Christopher Wray: Biden intends to keep FBI director in office, official says

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It is not unexpected.

During the transition, Biden signaled his plan to keep Wray on board – if he wasn’t fired by President Donald Trump first. Like all FBI directors, Wray has a ten-year term. Wray was appointed by Trump in 2017 and has been criticized by the former president on a number of issues.

Wray had no reason to believe he was not on solid footing with the new Biden administration – despite White House press secretary Jen Psaki not responding on Wednesday when he was asked if Biden trusted Wray.

“I haven’t spoken to him specifically about FBI Director Wray in recent days,” said press secretary Jen Psaki, “but I’ll come back if there’s more to say.”

An official said she just hadn’t told Biden about the FBI chief, so she answered honestly during her first briefing. If asked about it on Thursday, an official said she would likely respond that Biden did indeed trust the FBI director.

Wray’s federal investigative team is currently pursuing thousands of leads as part of two efforts to prosecute those involved in the Jan.6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and to try to prevent the feared follow-up attacks in Washington and in the country.

Trump uses FBI director as a foil ahead of election day
Wray announced last week that investigators had identified more than 200 suspects in their investigation into the U.S. Capitol attack and arrested more than 100 people, a challenge that FBI and Justice Department officials call “unprecedented. “.

While federal law enforcement officials have sought to reassure the American public in recent days that they are up to the task on both fronts, their public remarks have also laid bare the enormity of the challenge they face in tracking potential threats not only to the country’s capital, but across the country.

Law enforcement officials told CNN authorities missed key signs ahead of the siege, which left five people dead and the Capitol sacked, and the FBI preparations leading up to the day of the attack. Capitol have come under scrutiny.
The Washington Post reported last week that the FBI warned of a violent “war” on the U.S. Capitol in an internal report released a day before the deadly siege, but it was not acted urgently enough to prevent the national terrorist attack.

The Post said that on the Tuesday before the attack, an FBI office in Norfolk, Virginia, issued an “explicit internal warning that extremists were preparing to come to Washington to commit violence and” war. ” ”

The report “painted a dire picture of dangerous plans, including individuals sharing a map of the complex’s tunnels, and possible assembly points for would-be conspirators to meet” in several states before traveling to Washington.

Prior to the attacks, Trump had made little attempt to veil his disdain for Wray, whom many Trump allies have suggested he do little to root out what they see as endemic corruption in the FBI. He complained privately that Wray refuses to reprimand his predecessor James Comey, berated those who recommended him for the job and said he would like to replace him.

Department of Justice and FBI officials told CNN last year that Wray knew Trump was often unhappy with him and that there was always the possibility that he could be fired by tweet. But Trump’s repeated attacks on Wray seemed designed to motivate a subset of his political base keen to hear him complain about a swampy deep state – though he himself is responsible for executive appointments and enjoys at the time of the Republican control of the Senate, which confirms the nominees administration.

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