While all eyes are on James Comey’s Thursday Senate hearing, President Trump has nominated a potential successor to Comey: Christopher Wray.
Trump announced Wray’s nomination in a tweet:
Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement, “The President asked us to look for an FBI Director who has integrity, who understands and is committed to the rule of law, and who is dedicated to protecting the American people from crime, gangs, and terrorists. We have found our man in Chris Wray.”
Here are five things you need to know about Wray.
1. Wray, a Yale Law School graduate, clerked for Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge J. Michael Luttig. According to Above the Law, clerking for Luttig is a near-guarantee to clerking for a Supreme Court justice. Wray never did clerk for a Supreme Court justice – although Judge Luttig told Above the Law that “Wray would have had the opportunity to clerk at the Supreme Court had he wanted” – he still has an extensive legal resume.
2. Wray was an assistant U.S. attorney in Georgia from 1997-2001.
3. Wray served as the assistant attorney general to the Department of Justice’s criminal division from 2003 to 2005. In that position, Wray ran the Enron Task Force, briefed Attorney General John Ashcroft on the Valerie Plame investigation and was among the members of the DOJ who threatened to resign in 2004 when the White House tried to get Ashcroft, who was in the hospital at the time, to approve their warrantless surveillance program.
Prior to that, he was the DOJ’s associate deputy attorney general and principal associate deputy attorney general.
4. Wray represented New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) during the Bridgegate investigation. Christie himself seemed to endorse Wray’s nomination, telling NorthJersey.com, “I have the utmost confidence in Chris. 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.”
5. Those who have worked with Wray have had plenty of high praise for him. Ashcroft issued a statement describing Wray as “a man of integrity with a deep commitment to the rule of law.”
“His substantial experience, particularly in serving on our Justice Department team fighting terrorism after 9/11, uniquely qualifies him to protect America as FBI director,” Ashcroft said.
CNN quoted a few other former colleagues of Wray:
Other former colleagues universally applauded Wray on Wednesday.
Harvard Law Professor Jack Goldsmith, who served as a top official at the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel when Wray was at the department — and has been a vocal critic of Trump — called Wray a “much better choice” than the other names floated to lead the FBI.
“Wray is smart, serious, and professional. He doesn’t have quite the range of experiences that his two predecessors did. But he has deep experience with federal criminal law and the FBI,” wrote Goldsmith on Lawfare. “I think Trump’s firing of James Comey was a travesty. But Wray is a good choice, a much better choice than any of the politicians I previously saw floated, and a much better choice than I expected Trump to make. Without prejudging what will surely be a probing confirmation process, I think Wray is qualified to be director of the FBI.”
Alice Fisher, a partner at Latham & Watkins who was also one of the almost dozen interviewed last month to lead the FBI called Wray a “wonderful choice.”
“Chris is a wonderful choice to lead the FBI who cares deeply about the institution and already has strong relationships with the FBI,” Fisher said. “His background at the helm of the criminal division offered an excellent experience working on national security, white collar crime and a range of federal crimes as well as offering the privilege of working with the fantastic men and women of the FBI every day. He’s an excellent lawyer who will provide even keeled leadership.
Bill Majeta, who worked with Wray in the DOJ, told The Washington Post, “I think the American people should feel good about the fact that President Trump did not pick a wallflower. He picked somebody with a real moral compass that’s very similar to Jim Comey’s moral compass.”