This is an accepted version of this page Christopher Asher Wray (born December 17, 1966)[2] is an American attorney who served as the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from 2017 to 2025.

[11] His father, Cecil A. Wray Jr.,[12][13] was a graduate of Vanderbilt University and Yale Law School who worked as a lawyer at Debevoise & Plimpton in New York City.

"[18] His maternal grandfather, Samuel E. Gates, "helped shape the laws that govern national and international airline flights" as an official of the Bureau of Air Commerce.

[21] 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 represented several Fortune 100 companies and chaired the King & Spalding Special Matters and Government Investigations Practice Group.

[32] During his time at King & Spalding, Wray acted as New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's personal attorney during the Bridgegate scandal.

[33][34] Wray's firm also represents Russian energy giants Gazprom and Rosneft, an issue which came under contention during the confirmation process for position of FBI Director.

[38] Among other testimony, when asked if he believed that the investigation into Russian 2016 election interference and possible links to Trump's campaign is a "witch hunt", he stated that he did not.

[43] In January 2020, Senator Chris Murphy wrote to Wray, urging the FBI to "investigate the allegations" that Saudi Arabia "illegally compromised and stole personal data" from Jeff Bezos, the owner of The Washington Post, as part of a possible effort to "influence, if not silence, the Washington Post's reporting on Saudi Arabia".

[44][45] On June 4, 2020, Wray stated that "anarchists" like antifa are "exploiting" George Floyd protests "to pursue violent, extremist agendas".

[49] In May 2020, Wray ordered an internal review into possible misconduct in the FBI's investigation of Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

[52] On December 2, a member of then-president-elect Biden's transition team announced that if Wray was not fired or removed from his position by Trump, then he would remain Director of the FBI.

[55] After the 2024 presidential election, president-elect Donald Trump indicated that he would fire Wray and seek to replace him with former prosecutor Kash Patel.

[60] On December 9, 2019, Wray was interviewed by ABC News following the release of the DoJ inspector general's report on the origins of the Russia investigation.

"[63] Representatives Judy Chu, Ted Lieu, and Grace Meng released statements criticizing Wray's response as "irresponsible generalizations" implying that all Chinese students and scholars were spies.

[64] 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".

[65] In a follow-up interview with NBC, Wray stood by his earlier remarks: "To be clear, we do not open investigations based on race, or ethnicity, or national origin.

[21][72] From January 2016 to July 2017, the month of his confirmation, Wray earned $9.2 million working as an attorney for the law firm King & Spalding, significantly more than his salary as FBI Director.