FBI Director Chris Wray resigning amid pressure from Trump
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(WASHINGTON) — FBI Director Christopher Wray told employees at an internal town hall on Wednesday that he is resigning, according to sources familiar with the meeting.
He said he is stepping down at the end of the current Biden administration.
“After weeks of careful thought, I’ve decided the right thing for the Bureau is for me to serve until the end of the current Administration in January and then step down. 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 his remarks.
“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.
“When you look at where the threats are headed, it’s clear that the importance of our work – keeping Americans safe and upholding the Constitution — will not change. And what absolutely cannot, must not change is our commitment to doing the right thing, the right way, every time. Our adherence to our core values, our dedication to independence and objectivity, and our defense of the rule of law — those fundamental aspects of who we are must never change,” he said. “That’s the real strength of the FBI — the importance of our mission, the quality of our people, and their dedication to service over self. It’s an unshakeable foundation that’s stood the test of time, and cannot be easily moved. And it — you, the men and women of the FBI — are why the Bureau will endure and remain successful long into the future.”
Wray, who was appointed by President-elect Donald Trump and confirmed in August 2017, oversaw the agency in a “heightened threat environment” and number of high-profile cases, including the investigation of the man who appointed him.
As FBI director, Wray oversaw the investigation into the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob, hundreds of Chinese espionage cases, the probes into Trump’s and President Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents as well as thousands more criminal investigations.
Wray was nominated by Trump after he fired his predecessor, James Comey.
Republican critics have accused Wray’s FBI of political interference, a lack of transparency and a lack of responsiveness to Congress.
Iowa GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley, the incoming chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to Wray on Dec. 9, expressing a “vote of no confidence” in Wray and his deputy director.
“For the good of the country, it’s time for you and your deputy to move on to the next chapter of your life,” Grassley writes.
Trump has picked Kash Patel to replace Wray at the FBI.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Chair of the Democratic National Committee Jaime Harrison bangs the gavel on the first day of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) at the United Center in Chicago, Aug. 19, 2024. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The Democratic National Committee is hoping to highlight down-ballot successes last month as it hosts a key post-election meeting and looks to turn the page from its stinging White House loss.
DNC Chair Jaime Harrison wrote in a grassroots memo obtained first by ABC News that while Democrats fell short in the presidential race, beefy and historic investments in down-ballot contests offer a roadmap to success. The party was able to salvage four Senate races in states President-elect Donald Trump won and gain House seats despite headwinds at the top of the ticket.
“As we reflect on the cycle and take stock of where we fell short, it’s equally important to assess what worked. Data shows that the work of the DNC and our partners was effective in beating back what could have been a larger red wave,” Harrison wrote.
“In 2024, the DNC made strategic campaign grants in every state party for the first time in history, and delivered record-breaking investments directly to coordinated campaigns in every state — totaling over $264 million,” he added. “These investments yielded results and underscore the importance of continued state party investment…”
The memo marks the first public, thorough dissection by the DNC of the election results, in which Vice President Kamala Harris lost to Trump and Republicans flipped the Senate and kept the House of Representatives.
The document paints a rosy portrait of a party that failed to keep the White House but won Senate races in Trump-won states like Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, and Wisconsin, key House races in California and New York, and won a gubernatorial race in North Carolina, a state that has been a white whale for Democrats at the federal level.
Harrison specifically writes that despite the disappointments, Trump was kept below 50% in the popular vote (he still won it), Democrats held Senate seats in states Trump won and cut into Republicans’ House margin, and the party was successful in breaking some GOP state legislative majorities and holding on in certain chambers, including its one-seat majority in the Pennsylvania state House.
The memo highlights DNC efforts in all those cases, including voter registration efforts, investments in key demographic groups in Senate races, efforts in New York and California to boost prospects in key House races there and money sent to traditionally noncompetitive states like Alaska and Arkansas to make state legislative gains.
“Notable down-ballot wins in 2024 provide us with a roadmap on what works and where investments mattered most,” Harrison wrote.
The memo is being released at the start of a meeting of the Association of State Democratic Committees, where state party leaders will gather to discuss what went right and wrong in November.
The election is sparking a crowded race to lead the DNC, with Harrison not running for reelection as chair, and a broader party reckoning over its identity and whether it should be more centrist, populist, progressive or some combination of the three.
In an interview, Harrison conceded the election was a “mixed bag.”
“Of course, we lost the most important election on that ticket, the presidential election, and I’m heartbroken over that,” he said.
“But then when we start to look underneath that race and look into the battleground states, and what happened in other races, it’s, again, a mixed bag. Donald Trump didn’t have the coattails. It was not this landslide vote that many people wanted to say that it was on Election Day because Democrats still won in many of those battleground states.”
Harrison cited several reasons behind the “mixed” results.
On the one hand, Harris faced a historically short runway after President Joe Biden left the race in July, combined with economic headwinds and a liberal media ecosystem that still struggles to match Republican heavyweights like Fox News. Trump, Harrison said, had emerged as a “cultural” figure over the course of nine years who was able to put together an expansive coalition.
“I think time definitely was a part of it,” Harrison said. “I thought that she was going to be become sort of a cultural figure. Just seeing the early energy, I need to tell you, man, just that convention alone, I felt like there was something turning. But it didn’t go full circle. And that’s something that we got to figure out. Why not? Did we change the message? What did we do in order not to have it go full circle?”
“I don’t know if we need to find our own Joe Rogan [the influential podcaster who interviewed then endorsed Trump days before the election], and I’ve heard that from a number of folks, but I think we need to make sure that we’re in in all those spaces,” he added of whether Democrats need to expand their media strategy in traditional and non-traditional outlets.
Still, Harrison found positive signs in a state party infrastructure that Democrats had worked hard to revive after years of atrophy in recent years.
“We got to continue those investments. We can’t go back to the post-Obama years in which we minimized the amount of resources that the DNC sent to state parties,” he said. “We are still trying to work our way back from that point in time. So, now, it’s about focusing on continuing moving forward.”
Still, the meeting isn’t taking place in a vacuum, and the present could get in the way of discussions about the future.
Biden dropped a bombshell Sunday night when he announced that he was pardoning his son, Hunter, leading to a flood of Democratic criticism Monday over his intervention in Justice Department proceedings.
However, Harrison said he believed that the ASDC meeting would stay on track.
“The president is a good man, he’s a decent man, he’s a just person, and he always tries to do the best thing, and this is, I believe, the best thing at this point in time,” Harrison said. “Almost to a person, the Democrats that I’ve talked to, grassroots activists, Democrats, are leading. This won’t consume that.”
(WASHINGTON) — The FBI and Defense Department are investigating what could be a significant intelligence breach, disclosing what appears to be classified information about Israel’s plans to strike Iran, U.S. officials said Monday.
Here’s what we know so far:
Two leaked documents seem to divulge US analysis on Israel’s plans against Iran
Earlier this month, Israel vowed to retaliate against Iran for its Oct. 1 missile attack, when Iran launched 200 missiles at various targets inside Israel. It wasn’t clear, however, how or when Israel would respond.
Amid speculation on Israel’s next move, two documents marked “top secret” surfaced on social media last week that purported to show analysis by the U.S. military on Israeli operations.
One document purports to be from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), a military agency that collects, analyzes and distributes intelligence gleaned from satellite and aerial imagery. The second claims to contain intelligence generated by the National Security Agency. (NSA).
ABC News is not quoting directly from or showing the documents, which appear to detail movement of Israeli military equipment and munitions that could be used in a potential strike.
One of the documents claimed Israel could strike Iran without the U.S. seeing any further visual clues from above.
According to one person familiar with the investigation, the FBI was investigating the leak as part of a criminal probe. The White House said Monday the Defense Department was also investigating the disclosure and that officials have discussed the suspected breach with Israel.
“We’re deeply concerned, and the president remains deeply concerned about any leakage of classified information into the public domain. That is not supposed to happen, and it’s unacceptable when it does, so he’s deeply concerned about that,” White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters on Monday.
Kirby said there is no indication more documents could be released, but “we’re certainly going to keep our antenna up and our eyes open for any potential future disclosures.”
When asked Monday about the leak, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin declined to talk specifics other than to say “we take these types of things very seriously. Very, very seriously.”
It’s not clear yet if the documents were leaked by an insider or stolen by a hacker
Both documents have markings indicating that, if authentic, they would have been shared with the so-called Five Eyes, the intelligence-sharing alliance made up of the United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
The documents surfaced on a Telegram channel called Middle East Spectator, an anonymous blog that frequently publishes pro-Iran content. The channel’s administrator told ABC News they obtained the documents through an acquaintance who received them from an unknown source. The administrator denied being affiliated with any government.
The documents have markings indicating that, if authentic, they would have been shared with the so-called Five Eyes, the intelligence-sharing alliance made up of the United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
It’s possible that a foreign entity such as the government of Iran stole the documents by hacking the systems of nations with access to the intelligence. But at least one official familiar with the investigation said the probe will focus aggressively on anyone who works for or with the U.S. government and had access to the material.
When asked about the possibility that the leak was done by an insider, Kirby declined to speculate.
“We’ll let the investigation pursue its logical course there,” Kirby said.
Earlier this year, Massachusetts Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira pleaded guilty to six counts of willful retention and transmission of national defense information. According to prosecutors, Teixeira leaked information in a Discord chat room on the type of equipment the U.S. was sending Ukraine, troop movements in Ukraine and a plot by a foreign adversary to attack U.S. forces abroad.
What’s next?
Lawmakers are likely to have serious questions about how another major public disclosure of classified information could happen again after the Teixeira case.
House Speaker Mike Johnson told CNN on Sunday that lawmakers were receiving a classified briefing.
Another question is whether the leak has forced Israel to adjust its military plans.
“If it is true that Israel’s tactical plans to respond to Iran’s attack on Oct. 1 have been leaked, it is a serious breach,” said Mick Mulroy, an ABC News national security and defense contributor who served as the deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East.
“Everyone that has access to this information has an obligation to keep it secure,” Mulroy said. “The men and women of the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] that would carry out this mission could be compromised because of this, the future coordination between the U.S. and Israel could be challenged as well.”
ABC News’ Christopher Looft and Luke Barr contributed to this report.
Republican Sen. Mike Rounds emphasized his support for current FBI Director Christopher Wray after President-elect Donald Trump announced he intended to nominate loyalist Kash Patel for the department’s top job.
“I think the president picked a very good man to be the director of the FBI when he did that in his first term,” Rounds told ABC “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl about Wray. “When we meet with him behind closed doors, I’ve had no objections to the way that he’s handled himself, and so I don’t have any complaints about the way that he’s done his job right now.”
However, Rounds reiterated the president-elect’s right to select his Cabinet and Trump’s selection of Patel is not surprising.
“It doesn’t surprise me that he will pick people that he believes are very loyal to himself, and that’s been a part of the process,” Rounds said. “Every president wants people that are loyal to themselves.”
In his book “Government Gangsters,” Patel calls for a “comprehensive housecleaning” of the Justice Department and an eradication of “government tyranny” within the FBI, promising to fire and prosecute officials. Patel has also promoted conspiracy theories about the “Deep State” and vehemently defended Jan. 6 rioters.
FBI directors are nominated and confirmed to serve 10-year terms. After being nominated by Trump, Wray’s term began in August 2017. Months earlier, Trump had fired James Comey, who was still less than four years into his tenure as director. Trump did not mention Wray in his Truth Social post announcing Patel for director, but unless Wray resigns the position, Trump will have to fire him to nominate a new leader.
“The president has the right to make nominations, but normally these are for a 10-year term,” Rounds explained. “We’ll see what his process is and whether he actually makes that nomination.”
Rounds reiterated that although the Senate will give Trump the “benefit of the doubt,” it will uphold its “constitutional role.”
“We still go through a process, and that process includes advice and consent, which, for the Senate, means advice or consent sometimes,” Rounds promised.
Turning to the global stage, Rounds — a staunch supporter of the U.S. aiding Ukraine in its war against Russia — called Russian President Vladimir Putin a “tyrant” and suggested that negotiating with him may be futile.
“I think Mr. Putin is a tyrant. I think dealing with him is going to be extremely difficult,” Rounds said, expressing hope for Trump to succeed but recognizing that this would present a challenge for “any president.”
“I want to see Ukraine with its sovereignty protected,” he said. “I just think it’s going to be a major, major task to overcome what Putin is offering” on Ukraine giving up territory to end the war.
He added that you cannot trust “a guy that doesn’t honor their word,” which he says Putin has done.
In regard to Trump’s promise to slap 25% tariffs on all imports from Canada and Mexico, Rounds said the president-elect is a “successful businessman” who “really does believe that tariffs can be a great tool.”
“He thinks that by suggesting these tariffs right now, he’s going to get the attention of the leaders in the other countries,” Rounds said, adding that Trump believes the tariffs will “fix our borders.”
However, Rounds also recognized the potential impact tariffs could have on his constituents, particularly South Dakota farmers who could be affected by the tariffs.
In 2018, China retaliated against Trump’s tariffs by implementing its own on U.S. soybean exports that hurt U.S. farmers.
“Look, we’re an [agricultural] state. And when I talk to my farmers and to my ranchers about that, they’re concerned about retaliation,” Rounds said, though he added that they understand the importance of tariffs, especially when it comes to the border.
“If we’ve got to have tariffs, so be it,” he said. “We’re going to support the president.”
