The FBI director, Christopher Wray, is stepping down, nearly three years early, because President-elect Trump is replacing him. Any change is consequential because the FBI is a top agency in crime fighting, counterterrorism and counterespionage. Americans rely on the director to save lives, jail criminals, and not abuse his tremendous power. Christopher Wray’s term was among the most politically fraught in the bureau’s 116 years, with investigations targeting Donald Trump and Joe Biden. In his only interview since announcing his resignation we asked Wray about the political investigations but first, given the recent attacks in Las Vegas and New Orleans--we started with perhaps a more urgent question.

Scott Pelley: What is the greatest threat facing the incoming Trump administration?

Christopher Wray: Well, the greatest long-term threat facing our country, in my view, is represented by the People’s Republic of China, the Chinese government, which I consider to be the defining threat of our generation.

Scott Pelley: What has the FBI found about Chinese penetration of U.S. cyber and infrastructure?

Christopher Wray: China’s cyber program is by far and away the world’s largest– bigger than that of every major nation combined and has stolen more of Americans’ personal and corporate data than that of every nation, big or small, combined. But even beyond the cyber theft. There’s another part of the Chinese cyber threat that I think has not gotten the attention publicly that it I think desperately deserves. And that is Chinese government’s pre-positioning on American civilian critical infrastructure. To lie in wait on those networks to be in a position to wreak havoc and can inflict real-world harm at a time and place of their choosing.

Scott Pelley: The Chinese have already insinuated malware into critical American infrastructure?

Christopher Wray: That’s correct.

Scott Pelley: Like what?

Christopher Wray: Things like water treatment plants. We’re talking about transportation systems. We’re talking about targeting of our energy sector, the electric grid, natural gas pipelines. And recently we’ve seen targeting of our telecommunications systems.

Telecommunications, including intercepts at high-levels.

Scott Pelley: They have been listening to the telephone calls of people in the United States government?

Christopher Wray: Some people, we believe that they have collected their content, the actual communications of those people.

Wray wouldn’t say it, but we have confirmed China gathered communications of U.S. national security officials, the Kamala Harris campaign and Donald Trump himself. It’s part of a world of trouble, including the chaos in the Middle East—spawning new threats of terror.

Christopher Wray: There was a guy, a Pakistani citizen just a few months ago, who– we worked with our Canadian partners to arrest. This guy was trying to get into the U.S., to get to New York City to conduct a mass shooting at a Jewish center in Brooklyn. And, in his words, not my words, his words, he wanted to conduct the largest attack in the U.S. since 9/11. So what I would say to the American people is that, when you think these things are happening half a world away, it’s like that little inscription on your mirror in your car, “Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear.”

Scott Pelley: What is the latest on the terrorist in New Orleans?

Christopher Wray: It’s pretty clear so far that this is a guy who was radicalized online and who was determined to try to murder as many innocent people as he could in the name of ISIS. 

Scott Pelley: Was he in touch with ISIS directly or just inspired from afar?

Christopher Wray: The investigation’s very much ongoing. But what I can say right now is that he appears to have been inspired– from afar– by ISIS. And it is, in many ways– the most challenging type of terrorist threat we face. You’re talking about guys like this, who radicalize not in years but in weeks, and whose method of attack is still very deadly but fairly crude. And if you think about that old saying about connecting the dots, there are not a lot of dots out there to connect. And there’s very little time in which to connect them.

Scott Pelley: If it’s such a dangerous time, why resign?

Christopher Wray: Well, my decision to retire from the FBI, I have to tell you, was one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make. I care deeply, deeply– about the FBI, about our mission– and in particular about our people. But you know the president-elect had made clear that he intended to make a change, and the law is that that is something he is able to do for any reason or no reason at all. My conclusion was that the thing that was best for the Bureau was to try to do this in an orderly way, to not thrust the FBI deeper into the fray.

“The fray” is all 58-year-old Christopher Wray has known since he was appointed by President Trump. It was 2017, Trump fired FBI Director James Comey as the FBI investigated whether Trump campaign associates schemed with Russia to sway the 2016 election. Wray had deep experience, Yale Law, a Justice Department official on 9/11, and years in private practice. But Trump soured on Wray after the FBI investigated the alleged plot to overthrow the 2020 election.

Christopher Wray: Our job as investigators at the FBI is to the– follow the facts wherever they lead, no matter who likes it. And I add that last part because one of the things that I’ve seen over my seven and a half years as FBI director is that people often claim to be very interested in independence and objectivity until independence and objectivity lead to an outcome they don’t like. You know, truth is truth, not necessarily what either side wants it to be. And ultimately all we can do at the FBI is make sure that we stay focused on doing the work in the right way. Following our rules and not letting preferences, partisan or otherwise drive or taint the approach. 

Scott Pelley: And were those the rules followed in starting the investigations against the president-elect?

Christopher Wray: We tried very hard to make sure that we’ve stayed faithful to those principals and those rules, in every investigation that I can think of that’s been occurring on my watch.

Trump is also livid about the FBI search in 2022 for classified files at his home. A Trump lawyer certified that all classified papers had been returned to the government. But the FBI said later it found 72 documents marked top secret or secret— at least one about U.S. military strength. 

Christopher Wray: I want to be careful not to discuss too many of the specifics of an investigation. But what I can tell you is that– part of the FBI’s job is to safeguard classified information. And when we learn that information, classified material, is not being properly stored, we have a duty to act. And I can tell you that in investigations like this one, a search warrant is not and here was not anybody’s first choice. We always try to pursue, invariably try to pursue the least intrusive means: first trying to get the information back voluntarily, then with a subpoena. And only if, after all that, we learn that the agents haven’t been given all of the classified material and in fact those efforts have been frustrated, even obstructed, then our agents are left with no choice but to go to a federal judge, make a probable cause showing, and get a search warrant. And that’s – that’s what happened here.

Scott Pelley: What influence did the Biden White House have on any of these Trump investigations?

Christopher Wray: I haven’t had any interaction with the Biden White House about investigations into the former president.

Scott Pelley: Anybody at the FBI?

Christopher Wray: Not to my knowledge.

Wray’s FBI also investigated President Biden for keeping classified documents, and separately, investigated Biden’s son, Hunter, who was convicted on gun and tax charges. Biden pardoned his son last month calling the investigation “raw politics.”

Scott Pelley: But you’re being criticized by a Democratic president and a Republican president. What does that tell you?

Christopher Wray: This is a hard job. You’re inevitably going to make different people angry, often very powerful people. But part of the essence of the rule of law is to make sure that facts, and the law, and proper predication drive investigations, not who’s in power, not who wants it to be so or not so. 

Christopher Wray oversaw the largest case in FBI history—the attack on the Capitol in 2021. President-elect Trump has vowed to pardon many of the 1,500 people who were charged. 

Christopher Wray: I do think it’s important to step back and remember that we’re talking about hundreds of people who are convicted, most of them pled guilty of serious federal crimes. Heck, I think a 170 or so of them pled guilty to assaulting law enforcement, dozens of them with dangerous or deadly weapons. And there’s a whole bunch that were convicted of seditious conspiracy. We had a case in Tennessee just– a couple months ago where a jury convicted a January 6 defendant who had actually doubled down on his crimes by putting together a kill list to murder FBI agents. Now where I come from, violence against law enforcement, threats against law enforcement is serious business and totally unacceptable.

Trump is nominating for FBI director Kash Patel, who must still be confirmed by the Senate. Patel served in national security roles in Trump’s first administration. This is Patel outside the 2024 Republican National Convention. 

Kash Patel on Benny Johnson show: …and Donald Trump is a Warrior Titan. He demolishes government gangsters, he demolishes the Deep State, he wrecks the fake news and destroys the radicalized form of government. That is only something that a Warrior Titan can do.

In 2022, Patel wrote a children’s book, in which an all-seeing wizard named Kash protects King Donald. In 2023 Patel wrote an adult book naming officials he considers corrupt.

Scott Pelley: He calls you a “government gangster.” Are you concerned that they would turn the FBI on you?

Christopher Wray: You know, I’m not gonna weigh in on specific people or their rhetoric. From where I sit, facts and the law drive investigations, not politics or partisan preferences. 

The president-elect weighed in too, writing that Wray’s resignation was “a great day for America.” Trump wrote, “the FBI illegally raided my home without cause” and said that Wray had done everything to “interfere with the success and future of America.”

Scott Pelley: He’s saying that Christopher Wray is corrupt—out to sabotage the country. 

Christopher Wray: Listen, I’m accustomed to people expressing all sorts of opinions about me, just like about everything else. I can tell you that– I have been my whole life, my whole adult life, a conservative Republican, more importantly, a strict, by-the-book law enforcement professional I do take very seriously attacks against our people in the FBI. And I will tell you that the FBI that I see every single day is 38,000 career law enforcement professionals. Not one of them is a political appointee. Not one of ’em. And they tackle the job with a level of rigor, and tenacity, and professionalism, and objectivity that I think is unparalleled. And I will tell you it’s been the honor of a lifetime to serve with them.

Produced by Aaron Weisz and Pat Milton. Associate producer: Ian Flickinger. Broadcast associate: Michelle Karim. Edited by Daniel J. Glucksman. Assistant editor: Aisha Crespo.

Scott Pelley

Scott Pelley, one of the most experienced and awarded journalists today, has been reporting stories for 60 Minutes since 2004. The 2024-25 season is his 21st on the broadcast. Scott has won half of all major awards earned by 60 Minutes during his tenure at the venerable CBS newsmagazine.