Christopher Wray Wins Bipartisan Senate Confirmation as FBI Director President Trump’s pick will lead an agency buffeted by political crosswinds that show few signs of diminishing By Aruna Viswanatha and Del Quentin Wilber
https://www.wsj.com/articles/christopher-wray-wins-bipartisan-senate-confirmation-as-fbi-director-1501622673
Christopher Wray, President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Federal Bureau of Investigation, won Senate confirmation Tuesday with the support of most Democrats, putting the former Justice Department official and private lawyer in charge of an agency buffeted by political crosswinds that show few signs of diminishing.
The bipartisan 92-to-5 vote was a shift after Mr. Trump’s abrupt firing in May of the last FBI director, James Comey, amid the FBI investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and any potential connection with the Trump campaign. Mr. Comey’s dismissal alarmed lawmakers in both parties, but Democrats were especially critical.
After a largely amicable hearing last month in which Mr. Wray pledged to be an independent leader and not to carry out any orders he believed unlawful, he won the unanimous support of the 20 senators on the Judiciary Committee.
Mr. Wray is known as a hard worker who avoids drama, and current and former FBI agents have said they hope he can help the agency stay out of the political spotlight, enabling it to focus on its traditional investigations into everything from terrorist plots to transnational gangs to cyber crimes.
Mr. Comey’s departure was particularly acrimonious. Mr. Trump called him a “showboat” and said he was doing a poor job, while Mr. Comey told Congress he kept notes of his meetings with the president because he didn’t trust Mr. Trump to describe them accurately. Mr. Comey also said Mr. Trump pressured him to drop an investigation into a Trump associate, which the president denied.
The Russia investigation, in which many FBI agents remain engaged, will largely be off Mr. Wray’s plate, given the appointment of Robert Mueller as a special counsel overseeing the probe.
Still, Mr. Wray is likely to have a brief honeymoon, if any. Last week, Mr. Trump attacked acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, asking on Twitter why Attorney General Jeff Sessions hadn’t replaced Mr. McCabe, whose wife ran for local office with the support of a Hillary Clinton ally.
Mr. Trump nominated Mr. Wray, 50, after a long search process that included nontraditional figures such as Joseph Lieberman, a former Independent and Democratic senator from Connecticut.CONTINUE AT SITE
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