--- title: Christopher Wray: Trump Picks New FBI Director description: President Trump has picked Christopher Wray, a former assistant attorney general, to be the new FBI Director. canonical: https://time.com/4808749/donald-trump-christopher-wray-fbi-director-2/ author: Madeline Farber article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-06-07T12:16:33.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-13T07:12:24.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: President Trump Announces His Pick for FBI Director Is Christopher Wray og:description: Wray represented Chris Christie in the Bridgegate scandal og:url: https://time.com/4808749/donald-trump-christopher-wray-fbi-director-2/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9b351ef178f0679b/6988d09297cdff1cfb6b10f9/christopher-wray-donald-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: christopher-wray-donald-trump og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: President Trump Announces His Pick for FBI Director Is Christopher Wray twitter:description: Wray represented Chris Christie in the Bridgegate scandal twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9b351ef178f0679b/6988d09297cdff1cfb6b10f9/christopher-wray-donald-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Announces His Pick for FBI Director Is Christopher Wray > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Madeline Farber](https://time.com/author/madeline-farber/) ## Madeline Farber Updated: Dec 13, 2023 7:12 AM UTCPublished: Jun 7, 2017 12:16 PM UTC  Donald Trump in Washington, DC, on May 12, 2017 (L); Christopher Wray in Washington, DC, on Jan. 12, 2005. Donald Trump in Washington, DC, on May 12, 2017 (L); Christopher Wray in Washington, DC, on Jan. 12, 2005. Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images (L); Lawrence Jackson—AP by [Madeline Farber](https://time.com/author/madeline-farber/) ## Madeline Farber Updated: Dec 13, 2023 7:12 AM UTCPublished: Jun 7, 2017 12:16 PM UTC In a tweet early Wednesday morning, [President Donald Trump](http://time.com/4808227/d-day-donald-trump-nato-paris-climate-allies/) announced he has picked Christopher A. Wray, a former assistant attorney general, to be the new Director of the FBI. The pick, which still needs approval by the Senate, comes after the White House said Trump was [interviewing two FBI](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/30/us/politics/trump-fbi-candidates.html?%5Fr=0) candidates in late May, one of whom was Wray, according to the [New York _Times_](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/30/us/politics/trump-fbi-candidates.html?%5Fr=0). Wray is a former assistant attorney general who oversaw the criminal division under President George W. Bush, according to the _Times_. Wray also represented Gov. Chris Christie in the “[Bridgegate”](http://time.com/4150947/republican-debate-chris-christie-rand-paul-bridgegate/) scandal, [according to NJ.com](http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2017/06/another%5Fchristie%5Flawyer%5Feyed%5Ffor%5Fjob%5Fin%5Ftrump%5Fadmi.html). > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/872419018799550464) Wray will replace James Comey, the former FBI Director Trump [fired](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/09/us/politics/james-comey-fired-fbi.html) in early May. Comey was a top official who lead a criminal investigation into whether or not Trump’s advisers colluded with the Russians to sway the results of the 2016 presidential election. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4808749/donald-trump-christopher-wray-fbi-director-2/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4808749/donald-trump-christopher-wray-fbi-director-2/"},"headline":"President Trump Announces His Pick for FBI Director Is Christopher Wray","datePublished":"2017-06-07T12:16:33.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-13T07:12:24.000Z","description":"Wray represented Chris Christie in the Bridgegate scandal","url":"https://time.com/4808749/donald-trump-christopher-wray-fbi-director-2/","keywords":["FBI","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9b351ef178f0679b/6988d09297cdff1cfb6b10f9/christopher-wray-donald-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Madeline Farber","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/madeline-farber/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9b351ef178f0679b/6988d09297cdff1cfb6b10f9/christopher-wray-donald-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"christopher-wray-donald-trump","caption":"Donald Trump in Washington, DC, on May 12, 2017 (L); Christopher Wray in Washington, DC, on Jan. 12, 2005.","creditText":"Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images (L); Lawrence Jackson—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/fbi/","name":"FBI"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4808749/donald-trump-christopher-wray-fbi-director-2/","name":"President Trump Announces His Pick for FBI Director Is Christopher Wray"}}]}] ```