WASHINGTON (NewsNation) — Despite being appointed by former President Donald Trump in 2017, FBI Director Christopher Wray has become the GOP’s number one target as of late — even accruing calls for his resignation.
House Republicans have accused Wray and the FBI of using the agency as a political weapon and targeting conservatives.
Wray testified before the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday; his first appearance after narrowly avoiding a censure vote from Republicans on the House Oversight Committee.
It also comes shortly after the GOP released transcripts from a whistleblower complaining FBI agents working with the Justice Department failed to thoroughly investigate Hunter Biden, and as the GOP rages over the late Monday indictment of Trump adviser Gal Luft, who accused the Biden family of shady business dealings.
The developments are the latest fuel to long-simmering tensions between the bureau and the GOP, which created a subcommittee to review the “weaponization” of the federal government, focusing heavily on the FBI.
The Judiciary Committee announced the hearing, saying that members “will be demanding answers from FBI Director Wray on the abuse of power in federal agencies.”
Who is Christopher Wray?
In August of 2017, Wray — a Republican and member of the Federalist Society — was appointed as the eighth director of the FBI, but his law enforcement career began in 1997 when he served in the Department of Justice as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, according to FBI records.
In 2001, Wray was named associate deputy attorney general at the DOJ in Washington, D.C. It was in 2003 that he was nominated by then-President George W. Bush to be the assistant attorney general for the DOJ’s Criminal Division, the FBI said.
In this role, Wray oversaw major national and international criminal investigations, including supervising the Counterterrorism Section and the Counterintelligence and Export Control Section.
In 2005, Wray resigned from the DOJ and returned to private practice, working at the international law firm of King & Spalding LLP where he spent nearly 12 years practicing law in government investigations and white-collar crimes. Wray had earned his law degree from Yale Law School in 1992. He became former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s personal attorney in 2013 during the “Bridgegate” lane-closing scandal, USA Today reported.
Trump announced he would nominate Wray for the FBI director role in June 2017. However, soon after Wray’s appointment, he and Trump began to clash.
Why was he appointed as FBI director?
Trump had called Wray “a man of impeccable credentials” when he first announced Wray’s nomination, USA Today reported.
He later issued a full statement that said that Wray was a “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.”
At the time of his nomination, Wray said he looked forward to serving the American people.
“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 said.
However, it didn’t take long until Trump and Wray clashed after the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approved Wray’s FBI director nomination.
Wray was known to operate “independently from partisan activities,” and it was noted by FBI Agents Association (FBIAA) President Brian O’Hare that Wray hadn’t “led the Bureau in a political manner,” according to USA Today.
Wray disagreed with Trump’s claim in 2020 that ANTIFA was an organization, claiming it was actually a movement or ideology. Trump had been trying to designate ANTIFA as a terrorist organization by the U.S., but Wray rejected the claim, Newsweek reported.
Trump considered replacing the FBI director in April 2020, but then-Attorney General Bill Barr threatened to resign if Trump removed Wray, Business Insider reported.
The FBIAA wrote a letter to both Trump and now-President Joe Biden ahead of the 2020 election, asking both candidates to keep Wray as the FBI director for the remainder of his term, Newsweek reported.
Since then, Wray has remained the director of the FBI during the Biden administration.
Why is Wray under scrutiny?
Wray, though a Trump appointee, has been at the center of the GOP-FBI grudge match as Republicans increasingly double down on claims the bureau is politicized.
But in recent months, the GOP has intensified its scrutiny of the FBI’s investigations of Trump, in comparison to its work regarding Biden or his son, Hunter Biden.
Much of those questions have been raised by the Oversight Committee, which subpoenaed the FBI for a form memorializing an unverified tip to the bureau alleging that Biden accepted a bribe.
Lawmakers ditched plans to hold Wray in contempt of Congress at the last minute after the FBI agreed to allow the committee to review the document in a secure setting, while agents briefed them about the results of the investigation.
That included detailing how the FBI was unable to corroborate the information, which was relayed by a credible confidential source who heard the allegation second-hand, before ultimately deciding not to escalate it for additional review.
Though Wray is outside the core group involved in this dispute, FBI agents aided in the probe and lawmakers have made clear he will face questions on the matter.
Calls for Wray’s resignation only intensified after a 300-page report by Trump-era special counsel John Durham, which says the FBI rushed to investigate Trump’s 2016 campaign and its ties to Russia, and the investigation was based on “raw, unanalyzed and uncorroborated intelligence.”
Wray previously acknowledged errors in the Trump-Russia probe, saying in a statement that the bureau “already implemented dozens of corrective actions, which have now been in place for some time.”
The Durham report “reinforces the importance of ensuring the FBI continues to do its work with the rigor, objectivity, and professionalism the American people deserve and rightly expect,” Wray said in the statement.
What has he said about it up until now?
Wray has defended the work of his agency since these allegations have first come to light, especially during his testimony at the House Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday.
In his opening statement, Wray talked about arrests the FBI has made of more than “20,000 violent criminals and child predators,” and spoke about 300 investigations going after drug cartels along the southern border.
“The men and women of the FBI work tirelessly every day to protect the American people from what is really a staggering array of threats,” Wray said.
He has strongly rejected claims that he has used the agency as a political weapon.
“I accepted President Trump’s nomination to be FBI director because I believe deeply in the men and women of the agency that I worked with for so many years earlier in my career and I think are the finest professionals in this space on the planet,” Wray said in an April appearance before congressional appropriators.
“Too often in today’s world, people’s standard for whether they think something was fair or objective or independent boils down to whether or not they like the outcome or not whether their side won or lost,” he added later.
Cassie Buchman and Rebecca Beitsch with The Hill contributed to this report.