FBI Director Christopher Wray announces plan to resign
Washington: FBI Director Christopher Wray has announced his decision to resign at the end of US President Joe Biden’s term in January, paving the way for President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee Indian-American Kash Patel to take charge of the country’s top investigating agency.
The move has been welcomed by Trump. “After weeks of careful thought, I have 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 his FBI colleagues during a town hall here on Wednesday.
On November 30, Trump nominated his loyalist and staunch supporter Patel as the next FBI director, thus cutting short Wray’s 10-year term by three years. Wray was appointed by Trump during his first term in 2017.
The FBI director told his colleagues that his goal is to keep the focus on the mission — “the indispensable work they are doing on behalf of the American people every day”. “And 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,” Wray said.
“It should go without saying, but I will 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 is right for the FBI. And it was important to me that you all got to hear about my decision directly from me before it gets announced publicly,” he said. Welcoming the decision, Trump said Wray’s resignation was “a great day for America”. “It will end the weaponisation of what has become known as the United States Department of Injustice,” he said. Trump appointed Wray to lead the FBI during his first presidency after firing Wray’s predecessor James Comey in 2017 following the FBI’s investigations into alleged contacts between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia.
But in recent years, Wray has fallen out of favour with the president-elect after the FBI assisted with a federal probe into Trump’s handling of classified documents, a case that has since been dropped.
