Christopher Wray knew his time as FBI director was coming to an end.

If he didn’t know it already from everything Donald Trump had said, and the announcement of Kash Patel as the next FBI director, the letter from Senator Chuck Grassley on Monday was the final nail in the coffin.

“For the good of the country, it’s time for you and your deputy to move on to the next chapter in your lives,” Grassley (R-Iowa) wrote in a blistering 11-page letter to Wray, referring to the director and deputy director Paul Abbate.

“[I] must express my vote of no confidence in your continued leadership of the FBI.”

Grassley, 91, recounted Wray’s commitment to him that he’d reform the bureau in the wake of a politicization scandal seven years ago amid its probe into Russian collusion with the Trump campaign during the 2016 election cycle.

Then the Senate president pro tempore emeritus rattled through a list of grievances against the FBI on Wray’s watch — including how the bureau stonewalled records requests from Congress.

“President Trump has been subjected to a continuing double standard,” Grassley went on in the scathing letter.

“While the FBI under your leadership turned a blind eye to information contained in the FD-1023 that was prejudicial to President Biden, FBI agents conducted an unprecedented raid of President Trump’s home in Florida to serve a warrant for records,” he said.

That’s a reference to an informant file the FBI had outlining $10 million bribery accusations against President Biden and his son Hunter, which Grassley made public last year.

Wray knew he was going to be fired, and honestly, Donald Trump might have announced his firing during his inauguration speech. So, in an attempt to be master of his own destiny, Wray announced that he would resign at the end of Joe Biden’s term in January.

Mr. Wray told FBI employees that stepping down when Mr. Trump becomes president is “the right thing for the bureau.”

“My goal is to keep the focus on our mission — the indispensable work you’re doing on behalf of the American people every day. In my view, this is the best way to avoid dragging the bureau deeper into the fray while reinforcing the values and principles that are so important to how we do our work,” he said in an all-employee video town hall.

“It should go without saying, but I’ll say it anyway — this is not easy for me. I love this place, I love our mission, and I love our people — but my focus is, and always has been, on us and doing what’s right for the FBI,” he said.

And that, in a nutshell, is what was wrong with Christopher Wray. He says it himself: “my focus is, and always has been, on us and doing what’s right for the FBI.” FOR THE FBI. What about the American public, Director Wray? What about the American taxpayers that you are supposed to serve? What about the American parents that you had investigated for daring to ask questions and challenge school boards? What about the fact that you had no idea how many FBI informants were in the crowd on January 6th? And what about the misuse of FISA warrants during the investigation into Carter Page – your response, Director Wray, was essentially “oops, our bad” instead of firing people. The rot at the FBI ran deep, and Christopher Wray’s first impulse, by his own admission, was to focus on “doing what’s right for the FBI.” And that apparently meant not fixing any of the problems, just protecting the rot.

And should you think otherwise, Wray is making sure that his influence will be deeply rooted within the Bureau.

Mr. Wray has already begun promoting employees among the senior executive service, those who serve within the bureau’s leadership, according to sources within the bureau who described it as an effort to burrow establishment figures deeper within the FBI.

According to the… https://t.co/NsdLeE4Cow

— Kerry Picket (@KerryPicket) December 11, 2024

The whole post reads:

Mr. Wray has already begun promoting employees among the senior executive service, those who serve within the bureau’s leadership, according to sources within the bureau who described it as an effort to burrow establishment figures deeper within the FBI.

According to the sources, a plan is being formulated to slow-walk the new FBI director’s entry at the agency for three to four months.
Such a strategy by the agency is risky given the long, tense history the FBI and Mr. Trump have had since the 2016 presidential campaign.

The deputy director, Paul Abbate, will take over until Kash Patel can be confirmed. Abbate is no better than Wray, and Grassley also singled him out in his letter. The leadership has got to go in order for there to be some confidence in the FBI. The numbers don’t lie – trust in the agency has dropped.

"Jeez Louise": Views of the FBI have really soured in the last decade. The FBI's approval has gone from 59% to its century low mark at 41%.

The drop with the GOP is even greater from 62% to 26%.

Many (especially in the GOP) will welcome Trump trying to clean the FBI house. pic.twitter.com/N2N6NryD2x

— (((Harry Enten))) (@ForecasterEnten) December 3, 2024

Media figures like Ken Dilanian would like everyone to blame Donald Trump for the FBI’s lack of popularity.

NBC's Ken Dilanian whines during a Special Report on FBI Director Chris Wray stepping down that "perhaps no one is more to blame than Mr. Trump" for why Americans no longer trust the FBI thanks to "baseless" accusations pic.twitter.com/diZyOfShee

— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) December 11, 2024

Try again, buster. It wasn’t Donald Trump’s Department of Justice that sicced the FBI on American parents, or investigated and prosecuted pro-life protesters. In fact, it wasn’t Donald Trump’s DOJ that ended up paying off Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, or restoring Andrew McCabe’s pension. That all happened with Christopher Wray in charge.

When Wray was tapped to lead the FBI, he was returning to the DOJ after 12 years away. However, his loyalties lay with the Deep State. He could have stopped “Crossfire Hurricane” once it was known the Steele Dossier was fake. He didn’t. He could have allowed the investigation into Hunter Biden to go forward. He didn’t, and he shrugged off the accusations of bias within the Bureau, and allowed FBI agents to cover up the laptop itself. When given the chance, Wray always leaned in favor of the FBI, not the American people.

Despite the last-minute attempts by Wray and Abbate to slow or stall the Patel confirmation, or dig the Deep State in just a little deeper, the end is coming. The media is now lamenting the resignation of Wray, and people like McCabe are freaking out about Kash Patel and what is coming next. Christopher Wray has done untold amounts of damage to the FBI as an institution, and though Donald Trump said that Wray’s resignation is “a great day for America,” it will be an even better day when Wray leaves the building, and Kash Patel gets the keys to his office.

Featured image: FBI Director Christopher Wray, official portrait, cropped, public domain