FBI Director Christopher Wray says he'll resign as Donald Trump takes office
By: NBC News
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Dec. 11, 2024, 7:15 PM UTC / Updated Dec. 11, 2024, 7:29 PM UTCBy Ryan J. Reilly and Ken Dilanian
WASHINGTON — FBI Director Christopher Wray plans to resign at the end of the Biden administration, as President-elect Donald Trump takes office, Wray told bureau employees on Wednesday.
"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 said, according to prepared remarks. "My goal is to keep the focus on our mission — the indispensable work you're doing on behalf of the American people every day. 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."
Trump has already said he will nominate Kash Patel for the position of FBI director, which typically is for a 10-year term, part of a post-Watergate reform intended to make FBI directors less beholden to the whims of presidents.
Trump indicated in a recent interview with NBC News' "Meet the Press" that he wasn't "thrilled" with Wray, saying that Wray "invaded Mar-a-Lago" — a reference to the 2022 FBI search for classified documents that led to Trump's 2023 indictment on seven criminal charges — and that he wanted someone in place to "straighten" out the bureau.
"I mean, it would sort of seem pretty obvious that if Kash gets in, he's going to be taking somebody's place, right?" Trump said, responding to a question about whether he would fire Wray if he didn't resign on his own.
Wray, a Republican, was appointed by Trump in 2017 after the then-president fired James Comey as FBI director. Comey's departure sparked the appointment of Robert Mueller as special counsel to investigate the Trump campaign and Russian interference in the 2016 election. Under normal protocol, Wray's term would expire in 2027, although Mueller is the only person to have served a full term as FBI director since the 10-year post-Watergate norm was put in place. Only two FBI directors (including Comey) have been pushed out.
Republican confidence in the FBI has plummeted in the near-decade since Trump came down the golden escalator in 2015 and announced his run for president of the United States. While the bureau has traditionally been a generally conservative-leaning organization filled with law enforcement and military veterans (who have an advantage in the FBI hiring process), Trump and his allies on Capitol Hill and in the conservative media have portrayed the FBI as a hotbed of liberalism and the home of the "deep state" determined to take him down.
While most of the FBI's work takes place far-afield of daily politics, much of the public discussion of the bureau's work in recent years has centered on political cases, many of them involving Trump.
Wray said Wednesday that it was not an easy decision for him to resign.
"I love this place, I love our mission, and I love our people — but my focus is, and always has been, on us and doing what's right for the FBI," he said. "When you look at where the threats are headed, it's clear that the importance of our work — keeping Americans safe and upholding the Constitution — will not change. And what absolutely cannot, must not change is our commitment to doing the right thing, the right way, every time."
"Our adherence to our core values, our dedication to independence and objectivity, and our defense of the rule of law — those fundamental aspects of who we are must never change," Wray continued. "That's the real strength of the FBI — the importance of our mission, the quality of our people, and their dedication to service over self. It's an unshakeable foundation that's stood the test of time, and cannot be easily moved. And it — you, the men and women of the FBI — are why the Bureau will endure and remain successful long into the future."
Ryan J. Reilly
Ryan J. Reilly is a justice reporter for NBC News.
Ken Dilanian
Ken Dilanian is the justice and intelligence correspondent for NBC News, based in Washington.
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Bye Felicia!
He did a lot of damage to the FBI, almost as much as Comey.
I guess if you think Trump's feelings being the most important thing in the world you might think Wray did damage.
America's success in Trumps mind is entirely dependent on him getting what he wants.
Look at polling on the FBI's reputation.
Trump thinks Wray is no good because his FBI "raided" Maralago. Trump wouldnt have been "raided" if he had not inappropriately kept the documents after the National Archive asked for them back.
Trump doesnt want to follow norms and rules, he wants them to bend to him.
We're finally getting people in these positions who believe in the rule of law, fairly applied to ALL
Trump should use every bit of the power granted to him for the good of the country
If we are going to pretend to know what the president is thinking, Biden kept Wray because he didn't want any investigation into him raping his daughter.
your comments are getting more bizarre every day
no one has been unfair to Trump. The idea is right wing media garbage.
“If we are going to pretend to know what the president is thinking, Biden kept Wray because he didn't want any investigation into him raping his daughter.”
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Posters are not the subject, only warning.
The FBI had a legal warrant , supported by probable cause, and authorized by a federal judge to search Mar-a-Lago. How exactly does that not align with the "rule of law?"
Yes! Meaning that even a former president will be held accountable under the law. The rest of average citizens are already hauled into court all the time.
If the former president and former vice president do the exact same thing, why is one prosecuted and the other not?
I hear this a lot. Not just about this case. I hear it courtrooms and jails all the time. "This guy did the same thing as this other guy, but one got probation and the other did a year." It's pretty much never exactly the same.
I've glanced at the DOJ report on Biden . They discuss some of the differences in the two cases. They felt like they could not prove a case against Biden beyond a reasonable doubt, and other factors weighed in his favor.
Apparently, he claimed to "find" classified documents on his home something like a month after leaving office. Because he was working on a book at the time, they have recordings of Biden discussing lots of things with his ghost writer, years before being prosecuted for it would have been a concern (making the evidence highly trustworthy). They also found that those recordings revealed a man whose memory was already pretty shaky (which the White House famously bitched about when it came out earlier this year).
Thus, investigators felt they could not prove that Biden had taken the documents willfully or shared information willfully and with intent to break the law (required elements of the crime).
But more importantly, they did investigate Biden, with the intent of charging him with a crime if they could justify doing so. It's not like they just blew it off because they like Democrats or something.
By contrast, there seems to be ample evidence that Trump retained classified documents willfully and intended to break the law.
Part of the process of deciding to prosecute also involves a consideration of aggravating and mitigating factors. In the Trump case, DOJ found multiple aggravating factors against Trump that were not present with Biden. Per the DOJ report, page 11:
So, TLDR: Not "the exact same thing."
Where does the law say that?
The Supreme Court says it. For a violation to be “willful” defendant must act with the knowledge that what they are doing is unlawful. They don’t have to know the specific law, though.
See: Ratzlaf v US 510 US 135 and Bryan v US 524 US 184
Because saying shit that makes no sense - over and over - somehow works for them politically. The FBI Director is a Republican. Most of the people who work for him are probably Republicans. Law enforcement, generally, is populated more by conservatives than liberals. The insistence that the FBI is on some kind of liberal mission is gaslighting.
Trump told us, the American public that he only picks/hires the best and Wray was one of his picks. It seems that there have been a number of Trumps picks that according to Trump are the best yet, here we go again, he is firing the best.
Makes one wonder WTF is Trump talking about.