US Senate confirms Wray as new FBI director

By Safvan Allahverdi

WASHINGTON (AA) – The Senate on Tuesday voted overwhelmingly to confirm Christopher Wray as the new director of the FBI.

Wray will assume a post left vacant after James Comey was fired by President Donald Trump in May.

The Senate voted 92-5 to confirm Wray, who was nominated by Trump in June.

"The fact that all of my colleagues, Democrat and Republican, trusted Mr. Wray with their aye vote says what we need to know about Mr. Wray's ability to perform the important role of FBI director and to do it with integrity, with competence, with professionalism and the utmost respect for the Constitution and the rule of law," said Sen. Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

"We can't ask for Mr. Wray to do anything more than that," he added.

Wray told the committee during his confirmation hearing he would strive for independence.

"If I am given the honor of leading this agency, I will never allow the FBI's work to be driven by anything other than the facts, the law and the impartial pursuit of justice. Period. Full stop," he said.

Comey’s firing in May amid an ongoing bureau investigation into whether Trump campaign associates colluded with Russia in last year's election prompted many, including from within his own party, to question his rationale.

Trump said he made the decision based on the recommendation of the Justice Department but also asserted in a televised interview that “regardless of recommendation, I was going to fire Comey”. The president said in his dismissal letter that Comey assured him that he was not under investigation "on three separate occasions".

Wray is a lawyer who served as assistant attorney general during the George W. Bush administration. He previously led the federal investigation of Enron and represented New Jersey Governor Chris Christie in a scandal in which aides and political appointees ordered the closure of some lanes of the George Washington Bridge that links New York and New Jersey.

Christie was never charged in the case.