for his dismissal, Wray is trying to avoid a clash with the new Trump administration, which he said would have further embroiled the FBI “deeper in the fray.”
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“My goal is to maintain focus on our mission — the indispensable work you do on behalf of the American people every day,” Wray told agency staff. “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.”
Wray was appointed to the position by Trump and began his 10-year term — a term intended to insulate the agency from the political influence of changing administrations — in 2017, after Trump fired then-FBI Director James Comey.
Trump has telegraphed his anger to Wray on several occasions. “I can’t say I’m happy with him,” Trump said in his recent interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “He invaded my house,” referring to the FBI searching his Florida property, Mar-a-Lago, two years ago for… Secret documents from Trump’s first term as president.
But the soft-spoken director rarely seemed to go out of his way to confront the White House publicly.
Peter Logue, a political scientist and associate professor at George Washington University’s School of Media and Public Affairs, told Global News that Wray’s resignation before Trump’s inauguration was understandable.
“Nobody wants to run an agency that your boss, the president of the United States, doesn’t want you to run,” he said. “It will be a hostile environment.”
Logue said Trump’s election victory gave him the right to appoint the people he wanted to his administration and to leadership positions, including in the FBI.
“It’s his show that should run,” he said. He added: “Then it will be up to voters to decide how they think things will go in two years in the midterm elections, and then in four years in the presidential elections.”
—With additional files from Global’s Reggie Cecchini and Sean Boynton
& Edition 2024 The Canadian Press
