Former FBI Director Wray Under Federal Investigation: Report
Former FBI Director Christopher Wray is now the subject of a wide-ranging federal investigation into possible obstruction of justice, false statements to Congress, and mishandling of classified documents, according to reports from The Wall Street Journal and CNN.
The inquiries—spanning multiple jurisdictions and involving at least one grand jury—center on Wray’s conduct during the final years of the Biden administration, including his handling of politically charged matters such as the Durham probe into the origins of the Trump–Russia hoax.
Prosecutors have reportedly issued subpoenas to several former senior FBI officials and have interviewed bureau staff who worked on the seventh floor of FBI headquarters, where Wray’s leadership offices were located. Investigators are probing allegations that evidence tied to the Durham investigation was deliberately destroyed or concealed, possibly through the use of “burn bags” in a restricted area of the building.
The Journal also noted that former CIA Director John Brennan—a central architect of the intelligence community’s handling of the Trump–Russia narrative—is under separate scrutiny related to the same period.
Sources told CNN that the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Virginia is leading the national security–related inquiry into Wray, with multiple prosecutors examining whether bureau officials under his command engaged in document destruction, concealment, or perjury.
A major focus of investigators is Wray’s congressional testimony in 2020 and 2021, during which he claimed the FBI had “seen no coordinated national effort” involving election interference or fraud. However, a recently declassified intelligence report, turned over to Congress by current FBI Director Kash Patel, showed the bureau had confirmed evidence that the Chinese government mass-produced counterfeit U.S. driver’s licenses ahead of the 2020 election—allegedly to facilitate mail-in ballot fraud benefiting Joe Biden.
Wray also faces accusations of misleading Congress about the now-infamous “Richmond product”—a 2023 FBI memo labeling “radical-traditionalist Catholics” as potential domestic terrorists. Wray told lawmakers the document was “a single office’s mistake” that was “immediately retracted.” But subsequent investigations revealed the memo was distributed to over 1,000 FBI employees and coordinated with multiple field offices.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), who helped uncover the memo, blasted Wray’s prior testimony as “inaccurate and incomplete,” saying more than a dozen related FBI products had been found across the bureau’s systems. Grassley’s Oversight Project has accused Wray of obstructing congressional oversight and committing perjury under federal law.
The expanding investigation into Wray comes amid sweeping internal reforms led by FBI Director Kash Patel, who succeeded him earlier this year under President Donald J. Trump’s second term. Patel has dismissed several top officials, dismantled the FBI’s controversial CR-15 corruption unit, and ended the bureau’s partnerships with activist organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC)—which he called “partisan smear machines.”
“We’re cleaning up a diseased temple three decades in the making,” Patel said recently, pledging “full transparency” as the bureau undergoes what he described as its “greatest reform since Hoover.”
Patel also confirmed a joint Treasury Department investigation into the financing of extremist groups, including Antifa.
“We are following the money. Money never lies,” he said. “We’re going to trace every dollar, every donor, and every account funding domestic terrorism in this country.”
The ongoing probes into Wray and other former intelligence officials mark a turning point in the Trump administration’s broader push for accountability within the federal security establishment—a system long accused by conservatives of bias, secrecy, and politicization.
While Wray’s allies argue that he attempted to maintain the FBI’s neutrality amid intense political crossfire, critics say his tenure will be remembered as one of the most partisan eras in bureau history, characterized by selective enforcement, disregard for oversight, and open hostility toward traditional American values.
Neither Wray nor his attorneys have commented publicly on the investigation. Both the Justice Department and FBI declined to respond to media requests.