FBI Director Trump’s eye’s eye’ Ray, Biden retained

Christopher Ray, 55, head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), who was named the “purge target” of former President Donald Trump, has been retained from the administration of Joe Biden. White House spokesman Jen Saki said on Twitter on the 21st (local time) that “President (Biden) wants to retain Director Ray, and the director is confident in his work.”

Saki avoided a clear answer to the question of whether to remain the FBI director at the first White House briefing the day before, saying, “I haven’t talked specifically with Biden.” The Washington Post (WP) analyzed on the 21st that it seems to have been settled as it is observed that the director will be replaced.

Director Ray was directly appointed by former President Trump in June 2017, during the early days of the regime. At the time, James Komi remained in office, but when the “Russian scandal” investigation began in earnest, former President Trump dismissed him. At that time, suspicions arose that Trump’s camp was trying to influence the election by contacting Russia during the presidential election process. Director Ray emerged amid controversy that the president replaced the FBI head in order to avoid the blade of the investigation.

But Ray was also outside the eyes of former President Trump. At a hearing held in July of that year, he answered, “No,” to the question, “Do you think Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller is investigating the Russian scandal as’witch hunt’?” He even rated Muller as “a consummate professional and straight shooter.” In the early 2000s, when Robert Muller took over as FBI director, Ray worked with him as chief criminal investigations at the Department of Justice.

The conflict with former President Trump culminated through the presidential election last year. He attended the parliament and gave a testimony in support of the Russian scandal, saying, “Russia continued to spread false information about Candidate Biden.” Also, as the voting was imminent, Trump publicly complained that the FBI was not actively investigating the allegations of Biden’s son Hunter’s “collision in Ukraine”.

In November of last year, when former President Trump notified the news of former Defense Minister Mark Esper’s dismissal via Twitter, the New York Times (NYT) and others predicted that “one of the next turns will be Director Ray.” In December of last year, the NBC reported that “President Trump wanted to fire Director Ray, but a White House lawyer stopped it.”

Director Ray also visited Korea to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the FBI’s Korean branch in 2019. At that time, as the FBI director, he visited the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office after 20 years and met with Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol. At the time, the two talked about investigating a cryptocurrency phishing case. It was a case of arresting an exchange operator who created a phishing site through a US server and intercepted 900 million won worth of virtual currency’Ripple’. At the time, they used a US server to launder virtual currency, and the FBI provided investigative information, including the details of their transactions, to the Korean prosecution.

At the time, the schedule of Director Ray’s visit to Korea was not disclosed until departure for security reasons. For this reason, an unfounded article was posted in the US media related to North Korea, “National News Agency,” stating that “Chief Yun conducted a secret operation attacking the Moon Jae-in regime under the direction of the FBI.

Reporter Kim Sun-mi [email protected]