Former FBI Director Christopher Wray is now the target of an expanding federal investigation into possible obstruction of justice, false statements, and mishandling of classified materials, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.
The inquiry, which has already resulted in subpoenas to several former senior FBI officials, centers on Wray’s leadership during the latter years of the Biden administration and his handling of politically sensitive investigations, including the Durham probe into the origins of the Trump–Russia investigation.
The Journal reports that prosecutors are also investigating former CIA Director John Brennan, another figure central to the intelligence community’s handling of politically charged matters during the Trump presidency. “Former officials have received subpoenas in recent days in the Wray inquiry,” the report said, citing a person with direct knowledge of the matter.
A separate report from CNN indicated that the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Virginia is leading a national security–related investigation into Wray’s actions. That inquiry reportedly focuses on whether FBI officials under Wray destroyed or concealed evidence connected to the Durham special counsel investigation.
Sources familiar with the matter told CNN that investigators are examining the use of “burn bags” inside a restricted area on the seventh floor of FBI headquarters—where the bureau’s leadership suite is located—and whether documents tied to the Durham probe were improperly destroyed.
Investigators have reportedly interviewed current and former FBI staff who worked on that floor between 2020 and 2024, when Wray served as director. The probe is said to involve multiple prosecutors, with the FBI’s prior handling of politically sensitive materials drawing renewed attention from oversight committees and from current FBI Director Kash Patel, who succeeded Wray earlier this year.
According to the referral, Wray falsely testified in 2020 and 2021 that the FBI had seen no coordinated national effort of election interference or voter fraud. However, a recently declassified FBI intelligence report—turned over to Congress by Director Patel—shows the bureau had evidence that the Chinese government mass-produced counterfeit U.S. driver’s licenses ahead of the 2020 election. The report claimed the fake IDs were intended to facilitate mail-in ballot fraud favoring then-candidate Joe Biden.
Wray is also accused of giving misleading testimony about the FBI’s “Richmond product,” a 2023 intelligence memorandum suggesting that “radical-traditionalist Catholics” posed potential domestic terrorism risks. While Wray told lawmakers that the memo was the work of a single field office and was immediately retracted, congressional investigators later uncovered that the document had been circulated to over 1,000 bureau employees and coordinated with at least two other field offices. A draft version for external distribution reportedly repeated the same unfounded links between Catholic traditionalism and violent extremism.
Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), who helped expose the internal memo, said Wray’s statements were “inaccurate and incomplete,” adding that “more than a dozen” related FBI products were found across bureau systems. The Oversight Project alleges these discrepancies amount to deliberate obstruction of congressional oversight and perjury under federal law.
Wray’s troubles compound a broader internal reckoning at the FBI under Patel’s leadership. Since taking office, Patel has dismissed several top officials, abolished the Washington Field Office’s corruption unit known as “CR-15,” and severed long-standing partnerships with outside activist groups including the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), calling them “partisan smear machines.” Patel has promised full transparency, saying the bureau is “cleaning up a diseased temple three decades in the making.”
He has also confirmed a joint investigation with the Treasury Department to trace the financial networks funding extremist groups, including Antifa, stating that “money never lies” and vowing to pursue every source of illicit support “in every single city in this country.”
The federal inquiry into Wray, now expanding through multiple jurisdictions, underscores the deep divisions within the nation’s security establishment over political influence and accountability. While supporters argue that Wray sought to balance law enforcement integrity amid political pressure, critics say his tenure marked one of the most partisan eras in FBI history—defined by secrecy, selective enforcement, and contempt for oversight.
Neither Wray nor his attorneys have commented publicly on the ongoing investigations. The Justice Department and FBI also declined to comment.
