Biden to keep FBI director after uncertainty

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - US President Joe Biden intends to keep FBI Director Christopher Wray in his position, the White House confirmed Thursday after uncertainty was elicited on the recently-inaugurated president's first day.

Spokeswoman Jen Psaki declined to comment on the matter when asked by reporters during her first news conference Wednesday, saying she had "not spoken within him about specifically FBI Director Wray in recent days," referring to Biden.

Acknowledging the "unintentional ripple" her comments caused, Psaki stated definitively on Twitter that "President Biden intends to keep FBI Director Wray on in his role and he has confidence in the job he is doing."

Wray was confirmed to a 10-year term atop the bureau in August 2017 after being nominated by President Donald Trump the month prior. Wray's term, typical for all FBI directors, was slated to run past the Trump administration even if it received a second term from voters, which it did not.

Trump notably fired former FBI Director James Comey in May 2017 as the bureau was probing his campaign's links to Russia, a point of aggravation for the former president. The decision to dismiss Comey raised questions about political interference in the federal government's leading law enforcement agency.

It is exceedingly rare for a president to fire an FBI chief and Trump was just the second president to dismiss a director in the bureau's more than 100-year history.