Just one day before former FBI Director James Comey’s testimony before Congress, President Donald Trump has stolen the show.
Trump announced early Wednesday his nominee to replace Comey as the top FBI chief: Christopher Wray, a respected former Justice Department official with decades of experience.
Here are five key things to know about Wray — and why the media is NOT happy with the move.
1) Wray is considered a smart, bipartisan pick
Wray began his career as an assistant U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia in 1997 and quickly worked his way up. In Trump’s announcement tweet, the president described Wray as “a man of impeccable credentials.”
He’s not alone. In 2003, when former President George W. Bush nominated Wray to the position of assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, he was approved unanimously by Congress.
While there, Wray oversaw several high-profile investigations, from the Enron scandal to the Justice Department’s response to radical Islamic terrorism post-9/11.
There were no objections from Democrats and liberals then.
2) Wray once threatened to resign in a face-off over domestic spying with George W. Bush’s White House
According to CNN, “Wray was among the top Justice Department officials who planned to resign en masse with Comey and then-FBI Director Robert Mueller after top White House officials attempted in 2004 to reinstate a warrantless domestic surveillance program that the Justice Department had ruled illegal.”
During the face-off against the Bush administration, there were no objections from Democrats and liberals on Wray’s integrity.
3) The mainstream media hates the pick… because they can’t complain
Over the past year, liberal news organizations have made millions of dollars attacking everything Trump has done.
But there’s a 20-year history of Wray’s bipartisanship that was consistently praised by Democrats and liberals — and that has caught the mainstream media off-guard.
How does a news organization attack Trump over the Wray nomination, when they’ve seemingly never once said a negative thing about Wray?
The media has been working hard for hours to figure it out — and everyone knows that liberals hate hard work.
4) Wray is an expert in white-collar crimes
Since leaving the Justice Department in 2005, Wray has been working for the prestigious lawfirm King and Spalding.
“Mr. Wray chairs the King & Spalding Special Matters and Government Investigations Practice Group, which represents companies, audit and special committees, and individuals in a variety of white-collar criminal and regulatory enforcement matters, parallel civil litigation, and internal corporate investigations,” according to the company’s website.
Experts consider Wray one of the nation’s top litigators in white-collar crimes — which is bad news for Wall Street bankers.
5) Wray was Chris Christie’s attorney during Bridgegate
While at King and Spalding, Wray personally represented New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie during the “Bridgegate” scandal.
Investigators have been probing lane closures at the George Washington Bridge during Christie’s tenure — and Christie, a Trump loyalist, had high praise for the work he did.
Last week, Christie spoke to The Bergen Record and mentioned that Trump “would not be making a mistake” to hire Wray as the new FBI director.
— The Horn editorial team