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FBI Director Christopher Wray Announces His Resignation

Matt Vespa
Matt Vespa  |  December 11, 2024 2:08 PM

FBI Director Christopher Wray accepts the inevitable and does not even put up a fight. He can’t. He announced today that he will be stepping down as the Federal Bureau of Investigation director following President-elect Donald J. Trump’s immense displeasure with how the agency has been run under his tenure. Wray said he’d be officially out the door in January (via NYT): 

The F.B.I. director, Christopher A. Wray, told bureau employees on Wednesday that he intends to resign in January, bowing to the reality that President-elect Donald J. Trump had publicly declared his desire to replace him. 

The announcement comes after Mr. Trump said in late November that he intended to nominate Kash Patel, a longtime loyalist, to run the F.B.I., and more than two years before Mr. Wray’s 10-year term would have expired. 

His resignation would likely mean that Paul Abbate, the deputy F.B.I. director, would run the bureau at least until the end of April, when he is set to retire. 

Over more than seven years, Mr. Wray oversaw one of the most consequential and tumultuous periods in the bureau’s history, juggling high-profile criminal investigations of political figures, heated congressional inquiries and two attempted assassinations of Mr. Trump. 

Trump has nominated Kash Patel to serve as the next FBI director.