Presumptive President-elect Joseph R. Biden will keep Christopher A. Wray as his FBI head unless President Trump fires him before he takes over, according to a report Thursday.
Citing a senior Biden official, The New York Times reported that the new administration is “not removing” the FBI director.
Typically, FBI directors serve their full 10-year terms, although Mr. Trump fired ex-FBI Director James B. Comey in 2017, with six years remaining on his tenure.
In October, a group representing current and former FBI agents called for Mr. Wray to finish his 10-year term regardless of who wins the election.
“Directory Wray is an asset to the bureau and a trusted leader of Agents in the field,” the FBI Agents Association President Brian O’Hare wrote in letters to both presidential candidates. “Our country is safer because of him.”
After the November election, Mr. Trump fired Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper. The president was widely expected to fire other top officials, including Mr. Wray, but the FBI director has so far held on to his job.
Mr. Trump and his allies are frustrated with the FBI director, and tension has been building for some time. The director’s public statements have contradicted the president on a host of issues from voting fraud to Antifa and Russian election interference in 2016.
Republicans also criticized Mr. Wray ahead of the election, frustrated by what they perceived as stonewalling by the bureau regarding a laptop purportedly belonging to Mr. Biden’s son, Hunter.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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