FBI Director Wray to stay after White House expresses confidence
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden has confidence in FBI Director Chris Wray and plans to keep him in the job, the White House press secretary said Thursday.
FBI directors are given 10- year terms, meaning leadership of the bureau is generally unaffected by changes in presidential administrations. But Biden’s spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, was noncommittal when asked at her first briefing Wednesday whether Biden had confidence in Wray.
“I have not spoken with him about specifically FBI Director Wray in recent days,” Psaki said.
On Thursday, she cleared up any confusion, tweeting: “I caused an unintentional ripple yesterday so wanted to state very clearly President Biden intends to keep FBI Director Wray on in his role and he has confidence in the job he is doing.”
Wray is keeping his position even as the FBI and other law enforcement agencies are under scrutiny for their preparations before the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. The Justice Department inspector general and other watchdog offices are investigating.
Wray was appointed in 2017 by President Donald Trump following Trump’s firing of James Comey. Wray later became a frequent target of Trump’s attacks, including by publicly breaking with the president on issues such as antifa, voter fraud and Russian election interference.
The criticism led to speculation that Trump might fire Wray after the election.
Pentagon pick: The Democratic-controlled House easily passed legislation required to confirm retired Gen. Lloyd Austin as President Joe Biden’s secretary of defense, brushing aside concerns that his retirement occurred inside the sevenyear window that safeguards civilian leadership of themilitary.
Thursday’s 326-78 vote would grant a waiver that would exempt Austin from the seven-year rule. All signs point to quick action in the Senate after that, putting Austin on track to be confirmed as secretary by week’s end.
Austin, a 41-year veteran of the Army, has promised to surround himself with qualified civilians and include them in policy decisions. He said he has spent nearly his entire life committed to the principle of civilian control over the military.
While the waiver is expected to be approved, the vote puts some Democrats in a position to look like they’ve flip-flopped. Many of them opposed a similar waiver in 2017 for Jim Mattis, former President Donald Trump’s first secretary of defense.
Austin would be the first Black secretary of defense.
Doctor closer to sainthood: The French doctor who discovered the genetic basis of Down syndrome but spent his career advocating against abortion as a result of prenatal diagnosis has taken his first major step to possible sainthood.
Pope Francis on Thursday approved the “heroic virtues” of Dr. Jerome Lejeune, who lived from 1926 to 1994 and was particularly esteemed by St. John Paul II for his anti-abortion stance.
The papal recognition of Lejeune’s virtues means that he is considered “venerable” by the Catholic Church. The Vatican must now confirm a miracle attributed to his intercession for him to be beatified, and a second one for him to be declared a saint.
According to his official biography, Lejeune in 1958 discovered the existence of an extra chromosome on the 21st pair during astudy of the chromosomes of a child. It was the first time scientists had found a link between an intellectual disability and a chromosomal anomaly; the condition is now known as trisomy 21.
John Paul in 1974 made Lejeune a member of the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Sciences think tank and later named him the first chairman of the Pontifical Academy for Life, the Holy See’s main bioethics advisory commission.
Ex-Vatican bank chief convicted: The Vatican’s criminal tribunal on Thursday convicted the former head of the Vatican bank and his lawyer of embezzling millions of euros in proceeds from the sales of Holy See-owned real estate, and sentenced them to nearly nine years in prison each.
The court also awarded the bank, known as the Institute of Religious Works, some 23 million euros in restitution from money seized from the suspects’ Swiss and Vatican bank accounts that were frozen during the probe.
Prosecutors had accused former bank chief Angelo Caloia, 81, and his 97-yearold lawyer, Gabriele Liuzzo, of embezzlement, misappropriation of funds and money-laundering between 2001 and 2008, when the bank sold off a sizable chunk of its real estate assets.
The scam allegedly involved the suspects selling 29 different properties in Rome and elsewhere at under-value prices to offshore companies that then resold them at market rates, with the suspects pocketing the difference.
Winning Powerball ticket: The latest jackpot-winning Powerball ticket, worth $731.1 million, was sold in a struggling coal mining town whose biggest previous claim to fame was being the hometown of baseball Hall of Famer Lefty Grove.
Someone bought it at Coney Market, aconvenience store in the Allegany County town of Lonaconing, the Maryland Lottery announced Thursday. The store will get a $100,000 bonus for selling the ticket to the fifth-largest lottery prize in U.S. history.
It had been more than four months since anyone won the Powerball, allowing the game’s jackpot to grow so large. An even larger Mega Millions jackpot will be up for grabs Friday night.
Just who will collect the Powerball prize may never beknown: Mary landis one of the states that allow winners to remain anonymous.
Keeping quiet about the huge windfall could prove difficult if the ticket was bought by a local resident. Lon a coning isa town of about 300 families with a poverty rate of more than 22%.
France child sex abuse: The French government pledged Thursday to toughen laws on the rape of children after a massive online movement saw hundreds of victims share accounts about sexual abuse within their families.
The move comes in the wake of child abuse accusations involving a prominent French political expert.
France’s justice minister said the government will soon present new legal measures to better protect children, while a draft bill has started being debated at parliament to toughen laws on the rape of minors under 13.
The social media campaign was launched Saturday by activists of the French feminist group #NousToutes in reference to the #MeToo movement that sparked a global debate about sexual harassment and assault.
The #MeTooInceste hashtag overwhelmed French social media.