FBI Director Christopher Wray is expected to resign before his term ends making way for Donald Trump’s FBI pick Kash Patel. Fox News Wednesday reported that the announcement can come any moment before the Donald Trump administration takes over in January. Fox said Wray will make the announcement during an FBI town hall in Washington DC in which thousands of FBI employees are expected to join virtually. Wray was seven years into his 10-year term.
Wray was appointed by Trump in 2017 during his first term after Trump fired former Direct James Comey.
After Trump’s re-election as the President-elect announced several appointments, he named Kash Patel as the next FBI Director before Wray’s term ended, giving Wray two options: leave on his own or be fired.
“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 today, the agency said in a statement. “My goal is to keep the focus on our mission — the indispensable work you’re doing on behalf of the American people every day,” he said. “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.”
“It should go without saying, but I’ll say it anyway — this is not easy for me. 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 added.
“What absolutely cannot, must not change is our commitment to doing the right thing, the right way, every time,” Wray also said. “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.
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.
