Trump’s election could herald a leadership change at the FBI

By ERIC TUCKER

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump richly Christopher Wray with praise when he named him FBI director in 2017introducing him as an ‘impeccably qualified individual’ and a ‘model of integrity’.

So much has changed in the seven years since.

With Trump on the verge of winning back the White House, Wray’s days as director may be numbered. Although the position of director has a term of ten years, Trump’s blistering and repeated criticism of his own appointee increases the likelihood that Trump would replace Wray upon taking office or that Wray would leave on his own to avoid being fired. Such a move would give Trump a chance to reshape the FBI’s leadership in his own image, at a time when he is threatened with pursuing his own political opponents.

“He enjoys his job, he is committed to the bureau, he is an excellent public servant — but I don’t think he will lobby for the job,” said Gregory Brower, a former FBI official who served as director of congressional affairs until 2018. said of Wray.

“If the new president wants to replace him, then that’s what the new president will do,” he added. “Based on what Trump has said in the past, I think it’s likely we’ll see that.”

Trump’s transition office did not return an email requesting comment. An FBI official said Wray continued to oversee the bureau’s day-to-day operations — including a visit to the FBI’s elections command post this week — and was working with his team to make plans to manage the workforce in the coming year. The official, an executive who has daily contact with Wray, was not authorized to discuss the details publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Trump has not spoken publicly about Wray in recent days, but he is known to take a particularly keen interest in the FBI and Justice Department, in part because of his Life during the first term and after the presidency was overshadowed by investigations, including two that resulted in charges that are now expected to decline. The positions are closely watched because whoever takes them could face Trump’s stated desire to seek retaliation against opponents, even though long-term guardrails would complicate such plans, and because the FBI faces more global threats than at any time in recent memory.

A recent Supreme Court opinion grants broad immunity on former presidents could also encourage Trump to demand certain Justice Department investigations, as happened during his first term.

Wray was nominated to replace in June 2017 James Comey, FBI Director Trump inherited from President Barack Obama and then fired amid an investigation into ties between Russia and Trump’s 2016 campaign. A respected Republican lawyer who has served as a senior Justice Department official in the United States George W Bush government, Wray was recommended to Trump by Chris Christie after representing then-Governor of New Jersey in an investigation into the closure of the George Washington Bridge.

“In 2017, the president wanted an FBI director with bipartisan support and a reputation for integrity who would maintain a low public profile and defer to the attorney general,” said Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general at the time. appointment of Wray, in an email to AP this week,

It didn’t take long for Wray to anger Trump.

In 2018, he broke with Trump over the government’s release of information related to FBI surveillance of former campaign worker Carter Page. He later angered Trump over testimony in Congress highlighting the threat of election interference from Russia at a time when Trump was focused on China. He also described antifaan umbrella term for left-wing militants, as an ideology rather than an organization, contradicting Trump, who wanted to label it as a terrorist group.

Wray’s job was in a precarious position at the time of Trump’s 2020 election loss, with Trump refusing to give Wray a vote of confidence before the election and his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., posting online that Wray was working to “protect corrupt Democrats’. .” But the president left him in place.

Trump’s view of FBI leadership deteriorated further in 2022 after agents searched his Florida home for classified documents, a move that resulted in an indictment on dozens of charges. Last summer, Trump blamed the FBI for not immediately confirming that he had been hit by a bullet during an assassination attempt. He even took to social media to call for Wray to resign after the director agreed to run for president. Joe Biden ‘s mental acuity during a congressional hearing.