Some of the best social media gossip I’ve heard since Trump won the election is the reported resignation of FBI Director Christopher Wray. (Though, at the time of this writing, that’s yet to be verified.) However, it is highly likely. Being a careerist bureaucrat, Wray certainly has an acutely developed sense of self-preservation. Resignation is the smart move, and would insulate him from substantive inquiry.
In a Truth Social post from July Trump said, “…Director Wray should resign immediately from the FBI, and stop ‘sweet talking’ Congress every time he goes up, which he loves to do, because anybody can see that Joe Biden is cognitively and physically challenged…”
The American people have furnished Trump with a mandate — that fact is indisputable. With Trump’s 312 electoral collage votes, and having won the popular vote by five million, the people have repudiated the Biden administration’s record of abuses and usurpations. And, have delivered the senate and most likely the house, granting Trump near carte blanche to hang the careers of woke, social Marxist bureaucrats on the gallows.
The growing list of Trump appointments looks like a constellation of rugged constitutionalists bent on tearing out the politicized by the roots. Trump’s pick for Border Czar, Tom Homan, followed by his selection of Governor Kristi Noem (R-SD) for DHS Secretary signals a welcome course correction in the direction of law and order. Homan said recently on Mornings With Maria, “Sanctuary cities are sanctuaries for criminals…if they don’t want to make their communities safer, then my advice to them is to get the hell out of the way…no one’s going to stop ICE from doing their job.” Music to the ears of the victims of illegal immigrant depredations.
This presages great things for the DOJ and the FBI. The appointment of Representative Mike Waltz (R-FL), a former Army Green Beret, for White House National Security Adviser also signals a coming sea-change for DOD culture and operations. None of this is surprising. Nevertheless, it’s delightful to watch Trump making some very smart decisions. The specter of 2016 appointment missteps is fading into the ether.
Trump couldn’t do better than Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH) for his AG pick. Jordan is the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and serves on the House Oversight Committee. Rep. Jordan has played a pivotal role in investigating both DOJ and FBI weaponization and is, therefore, uniquely qualified to dismantle the woke policies that have turned the vast powers of the DOJ against the American people. In addition, positioning Jordan as AG would place him as the FBI Director’s immediate superior, and create a powerful mechanism of accountability for a Director with a mandate to reform.
Trump has a golden opportunity to create and enculturate real reform at the FBI. There is historical precedence for successful reform. Under President Calvin Coolidge, AG Harlan Fiske Stone was mandated to reform a rogue Bureau of Investigation. His solution was the appointment of J. Edgar Hoover. Regardless of one’s opinion of Hoover, he revolutionized the Bureau of Investigation and created the FBI of the legendary G-man.
Trump has the same opportunity today, to create cultural and structural reform through a Director with a mandate to deconstruct DEI and effect substantive changes at FBI HQ and throughout FBI field offices.
My short list of potential FBI Director picks begins with Thomas G. Donlon. Donlon currently serves as New York City’s Police Commissioner. He retired from the FBI as Section Chief of the National Threat Center. He also served as ASAC of the New York Field Office’s Counterterrorism Division, and as a Program Manager in the Violent Crime Major Offenders Section of the FBI’s Safe Streets Task Force. The bottom line is, he was the kind of agent that knew what it took to put bad guys in jail. He also comes with some of the highest endorsements from accomplished, retired FBI agents like James Gagliano.
In fact, Gagliano is another member on my short list. As a retired FBI Supervisory Special Agent, Gagliano has been a thought leader on FBI reform. He’s held a CNN contributor-ship, has contributed numerous articles to Fox News, the New York Post, and other outlets, and is currently a doctoral candidate. Moreover, Gagliano was a member of the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team, and has garnered the esteem of his colleagues through a highly successful career.
Chris Swecker is another highly qualified candidate for FBI Director. Swecker served as Assistant Director of the Criminal Investigative Division and has appeared numerous times on Fox News and other outlets presenting his always cogent analysis of FBI weaponization and overreach. Swecker is throughly equipped to create the necessary changes to bring about real reform.
In terms of actual policy and structural change, the National Alliance of Retired and Active-Duty FBI Special Agents and Analysts provided their endorsement of Trump just prior to the election and released a public statement. Journalist Miranda Devine posted the Alliance’s recommendations for FBI reform.
Though I disagree with installing the FBI Director as a cabinet member (a move which would make independence even less likely), and removing the FBI’s counterintelligence jurisdiction, the Alliance makes some solid recommendations. A separate National Intelligence Bureau (NIB) would divorce domestic intelligence gathering from the constraints of criminal procedure and would likely create even more opportunities for abuse. One of the bigger problems at the FBI HQ level has been the proliferation of divisions and branches. As a colleague stated recently on Substack, “Today, there are approximately 40 division, branches, directors and offices, most of them staffed by non-agent executives with little or no previous FBI experience.”
Trump has an unprecedented opportunity to give the American people the DOJ and FBI that the citizens of a free republic deserve. And, he has no lack of qualified picks, or of policy recommendations. It’s a new day in America, and soon, we’ll have an FBI denuded of DEI radicalization and headquarters politicization.