The acting director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Paul Abbate, reportedly retired just minutes before Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th president.
Former FBI Director Christopher Wray announced on Dec. 11 that he would step down from the bureau before Trump took office, and Wray’s resignation went into effect Sunday.
Abbate, who took the helm from Wray, stepped down from the bureau just a day later, the New York Times reported.
Trump appointed Wray to lead the bureau in 2017, but relations between the two soured amid repeated federal investigations into the 45th and now-47th president. The FBI raided Trump’s home at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, in August 2022.
Trump decried the “weaponization” of the Justice Department during his 2024 presidential campaign, and he has since tapped Kash Patel to lead the FBI. Patel’s Senate confirmation hearing has not yet been scheduled.
Donald Trump is sworn in as the 47th president in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda on Jan. 20, 2025. (Saul Loeb/Pool via REUTERS)
“The scales of justice will be rebalanced,” Trump said in his inauguration speech. “The vicious, violent and unfair weaponization of the Justice Department and our government will end.”
