Culture

Here Are the "Impeccable Credentials" of Christopher Wray, Trump's FBI Chief Pick

President Donald Trump has chosen the former assistant attorney general.

by Mike Brown
Getty Images / Mark Wilson

President Donald Trump announced plans on Wednesday to nominate Christopher Wray as the next director of the FBI, describing him as a man with “impeccable credentials.” Wray has a diverse range of experience, heading up the Enron Task Force, aiding the governmental response to the September 11 attacks, and representing Governor Chris Christie during the “bridgegate” investigation.

“Any time a major corporation is under investigation, you expect to see [Wray] present,” Chambers USA said in 2014.

Directors of the FBI are appointed by the president to serve for a single 10-year term. The nomination has to be approved by the Senate. While in position, the president has the power to fire the director. Andrew McCabe has been serving as acting director since May 9, after Trump fired previous director James Comey.

Since Comey’s departure, the hunt has been on for a replacement. John Pistole, former deputy FBI director, was also considered for the position. He worked for the FBI from 1983 to 2010, before moving on to head up the Transportation Security Administration until 2014. But Trump’s latest Twitter post suggests that Wray has beaten Pistole for nomination to the top job.

Born in 1967, Wray graduated from Yale University in 1989 and Yale Law School in 1992. After graduating, he began clerking for Judge J. Michael Luttig of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

Wray started working at the Atlanta office of law firm King & Spalding in 1993. In 1997, he left the position to take up a job in the United States Attorney’s office for the northern district of Georgia. He then moved to the federal Department of Justice as associate deputy attorney general.

In 2003, President Bush nominated Wray to head up the criminal division, an appointment the Senate unanimously confirmed. In this position, he held investigations in a wide range of federal law areas, including corruption, fraud, and even aid in coordinating the department’s response to the September 11 attacks. Wray also oversaw the Enron Task Force, one of the most high-profile, white-collar investigations in the FBI’s history.

“The Enron Task Force’s efforts resulted in the convictions of nearly all of Enron’s executive management team,” Michael E. Anderson, who led the FBI’s Enron Task Force in Houston, said in a previous statement. “The task force represented a model task force—the participating agencies selflessly and effectively worked together in accomplishing significant results. The case demonstrated to Wall Street and the business community that they will be held accountable.”

He left that position in 2005 and returned to King & Spalding as a litigation partner. There, he’s specialized in white collar and internal investigations, representing numerous tech firms and Fortune 500 companies. Wray represented New Jersey Governor Chris Christie during the George Washington Bridge toll lane closing investigation.

Trump’s announcement comes just one day before Comey appears in Congress to give his testimony. The White House claimed that firing Comey would help the investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election come to a conclusion.