Trump’s nominee to lead the FBI earned $9.2 million in law practice last year


christopher wray
FBI
Director nominee Christopher Wray meets with Sen. Chuck Grassley,
R-Iowa, in his office on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday,
June 29, 2017.

AP/Andrew
Harnik


WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Donald Trump’s nominee to head
the FBI earned $9.2 million last year as a partner in an
international law firm, where he worked for clients ranging from
Credit Suisse Group and Wells Fargo to New Jersey Governor Chris
Christie.

Disclosure forms produced for the Office of Government Ethics
show Christopher Wray is also expected to receive millions more
in payments when he leaves the King & Spalding law firm on
his confirmation as director of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation.

The forms and a letter from Assistant Attorney General Lee
Lofthus, a designated ethics official for the Justice Department,
were made public ahead of Wray’s confirmation hearing before the
Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday. Wray would succeed James
Comey, whom Trump fired in May.

Lofthus said in his letter that Wray would not receive a bonus,
severance or contingency fees on leaving his firm but would
receive a refund of his money in the firm’s capital account and a
final partnership share distribution, unless he decided to
forfeit it.

To satisfy ethics concerns, Wray will not participate for one
year in FBI matters that involve companies or people represented
by his former law firm, Lofthus said in his letter. He also will
not participate in matters involving his former clients for a
year, unless he obtains a prior authorization.

Wray’s financial disclosure forms show he provided legal services
to a number of large international corporations, including
Johnson & Johnson, Huntington Ingalls Industries,
Georgia-Pacific and SunTrust Banks

He also provided legal services to Christie during the
“Bridgegate” scandal in which two of the Republican governor’s
former associates were convicted of plotting to close down access
lanes at the George Washington Bridge for nearly a week in 2013
in an act of political retribution.

If he is confirmed, Wray will have 90 days to dispose of millions
of dollars worth of stock he owns in firms ranging from Apple Inc
and American Airlines to Wal-Mart and Exxon Mobil, Lofthus said.

Wray served at the U.S. Justice Department from 2003 to 2005
under Republican President George W. Bush as an assistant
attorney general in charge of its criminal division and oversaw
the department’s Enron task force.

(Reporting by David Alexander; Editing by Peter Cooney)

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