Christopher Asher Wray (born December 17, 1966) is an American lawyer currently serving as the eighth Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
From 2003 to 2005 Wray served as Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Criminal Division in the George W. Bush Administration. From 2005 to 2017 he was a litigation partner with the law firm King & Spalding.
Video Christopher A. Wray
Early life and education
Wray was born in New York City. His father, Cecil A. Wray Jr., was a graduate of Yale Law School and worked as a lawyer at Debevoise & Plimpton in New York. He attended the Buckley School in New York City and the private boarding school Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. In 1989, Wray graduated cum laude from Yale University, and earned his J.D. degree in 1992 at Yale Law School. While at Yale, Wray was the Executive Editor of the Yale Law Journal. Wray spent a year clerking for Judge J. Michael Luttig of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
Maps Christopher A. Wray
Career
Government service
Wray joined the government in 1997 as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia. In 2001, he moved to the Justice Department as Associate Deputy Attorney General and Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General.
On June 9, 2003, President George W. Bush nominated Wray to be the 33rd Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Criminal Division of the Justice Department. Wray was unanimously confirmed by the Senate on September 11, 2003. Wray was Assistant Attorney General from 2003 to 2005, working under Deputy Attorney General James Comey. While heading the Criminal Division, Wray oversaw prominent fraud investigations, including Enron. In March 2005, Wray announced that he would resign from his post. His last day at the Justice Department was on May 17, 2005.
In 2005, Wray received the Edmund J. Randolph Award, the Justice Department's highest award for public service and leadership.
Private law practice
Wray joined King & Spalding in 2005 as a litigation partner in the firm's Washington, D.C., and Atlanta offices. Wray represented several Fortune 100 companies and chaired the King & Spalding Special Matters and Government Investigations Practice Group. During his time at King & Spalding, Wray acted as New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's personal attorney during the Bridgegate scandal.
FBI Director
On June 7, 2017, President Donald Trump announced his intention to nominate Wray to be the next Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, replacing James Comey, who was dismissed by Trump on May 9, 2017. Trump interviewed Wray for the vacant FBI Director job on May 30, 2017, according to then Press Secretary Sean Spicer. Wray's Senate confirmation hearing commenced on July 12, 2017. Among other testimony, when asked if he believed that the investigation into Russian election interference and possible links to Trump's campaign is a "witch hunt", he stated that he did not.
On July 20, 2017, the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously recommended to confirm Wray as the next Director of the FBI. Wray was officially confirmed by the Senate with bipartisan support on August 1, 2017; the vote was 92-5. He was sworn in by Attorney General Jeff Sessions in a private ceremony on August 2, 2017. Wray was formally sworn in on September 28, 2017, in a ceremony that was not attended by President Trump, marking the first time an FBI director has been sworn in without the President who nominated him present at the ceremony.
On February 13, 2018, in a hearing before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Senator Marco Rubio [R-FL] asked Wray about the risk posed from Chinese students in advanced science and mathematics programs. In response, Wray stated "nontraditional collectors" (which he elaborated to include professors, scientists, and students) are "exploiting the very open research and development environment that we have" and consequently he viewed the risk "as not just a whole of government threat but a whole of society threat". Representatives Judy Chu [D-CA], Ted Lieu [D-CA], and Grace Meng [D-NY] released statements criticizing Wray's response as "irresponsible generalizations" implying that all Chinese students and scholars were spies. A coalition of Asian American advocacy groups wrote an open letter to Wray asking for a dialogue "to discuss how well-intentioned public policies might nonetheless lead to troubling issues of potential bias, racial profiling, and wrongful prosecution." In a follow-up interview with NBC, Wray stood by his earlier remarks, elaborating that "To be clear, we do not open investigations based on race, or ethnicity, or national origin. But when we open investigations into economic espionage, time and time again, they keep leading back to China."
Personal life
Wray married Helen Garrison Howell, a Yale classmate, in 1989. They have a son, Trip, and a daughter, Caroline, and live in Georgia.
References
External links
- FBI Director biography
- Department of Justice biography
- Appearances on C-SPAN
Source of the article : Wikipedia
0 Comments