Trump to tap ex-Justice Dept. official Wray to lead FBI
Cautious Comey expected in Senate hearing on Trump-Russia probes today
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he plans to nominate Christopher Wray, a former assistant attorney general under president George W. Bush who is now in private practice, to lead the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
“I will be nominating Christopher A. Wray, a man of impeccable credentials, to be the new director of the FBI. Details to follow,” Trump said in a statement on Twitter.
The US Senate must approve Trump’s choice to replace former FBI Director James Comey, whom the president fired last month amid the agency’s ongoing probe into alleged Russian meddling into the presidential election.
Trump’s announcement comes the day before Comey is scheduled to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Moscow’s alleged interference and its potential ties to Trump’s campaign or associates.
The president met last week with candidates for the FBI director post, including Wray, according to White House spokesman Sean Spicer.
Wray currently works for King & Spalding’s Washington and Atlanta offices where he handles various white-collar criminal and regulatory enforcement cases, according to the firm.
He served as assistant attorney general in the Justice Department’s criminal division from 2003 to 2005, working on corporate fraud scandals and cases involving US financial markets, according to his biography on the law firm’s website.
Many lawmakers have said Trump should pick a career law enforcement professional.
One former FBI official questioned whether Wray had the management experience to run an agency with more than 35,000 people, given the small size of the division he ran at the Justice Department.
Comey will likely hold back from accusing Trump of trying to interfere with an investigation into links between Trump’s election campaign team and Russian officials when he testifies on Thursday, legal sources said.
His highly anticipated appearance before the Senate Intelligence Committee could be a turning point in a controversy that has rocked Trump’s young administration.
In his first public remarks since Trump dismissed him last month, Comey is expected to tell the Senate Intelligence committee that Trump asked him during a meeting in the Oval Office to end the FBI’s probe into ties between former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn and Russia.
Comey may also detail other conversations with Trump.
He told the House of Representatives intelligence committee on March 20 that the FBI was probing Moscow’s role in the election, including possible Trump campaign collusion.
Trump fired Comey on May 9, a step that stunned Washington and intensified scrutiny of the matter.
Michael Flynn, Trump’s national security adviser, was forced to resign in February. The White House said he had misled Vice President Mike Pence about contacts Flynn had with Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Sergei Kislyak, before Trump took office.
Former director of national intelligence James Clapper said on Wednesday that the Watergate scandal pales in comparison to events in Washington surrounding Trump and alleged links between his campaign and Russia.
Clapper questioned Trump’s continued pro-Russian stance, saying his sharing of intelligence with Russia “reflect either ignorance or disrespect, and either is very problematic.”
“I think if you compare the two that Watergate pales, really, in my view, compared to what we’re confronting now,” Clapper told reporters in Canberra, Australia’s capital.
The break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate Hotel in Washington in 1972, and the subsequent cover-up, brought down Republican president Richard Nixon in 1974.
Clapper said it was “inexplicable” that Trump continued his pro-Russia stance despite evidence Moscow sought to interfere in the 2016 US presidential election.
“His subsequent actions, sharing sensitive intelligence with the Russians and compromising its source, reflect either ignorance or disrespect and either is very problematic,” said Clapper.