Prez taps FBI big – as probe rolls

‘I NEED LOYALTY, I EXPECT LOYALTY’

PRESIDENT TRUMP on Wednesday abruptly announced his pick for the next FBI director — Christopher Wray — about 24 hours before fired bureau boss James Comey was set to testify before the Senate about the criminal probe into Trump’s campaign.

Trump’s early morning Twitter announcement was so out of the blue, and offered such little information, that some Democrats immediately deemed it a distraction tactic.

“Clearly this is an effort by the President to try to distract attention from our hearings today and our hearings tomorrow,” Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) said on “CBS This Morning.”

In a break of protocol, top politicians were not notified of the nomination in advance.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, were left in the dark, a source close to them told the Daily News.

Republicans, meanwhile, jumped to praise Wray — even though they, too, didn’t see it coming.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, who said Trump didn’t consult him, said Wray was “the perfect kind of person” to follow Comey.

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, in a statement issued hours after the tweet, called Wray “an extraordinary person, possessing all the gifts necessary to be a great director of the FBI.”

Trump broke the news in an unexpected morning tweet.

“I will be nominating Christopher A. Wray, a man of impeccable credentials, to be the new director of the FBI. Details to follow,” he wrote.

As the day went on, no details followed.

Wray is a former Justice Department official and lawyer for New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, one of Trump’s biggest supporters. He was one of the attorneys who repped Christie in the Bridgegate scandal.

He served as an assistant attorney general between 2003 and 2005 under President George W. Bush and ran the Justice Department’s criminal division.