Trump Picks Wray to Head FBI; Mainstream Media Say It’s Smokescreen for Comey Hearing

This article appeared online at TheNewAmerican.com on Wednesday, June 7, 2017:

The mainstream media, alerted to a Tweet President Trump sent early Wednesday morning indicating that he would nominate high-profile litigator Christopher Wray as FBI director, scrambled to find something negative to say about the choice. The best the New York Times could come up with was that he is a “hybrid pick,” whatever that means, but that the timing was suspicious: “Mr. Trump’s news may represent an attempt to inject credibility [whatever that means] into an investigation [that starts on Thursday].”

CNN likewise could find nothing negative in Wray’s background, so it, the least credible member of the MSM, focused instead on the timing, “The timing could also be aimed at blunting the impact of Comey’s testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday [where] Comey is expected to refute Trump’s claim…” etc.

Joining in the chorus of Trump naysayers was Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on Senate Intelligence Committee, who is also skeptical of the timing of Trump’s announcement. He declared,

I think it is more than a little bit curious that the President chose this morning as the time to announce his new FBI head. There will be a time and place to review him. But it seems to me that this is an effort to try to take people’s attention off what is going to be the main event, at least for the next two days: the leaders of our intelligence community and the FBI director.

Wray’s curriculum vitae at King & Spaulding where he currently resides as the firm’s litigation partner is certainly impressive. Prior to joining the firm, he served under President George W. Bush as assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. The Senate confirmed him unanimously for that position in 2003. He oversaw the Enron Task Force and was key to the Justice Department’s response to the 9/11 attacks. He has been an active litigator in numerous high-profile cases, the most notable of which was in connection with his personal representation of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie during the so-called “Bridgegate” scandal. In 2005, he received the Edmund J. Randolph Award, the highest award the Justice Department gives out, in recognition of his efforts and successes.

Equally impressive is the effusive praise Wray received from one of the other candidates Trump was considering for the position, Alice Fisher. Also a former assistant attorney general under President Bush (during his second term), Fisher stated:

Chris is a wonderful choice to lead the F.B.I., who cares deeply about the institution and already has strong relationships with the F.B.I. His background at the helm of the criminal division offered an excellent experience working on national security, white-collar crime and a range of federal crimes.

Since the liberally biased national media could find nothing of substance with which to charge Wray, he must be a good choice for the position. He might not be approved unanimously by the Senate as he was in 2003, given the animosity against Trump by Senate Democrats such as Warner, but he should, after a few hours or perhaps days of intensive scrutiny, be confirmed to fill the position as FBI’s new director.

In this case, what the national mainstream media has done in its continuing attempts to damage the president is only to sully itself further.