FBI Director Caves to Trump’s Dangerous Wishes by Resinging
The director of the Federal Bureau of Investigations, Christopher Wray, resigned from his post on Wednesday.
It’s been less than two weeks since Donald Trump announced his intention to replace Wray with Republican operative Kash Patel in a statement that failed to acknowledge the incumbent director’s requisite exit. Trump appointed Wray to the position seven years ago after ousting James Comey amid an investigation into whether the forty-fifth president’s advisers colluded with the Russian government during his 2016 presidential campaign. Wray’s term wasn’t slated to end until 2027.
“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 told FBI employees.
Wray said he will serve until the end of the current administration and then leave once Trump takes office in January.
“The resignation of Christopher Wray is a great day for America as it will end the Weaponization of what has become known as the United States Department of Injustice,” Trump wrote on Truth Social following Wray’s announcement. “I just don’t know what happened to him. We will now restore the Rule of Law for all Americans.”
The 10-year term minimum for FBI directors is designed to insulate the position from the sway of political influence—but Wray will mark Trump’s second firing of the bureau’s top official during his time in power.
Speaking with NBC News’s Meet the Press, Trump said he wasn’t “thrilled” with Wray’s job at the country’s top law enforcement agency, suggesting that the FBI’s role in repossessing sensitive and classified documents from Trump’s Florida estate had marred his opinion of his appointee.
“He invaded my home,” Trump said on Sunday. “I’m suing the country over it. He invaded Mar-a-Lago. I’m very unhappy with the things he’s done, and crime is at an all-time high. Migrants are pouring into the country that are from prisons and from mental institutions, as we’ve discussed. I can’t say I’m thrilled.”
Of course, the FBI did not “invade” Mar-a-Lago—rather, the agency executed a court-approved search warrant to reclaim documents that Trump had taken from the White House after the end of his last presidency.
Patel, a Trump loyalist, hasn’t yet dished details on how he intends to change the FBI, though he has promised that sweeping reforms are on the way. Former intelligence officials have warned that Patel’s appointment could strip the FBI of its independence and that his leadership could oversee an era in which the agency is tasked with politically motivated investigations from the Trump administration.
“Kash Patel is the most qualified Nominee to lead the FBI in the Agency’s History, and is committed to helping ensure that Law, Order, and Justice will be brought back to our Country again, and soon,” Trump wrote on Truth Social Wednesday. “We want our FBI back, and that will now happen. I look forward to Kash Patel’s confirmation, so that the process of Making the FBI Great Again can begin.”
Patel himself has demonstrated a propensity for politically charged witch hunts. The nominee has promised to go after 60 people named on a so-called “enemies list” who he believes are members of the executive branch “deep state.” They include President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Comey, Hillary Clinton, and Obama-era FBI Director Eric Holder.
This story has been updated.