President Donald Trump said Wednesday he will nominate former Justice Department official Christopher A. Wray as FBI director, a day before the man he fired from that post, James Comey, testifies before a Senate committee.
The timing suggests the White House is trying to turn the page on Comey’s era at the FBI before a Senate hearing on his dismissal. During an appearance on Thursday set to be broadcast live on national television, Comey will be answering questions about whether the president pressured him to ease off his investigation into Russian interference in last year’s election.
Wray built a reputation as a white-collar defense attorney after serving as the U. assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department’s criminal division from 2003 to 2005. He represented New Jersey Governor Chris Christie in the so-called Bridgegate scandal investigation of politically motivated traffic delays in 2013 on the George Washington Bridge.
During his tenure at the Justice Department, Wray was involved in the prosecution of HealthSouth Corp. founder Richard Scrushy on accounting fraud charges and of former Enron Corp. Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Skilling for fraud, conspiracy and insider trading.
Trump calledWray a man of “impeccable credentials” in announcing his choice on Twitter.
‘Respectable Pick’
Initial reaction to Trump’s pick included praise from some of the president’s critics, a sign of Wray’s potential to win bipartisan support in the Senate and bring stability to the FBI after a tumultuous start to Trump’s presidency. Wray’s background as a Justice Department professional may give him an advantage during confirmation hearings. Senators of both parties had urged Trump to choose a law-enforcement professional rather than a politician when the president was considering choices such as Senator John Cornyn and former Senator Joe Lieberman.
Matthew Miller, a Justice Department spokesman during the Obama administration, said in a tweet that Wray is “probably the best choice from the WH short list. His record in the Bush DOJ deserves scrutiny, but he’s a serious respectable pick.”
Former Obama administration ethics adviser Norm Eisen endorsed Trump’s decision, saying on Twitter that Wray is respected in the white-collar bar and did a good job on the Enron case.
Senator Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat and vice chairman of the Intelligence Committee that will hear Comey’s testimony on Thursday, said on MSNBC that Trump’s timing was “curious” and appeared intended to change the subject from Comey’s appearance.
Warner said he doesn’t know that much about Wray, but added that “I hear he had a good reputation.”
Legal Background
At Justice, Wray, who received a law degree from Yale in 1992, helped lead the department’s efforts to address the wave of corporate fraud scandals, overseeing the prosecution of Enron and HealthSouth, among other major investigations.
Jurors acquitted Scrushy of criminal charges in 2005 -- an embarrassment for the Justice Department after 15 HealthSouth executives pleaded guilty to a role in the fraud. Scrushy was later convicted in a separate bribery cases.
Wray left the Justice Department in 2005 and returned to the Atlanta-based law firm King & Spalding, where he’s now a litigation partner.
Wray represented Credit Suisse Group AG before it main bank unit pleaded guilty in 2014 and paid $2.6 billion, admitting that it helped thousands of Americans evade taxes.
Bridgegate
More recently, he represented Christie during the criminal investigation of a partisan plot to create crippling traffic near the George Washington Bridge as punishment for a local mayor who wouldn’t support the governor’s 2013 re-election.
Christie wasn’t charged, but two of his former allies were convicted at trial and a third pleaded guilty. Wray assumed a low profile during the investigation, while Christie aggressively asserted that he played no role in the traffic plot or the cover-up that followed.
If confirmed by the Senate, Wray would replace acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, who’s been in charge since Trump dismissed Comey. Wray would be leading the FBI as the agency and the Justice Department are enmeshed in a complicated and politically fraught investigation into Russian attempts to influence the 2016 election that may involve people close to Trump and, potentially, the president himself.
The FBI’s work on the Russia investigation is being overseen by Robert Mueller, a former FBI director who was named special counsel for that probe by deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein after Comey’s firing. Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from the Russia probe after misrepresenting his contact with Russian officials during the election.
Sessions’ recusal led to a widening rift with Trump, and a person familiar with the matter said Tuesday that Sessions had recently offered his resignation. Although Sessions remains in the post, White House press secretary Sean Spice on Tuesday declined to say whether Trump retains confidence in his attorney general.
Trump’s decision ends the nearly month-long search for a successor to Comey, who was fired May 9. Wray was among at least a dozen candidates who were interviewed for the post. Trump said May 18, before leaving on his first foreign trip as president, that Lieberman was one of his top choices to lead the bureau.
Samuel Buell, former prosecutor on the Enron Task Force who now teaches at Duke University School of Law, said that that previous FBI directors, including William Webster, Robert Mueller and Comey, all had deeper levels of Justice Department experience before moving into the job.
“He’s an experienced federal prosecutor, but not from a level of seniority and gravitas that one would expect to see in an FBI director in a time of crisis,” Buell said. “It’s obvious they talked to a lot of people, and some people weren’t comfortable about the job.
0 comments:
Post a Comment