President Donald Trump has announced he will nominate a former Justice Department official as Federal Bureau of Investigation director.
President Trump's choice earned praise from Norm Eisen, a Brookings Institute fellow and former ethics czar for former President Barack Hussein Obama.
Wray then served as Associate Deputy Attorney General before becoming the Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Justice Department's Criminal Division.
Wray represented Christie during the so-called "Bridgegate" controversy, in which three Christie aides were convicted of closing lanes on the George Washington Bridge to punish a New Jersey mayor who had opposed the governor.
Wray needs to be confirmed by the Senate in order to serve as FBI Director. Ryan said he favored a "career person" and that Wray "certainly seems to fit that bill". "I've worked with Chris for a number of years and always had complete confidence in him".
More importantly, however, key members of the House - and especially the Senate, who will be tasked with "advice and consent" on his pick - were not told. Comey will testify before the Senate on Thursday in its investigation into Russian meddling in the presidential election.
"It appears, obviously, that the president is trying to change the topic because we've got two days of hearings here that could be explosive", Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the intelligence panel, Warner told MSNBC. "There will be a time and place to review him".
Trump called Wray "a man of impeccable credentials", but offered no more information about the selection, except to end the tweet with "Details to follow". The panel's Republican chairman, Iowa Sen.
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Others on Mr. Trump's list had been former Gov.
"I don't know the guy, but I've looked at his resume, he seems like to me he's the flawless kind of person", Ryan said during his news conference.
While it is almost a quarter-century since Wray was there, the Fourth Circuit has earned Trump's ire recently for refusing to reinstate his administration's proposed travel ban.
At the Justice Department, Wray worked on corporate fraud scandals and cases involving USA financial markets, according to his biography on the law firm's website. Given that the Senate is already conducting a probe into Russian interference in the USA election and its connections to people in Trump's administration, it's entirely possible that Wray might receive questions about his firm's involvement with Rosneft as a client as well.
Trump announced Wednesday that he was nominating Wray to replace James Comey. Interestingly enough, Wray worked alongside Comey at Bush's justice department when the latter was deputy attorney general, a position he also held from 2003 to 2005. In 1997, he joined the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia.
He's also has represented a slew of Fortune 100 companies that have been the subject of state and federal investigations. A graduate of Yale Law School and veteran of the George W. Bush administration, he has extensive experience in both government and the private sector.
Ken Wainstein, former chief of the Justice Department's National Security Division, described Wray as "an exceptionally strong choice".
Comey had been leading an FBI investigation into allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 USA presidential election and possible collusion with Trump's campaign when he was sacked.
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