FBI Director Christopher Wray has announced that he will resign at the end of the current administration, leaving the bureau ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration next month.
He said this at a town hall meeting with FBI employees on Wednesday at the bureau’s headquarters, where the room was packed to the brim.
“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,” he added.
“I want to keep the focus on our mission, which is the important work you do every day for the American people.” I believe this is the best way to keep the bureau out of the fight while also upholding the values and principles that are so important to how we do our work.
“It should go without saying, but I will say it anyway — this is not easy for me,” Wray said. “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.”
A lot of people from FBI offices all over the country watched the live stream of his speech. A few people cried as Wray spoke. He got a standing ovation at the end of his speech that lasted more than a minute, until Wray left the room.
In a social media post, the president-elect praised Wray’s news, calling it “a great day for America.”
After firing James Comey in 2017, Trump put Wray, a former federal prosecutor and counterterrorism official, in charge of the FBI for a 10-year term. Since then, Trump and his allies on Capitol Hill have criticized Wray for how the FBI has handled investigations into the next president.
He has been director under President Biden, but Trump has said in the past that he wants to fire Wray and replace him with Kash Patel. Patel is a former GOP congressional staffer who Trump hired during his first term for jobs in the Defense Department and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
“We are not on any one side,” Wray told the FBI’s regular employees. “No matter what is happening out there, in here, we have got to stay committed to doing our work the right way every time—with rigor and integrity,” they said. “We are on the side of the American people and the Constitution.”
In a statement, Attorney General Merrick Garland praised Wray, saying that he “has served our country honorably and with integrity for decades, including for seven years as the Director of the FBI under presidents of both parties.”
“The Director of the FBI is responsible for protecting the independence of the FBI from inappropriate influence in its criminal investigations,” he said. “That independence is very important for keeping the rule of law and the freedoms that Americans value.” Directing that job was honest and well done by Wray.
CBS News has learned that Wray had second thoughts about stepping down but chose to do so because he fears that if he stays, the attacks on him will make the FBI involved in another political fight it does not need to be in.
The director of the FBI is chosen for a 10-year term, which has traditionally been meant to keep the job free of political concerns. But presidents can fire and appoint directors whenever they want, and a lot of FBI directors have not finished their full terms. This means that the Senate has to vote to approve any candidate the president puts forward to lead the FBI.
The news from Wray makes it possible for Patel to lead the FBI during Trump’s second term. Sen. Patel has been meeting with the people who will vote on his confirmation at the Capitol.
Trump got angry at Wray and the leaders of the FBI in 2022, when FBI agents searched Trump’s Florida home, Mar-a-Lago, using a search warrant that had been approved by a judge.
When the search happened, it turned out that the FBI was still looking into how Trump handled classified records after he left office.
At the end of the investigation, special counsel Jack Smith filed criminal charges against Trump. However, a federal judge has since thrown the charges out. Trump said he was not guilty and denied doing anything wrong.
If confirmed, Patel would be the third FBI director to work for a Trump administration and lead the country’s main federal police force. This comes after years of harsh criticism from Trump and his allies on Capitol Hill.
While Wray’s departure from the job was mostly expected, Trump’s announcement that he would be nominating Patel for the job made federal police wonder if Wray would quit or stay in his job until Trump’s inauguration.
Trump fired James Comey as Director of the FBI, in part because of the FBI’s investigation into the 2016 election, which led to Robert Mueller being named special counsel for that case.
Wray then took over the job. After he quit as head of the FBI, Comey was at odds with both Democrats and Republicans. He has since become a vocal critic of the president-elect.
Since he was confirmed in 2017, Wray has spent most of his time working on internal issues like hiring new agents and national security issues like stopping China’s spying efforts. He warned of threats from Iran and Russia and said that other countries were trying to attack American infrastructure.
The FBI has about 35,000 employees, including thousands of field agents. Their job is to enforce federal law and look into crimes all over the country, such as child exploitation, terrorism, and espionage.
Patel, who could soon replace Wray, has been very vocal about his dislike of the federal agency. He has said that he will make huge changes and get back at Trump, stating at one point, “We are going to go after the media who lied about American citizens and helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections.”
Working for the FBI, Wray told his colleagues, “means conducting investigations without fear or favor… and it means not pursuing investigations when the predication is not there.”
It would be Patel’s job to answer to the attorney general of the United States. Trump has chosen former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi for the job.
Some Democrats on Capitol Hill and some people who worked for Trump in his first term did not like when Trump said he was going to nominate Patel, who is 44 years old, to be FBI Director.
In Trump’s first term, John Bolton was national security adviser and Patel’s boss. He said that the nomination was like naming Joseph Stalin as head of the secret police.
Bolton said, “Thank goodness the FBI is not Stalin’s secret police.” This response, “The Senate should reject this nomination 100-0,” was met with opposition from Trump supporters and Vice President-Elect J.D. Vance.
But Republicans on Capitol Hill have said they are open to the choice and think he could make the FBI better.