Oh, Chris Wray. We’re told he’s a steely prosecutor who is good under pressure, and Lordy, he’ll have to be. As of 11 AM yesterday, Donald Trump, Jr. has certainly made today’s hearing for the FBI pick all the more important and all the more interesting.
Prior to Trump’s release of emails (via Twitter, naturally) blatantly courting damaging information on his father’s political competitor from a foreign government, Wray was going to face some tough questions at his hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, though that he made $6.3 million in 2016 at King & Spaulding’s Atlanta office seemed to be one of the biggest eyebrow-raisers about him. The ACLU also wants questions asked regarding what Wray knew about post-9/11 detainee abuse during his time at the Justice Department during the Bush Administration. Lawfare, TIME, and Salon had previously developed questions they wanted him to answer, too, mostly surrounding how to keep the FBI independent in the wake of the firing of the last director, James Comey. Those articles came out before the tweets. Now, this hearing will be about Russia, Russia, Russia.
The hearing starts at 9:30 AM. There’s a livestream available at the Senate Judiciary website, one from C-SPAN, and one over at PBS Newshour.
EDIT: The Honorable Sam Nunn is giving Wray’s introduction.