--- description: President Trump has picked Christopher Wray, a former assistant attorney general, to be the new FBI Director. title: President Trump Announces His Pick for FBI Director Is Christopher Wray image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9b351ef178f0679b/6988d09297cdff1cfb6b10f9/christopher-wray-donald-trump.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Politics](/section/politics/) ## Politics Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [FBI](/tag/fbi/) ## FBI Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # President Trump Announces His Pick for FBI Director Is Christopher Wray by [Madeline Farber](/author/madeline-farber/) ## Madeline Farber Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Updated: Dec 13, 2023 7:12 AM CUTPublished: Jun 7, 2017 12:16 PM CUT  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](/author/madeline-farber/) ## Madeline Farber Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Updated: Dec 13, 2023 7:12 AM CUTPublished: Jun 7, 2017 12:16 PM CUT In a tweet early Wednesday morning, [President Donald Trump](http://time.com/4808227/d-day-donald-trump-nato-paris-climate-allies/ "undefined") 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 "undefined") 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 "undefined"). 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/ "undefined") scandal, [according to NJ.com](http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2017/06/another%5Fchristie%5Flawyer%5Feyed%5Ffor%5Fjob%5Fin%5Ftrump%5Fadmi.html "undefined"). > [](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 "undefined") 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"}}]}] ```