Donald Trump plans to nominate Christopher Wray to be the next director of the FBI, he announced on Twitter on Wednesday.

I will be nominating Christopher A. Wray, a man of impeccable credentials, to be the new Director of the FBI. Details to follow. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 7, 2017

The announcement comes nearly one month after Trump fired FBI director James Comey – one of the most controversial decisions of his young presidency – and just one day before Comey is scheduled to testify before the Senate intelligence committee.

During the hearing, Comey is expected to be asked about Trump’s attempts to soft-pedal the investigation into his former national security adviser Michael Flynn’s contacts with Russia.

Trump has indicated that the FBI’s investigation into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 elections and links to his campaign made up part of his thinking when he dismissed the director.

In the tweet, Trump called Wray – whose name emerged as one of those in the frame on 31 May – “a man of impeccable credentials”. An FBI director must be confirmed by the Senate and typically serves a single, 10-year term.

Hours after Trump’s morning tweet, the White House issued a formal statement on the president’s selection.

“I am proud to announce Christopher as my choice as the director of the FBI,” Trump said in the statement.

“He is an impeccably qualified individual, and I know that he will again serve his country as a fierce guardian of the law and model of integrity once the Senate confirms him to lead the FBI.”

During a visit to Cincinnati, Ohio, on Wednesday, Trump remarked briefly on his decision, telling the traveling press: “He’s gonna be great.”

Wray called his selection a “great honor” and said: “I look forward to serving the American people with integrity as the leader of what I know firsthand to be an extraordinary group of men and women who have dedicated their careers to protecting this country.”

Wray, 50, was the assistant attorney general overseeing the criminal division under George W Bush, in charge of investigations into corporate fraud.



Wray more recently represented the New Jersey governor, Chris Christie, during the investigation into the George Washington Bridge lane-closing case, in which two of Christie’s former aides were convicted of plotting to close lanes of the bridge to punish a Democratic mayor who would not endorse the governor. Christie, who has informally advised the president, was not charged in the case.

“I have the utmost confidence in Chris,” Christie told the Bergen Record last week. “He’s an outstanding lawyer. He has absolute integrity and honesty, and I think that the president certainly would not be making a mistake if he asked Chris Wray to be FBI director,” Christie said Thursday.

Christie, who remains a loyal supporter of Trump and served briefly as head of the transition team before being edged out, would not tell the paper whether he had any involvement in the president’s decision to consider Wray.

Wray works as a litigation partner at King and Spalding, an Atlanta-based law firm, where he oversees the company’s government investigations practice, representing a number of Fortune 100 financial institutions. The unit represents companies and clients in a variety of white-collar criminal and regulatory enforcement matters.

An archived search of his company biography revealed that as early as November 2016 Wray’s profile listed as one of his clients “an energy company president in a criminal investigation by Russian authorities”.

Prior to joining the firm, Wray served from 2003 to 2005 as assistant attorney general in charge of the US Department of Justice’s criminal division under Comey, then the US deputy attorney general. The Senate confirmed Wray to that post by unanimous consent – a feat that may be difficult to achieve again amid the current polarization in the chamber.

Wray began his legal career in private practice. In 1997, he joined the US attorney’s office for the northern district of Georgia as a federal prosecutor before joining the leadership ranks at the justice department in 2001, months before the September 11 attacks would reshape law enforcement response to terrorism.

According to his biography, Wray played an pivotal role in the department’s response to the 9/11 attacks, overseeing legal and operational actions in the continuing war on terrorism. He also served as a member of the Bush administration’s corporate fraud taskforce and led the fraud investigation of Enron Corp.

Wray graduated from Yale University in 1989 and Yale Law School in 1992, where he served as executive director of the Yale Law Journal.

Trump’s announcement took lawmakers in Washington by surprise. Trump did not consult the two highest ranking members of the Senate judiciary committee before announcing his decision to pick Wray. A spokesman for the Iowa Republican Chuck Grassley, the committee’s chairman, said he had learned about the decision as everyone else had: on Twitter.

Diane Feinstein, the top Democrat on the committee, told reporters she too learned about Wray from Trump’s tweet and needed more time to review his background before commenting.

The House speaker, Paul Ryan, also said the president hadn’t consulted him before making the announcement.

Wray - right? I don’t know the guy ... but he seems like the perfect kind of person House Speaker Paul Ryan

“Wray – right?” Ryan asked in reply to a reporter’s question. “I don’t know the guy. But I’ve looked at his résumé [and] he seems like the perfect kind of person. I thought we should have a career person take over the FBI, someone with a deep bench of experience. He certainly seems to fit that bill.”

Senator Patrick Leahy, a Democrat from Vermont and a member of the judiciary committee, said in a statement that he was “particularly interested” in Wray’s ability to maintain the independence of his agency in light of reports that Trump attempted to pressure his FBI director into curtailing an investigation into his national security adviser.

“For obvious reasons that could not be clearer right now,” Leahy said in a statement, “Mr Wray’s ability, willingness and commitment to be independent of the White House and presidential pressure is the threshold hurdle, and a cardinal test.”

But US attorney general Jeff Sessions congratulated the president on his nomination of Wray, who he called a “leader of proven skill, independence, and integrity, a man in whom all Americans can have confidence”. Sessions said the former justice department official “combines a brilliant legal mind, outstanding accomplishments, and a proven record of public service”, adding that he Wray had “tremendous” respect for the FBI and in turn, the agents he worked with at the agency “enthusiastically affirm his leadership and integrity”.

Sessions recused himself from the FBI investigation into Trump associates’ contacts with Russia after it was revealed that he had failed to disclose meetings with the Russian ambassador.

It was reported on Tuesday that Sessions offered to resign amid escalating tensions with the president, who apparently believes his attorney general should not have recused himself from the investigation.

In an early signal of possible conflicts of interest senators are likely to pursue during Wray’s confirmation hearing, the ACLU flagged parts of his professional background that the group said raised questions about his ability to lead the FBI with the “independence, even-handed judgment and commitment to the rule of law that the agency deserves”.

“Given that Wray touts his deep involvement in the Bush administration’s response to the 9/11 attacks, which includes his connections to some of the most unlawful legal memos on Bush-era torture programs, the Senate should press Wray to come clean about his role in the programs,” said Faiz Shakir, the national political director for the ACLU.

The group also raised potential conflicts of interest over the fact that Wray’s law firm has advised Trump’s family trust and his history of donating to Republican candidates and causes.

“In this important moment for our country, the American people deserve a commitment from any nominee for FBI director to the foundational principles of our constitution, and that that commitment outweighs any loyalty to a political party or a single politician. We will be watching closely in the coming days to ensure Wray makes these commitments and earns the trust of the public.”

Sabrina Siddiqui contributed to this report