STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
We now know how the FBI director will respond to the president-elect who wants to replace him.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
President-elect Trump appointed Christopher Wray during his first term back in 2017. But now Trump wants to nominate a loyalist, Kash Patel, and made it clear he wants Wray to go. The director says he will step down at the end of the Biden administration next month and three years before the end of his term.
INSKEEP: NPR justice correspondent Ryan Lucas is covering this story, and he's come by our studios very early this morning. Ryan, good to see you.
RYAN LUCAS, BYLINE: Good morning.
INSKEEP: So how did Wray explain his decision?
LUCAS: Well, Wray made this announcement in a town hall that he had yesterday with FBI employees. And what he said is that he's given this a lot of thought, and he came to the conclusion that stepping down in January with the change in administration is the right thing to do for the FBI. He said this is the best way to avoid, as he put it, dragging the bureau deeper into the fray. He also said this.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
CHRISTOPHER WRAY: This is not easy for me. I love this place. I love our mission, and I love our people. But my focus is and always has been on us and on doing what's right for the FBI.
LUCAS: Now, Wray said the FBI's work is critical. That won't change. And he also said that the FBI's commitment to independence, to objectivity and its defense of the rule of law, he says that those things must not change.
INSKEEP: Which, of course, Trump's critics fear that's exactly what Trump wants to change with this new appointee. What has Trump said about Wray's decision?
LUCAS: Well, Trump was quite happy with it. He called it a great day for America and said that Wray's departure means an end to what Trump says is the weaponization of the justice system. Now, Trump, of course, is the guy who made Chris Wray FBI director after he fired James Comey in 2017. Wray came on, tried to steady the FBI at what was a very tumultuous time.
INSKEEP: Yeah.
LUCAS: This job, of course, comes with a 10-year term, something that in theory is supposed to insulate it from partisan politics. Wray certainly defended the bureau's independence. He tried to keep it out of the political fights on Capitol Hill. But that was almost impossible to do with the sort of politically charged investigations that the FBI has been involved in over the past several years. And I'm thinking here of the Russia investigation, the investigation into the January 6 attack on U.S. Capitol, the investigation into President Biden's son Hunter.
And then, of course, there are the investigations into Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election, as well as his mishandling of classified documents. Trump was and remains, as we noted at the top, a fierce critic of Wray and the FBI. But I have to say, he's not alone. Republicans on Capitol Hill have also soured on Wray over the seven years that he's led the FBI. Some of that relates to Trump, and some of it is because of separate issues.
INSKEEP: Got it. OK, so now the confirmation fight is over Kash Patel, the nominee to replace Wray. What are his prospects?
LUCAS: Well, look, Patel is a polarizing figure. He's a close ally of Trump. He'd worked at the Justice Department, then on Capitol Hill and held several positions in the first Trump administration. He is seen as a loyalist. He's talked a lot in public about dismantling the deep state, going after Trump's perceived political enemies. That includes in the FBI, the Justice Department, elsewhere in the government, but also in the media. Something, of course, that Democrats are concerned about - like Trump, Patel claims that the justice system has been weaponized against Trump and conservatives more broadly.
A lot of Republicans agree. They are frustrated with the FBI. They think it needs a shake-up, and they see Patel as someone who wants to do that. So at this point, at least, Patel doesn't appear to be generating the sort of blowback that some of Trump's other picks have. But we're still more than a month away from Trump's inauguration, so we're going to have to see how this all plays out.
INSKEEP: NPR's Ryan Lucas will be covering it, whatever happens. Good to see you.
LUCAS: Thanks, Steve. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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