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Christopher Wray will step down as FBI director before Donald Trump is sworn in next month, yielding to the president-elect’s plan to change the leadership of the top US law enforcement agency.
“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, who was appointed by Trump in 2017 to a term that would have ended in 2027, told FBI staff on Wednesday.
The announcement comes less than two weeks after Trump nominated Kash Patel to lead the FBI, a controversial pick who has pledged to stamp out the “deep state” from US law enforcement agencies and defended far-right QAnon conspiracy theories.
Wray’s move suggests that Patel, a fierce Trump loyalist who advised the secretary of defence in the president-elect’s first administration, may face smoother passage to confirmation after an initial rocky reception.
Patel in recent days has met a number of Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill — including John Cornyn and Josh Hawley, the senators from Texas and Missouri, respectively — in a bid to drum up support ahead of his confirmation hearings.
“FBI nominee @Kash_Patel will be a champion for the America First movement. I’ll do everything I can to get his nomination across the finish line,” Markwayne Mullin, the Republican senator from Oklahoma, wrote on X on Tuesday after their meeting.
Supporters of Trump were incensed at Wray after federal agents searched his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida. That led to the first federal indictment against a former US president, in which Trump was accused of mishandling classified material. The case was ultimately dismissed by a federal judge and the Department of Justice later moved to drop the proceedings after Trump’s election victory in November, citing an internal policy that bars prosecution of a sitting president.
Trump branded the raid and charges as illegal in a post on Truth Social on Wednesday. He said that Wray’s resignation was “a great day for America as it will end the Weaponization of what has become known as the United States Department of Injustice”.
Under Wray, the FBI cracked down on flows of illicit fentanyl, which has overtaken legally prescribed painkillers as the main cause of overdoses in the US.
He also challenged foreign threats, with a strong focus on China, “an adversary that’s been pretty clear about its intentions to lie, cheat and steal its way to economic and geopolitical domination in the coming years,” Wray told staff on Wednesday.
“My goal is to keep the focus on our mission — the indispensable work you’re doing on behalf of the American people every day,” Wray added. “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.”
US attorney-general Merrick Garland in a statement praised Wray for his “integrity and skill”.