FBI director Christopher Wray informed colleagues Wednesday afternoon that he will step down from his top position at the bureau as president-elect Donald Trump prepares to re-enter the White House next month.
Wray will resign at the end of the Biden administration before his ten-year term expires. Appointed by Trump during his first term, Wray has served seven years on the job.
“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 in a message later released by the agency.
“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.”
Deputy FBI director Paul Abbate will retire in April, but he will likely serve as the acting director until Trump’s pick for the senior position is confirmed.
Trump announced late last month he will nominate Kash Patel, a former federal prosecutor loyal to the former and future president, to lead the FBI. Patel has vowed to shrink the bureau’s power, close its headquarters in Washington, D.C., fire its top officials, and prosecute agents he believes abused their authority during the Biden administration.
Given his hardline views and fierce loyalty to Trump, Patel could face challenges when his nomination comes before the GOP-controlled Senate in the next session. While Republicans will hold 53 seats to Democrats’ 47, Patel can’t afford to lose many Republicans presuming all Democrats oppose him.
Despite being a George W. Bush-era conservative, Wray has failed to keep the FBI out of partisan politics that Republican lawmakers accuse him of.
The FBI director’s announced intent to resign comes after Senator Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa), expected to chair the Senate Judiciary Committee once again, ripped into Wray for what he called “failed” leadership of the agency.
In an eleven-page letter released Monday, Grassley expressed “no confidence” in Wray’s ability to serve the remainder of his ten-year term. The senator called for his resignation, citing numerous examples of his failures — including his decision to send FBI agents to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in August 2022 to retrieve the classified documents the former president took from the White House after his first term.
The FBI raid led to a federal indictment on seven criminal charges the following year, but the case brought by Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith has since been dismissed.
“I warned you after the Mar-a-Lago raid that it risked the credibility of the FBI, and it has done just that,” Grassley told Wray in the scathing letter. “A double standard in a nation that rightly boasts that ‘justice is blind’ is no standard at all.”
During a wide-ranging interview with NBC’s Meet the Press that aired Sunday, Trump said he wasn’t “thrilled” with Wray for overseeing the Mar-a-Lago raid.
“He invaded my home. I’m suing the country over it. He invaded Mar-a-Lago. I’m very unhappy with the things he’s done,” Trump told NBC News host Kristen Welker.
The president-elect also blasted Wray for suggesting during congressional testimony that Trump was hit in the ear with “shrapnel” during the July assassination attempt in Butler, Pa. The FBI later confirmed it was a bullet that struck Trump’s right ear.
“And then when I was shot in the ear, he said, maybe it was shrapnel. Where’s the shrapnel coming from? Is it coming from heaven? I don’t think so,” Trump said. “So we need somebody to – you know, I have a lot of respect for the FBI. But the FBI’s respect has gone way down over the last number of years.”