President Biden Keeping Wray On As FBI Director
Michael Cantrell
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President Biden is going to be keeping Christopher Wray on board as FBI director according to an announcement released by the White House on Thursday.
Brand spanking new White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki stirred up some speculation about whether or not Wray would be given the boot after she demurred during her first press conference after a reporter asked her if Biden had confidence in the current director of the FBI since he was chosen for his position by Donald Trump.
“I caused an unintentional ripple yesterday, so wanted to state very clearly President Biden intends to keep FBI Director Wray in his role, and he has confidence in the job he is doing,” Psaki tweeted Thursday afternoon.
The FBI does not typically discuss conversations between the president and its director, but the Washington Examiner was told by a source familiar that all of the FBI’s interactions with the Biden team had been very positive. CNN first reported that Biden has confidence in Wray at the bureau’s helm. Wray took over after Trump fired James Comey in May 2017 — FBI directors typically have a 10-year term.
Biden himself had been quiet about Wray, though he did not signal any intention to fire him. In December, the New York Times cited a senior Biden adviser who anonymously said the now-president was “not removing the FBI director unless Trump fired him.”
Trump slammed Wray on several different occasions, including an incident back in May when he asserted that Wray was appointed by former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. The former president stated that “the jury is still out” on Wray, and went to say, “let’s see what happens with him.”
Trump then went on to say that he was going to leave the decision up to former Attorney General Bill Barr.
Much of the criticism that Wray faced from conservative pundits and commentators had to do with his handling of the case of Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn and several other Trump-Russia controversies. They accused Wray of trying to suppress or slow the release of documents concerning the FBI’s investigation into Flynn.
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