Trump selects new acting FBI director amid orders to rein in the feds
The Trump administration wasted no time announcing a replacement when the acting director of the FBI, handpicked by the former FBI chief, quit after one day on the job.
The leadership changes…

The Trump administration wasted no time announcing a replacement when the acting director of the FBI, handpicked by the former FBI chief, quit after one day on the job.
The leadership changes signal a shakeup at the FBI, which is one of the key campaign promises made by Trump, who also spent his first day in office signing more than 200 executive orders, including some aimed at reining in the FBI and CIA.
Previous acting FBI Director Paul Abbate, 57, announced his retirement in an email to colleagues just minutes before President Trump was inaugurated on Monday, according to Fox News.
His predecessor had just quit on Sunday.
“When the director asked me to stay on past my mandatory date for a brief time, I did so to help ensure continuity and the best transition for the F.B.I. Now, with new leadership inbound, after nearly four years in the deputy role, I am departing the F.B.I.,” Abbate wrote in an internal email, reported Fox. “I have complete confidence in you and in your ability as a team to continue to carry out our mission of protecting the American people and upholding the Constitution.”
Abbate replaced Christopher Wray, who was first appointed to the post by Trump in August 2017. Since then, Wray and Trump have clashed on a number of issues, especially the FBI-led raid on Trump’s home in a classified documents case, which was eventually dismissed.
Wray resigned on Sunday, ahead of the inauguration and tapped Abbate to take his place.
Previously, Wray said he knew the new president would institute leadership changes.
“[T]he 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,” Wray said. “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.”
However, Abbate’s reasons for retiring are less clear.
Abbate’s reference to staying past his “mandatory date” is an allusion to his retirement age, which Fox News said is 57.
It may be that it became clear to Abbate he was unacceptable to the Trump administration, and, like Wray, he decided to pull up his stakes and retire instead of being replaced.
A list of acting cabinet-level appointments at the new White House website to run federal government departments and agencies on interim basis until the Trump nominees are confirmed includes the appointment of FBI agent Brian Driscoll as acting FBI Director.
Prior to the acting appointment by Trump, Driscoll was the head of the Newark Field office for six days.
Previous to his appointment to the field office, Driscoll was the commander of the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team, according to the Bureau.
Driscoll also served as a supervisory special agent to establish and lead two joint task forces concerning violent crimes, child exploitation and human trafficking; the New York Joint Terrorism Task Force in 2020 to lead the North Africa international terrorism investigations squad; and a special agent with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, said the Bureau.
For actions under fire on multiple occasions, Driscoll was awarded the FBI Medal of Valor and the FBI Shield of Bravery.
Robert Kissane, the top counterterrorism agent in New York, will serve as the acting deputy director, the New York Times said.
After the inauguration Trump issued a series of executive orders aimed at reining in both federal law enforcement and the intelligence communities – orders that helped punctuate the resignations at the FBI.
In one executive order, Trump directed officials to “identify and take appropriate action to correct past misconduct by the Federal Government related to the weaponization of law enforcement and the weaponization of the Intelligence Community.”
In another executive order, Trump revoked the security clearances from officials in the intelligence community who “falsely suggested that the news story [about Hunter Biden’s laptop] was part of a Russian disinformation campaign.”
The laptop contained damaging evidence of Hunter Biden’s business dealings with forein governments, including China and Ukraine, information which was later authenticated to be accurate.
In the waning days of the 2020 campaign, the laptop story broke, but a letter from former intelligence officials claiming it was Russian disinformation helped the major media networks censor the story.