US President Donald Trump named former top Justice Department official Christopher Wray on Wednesday to lead the FBI.
"I will be nominating Christopher A Wray, a man of impeccable credentials, to be the new director of the FBI," Trump wrote on Twitter.
Wray, a partner at the King & Spalding law firm, was assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department's criminal division in 2003-05 under president George W Bush.
Trump's announcement comes on the eve of hotly anticipated congressional testimony by former FBI director James Comey, whom Trump sacked on May 9.
The Senate Intelligence Committee is expected to ask Comey in the public session about the bureau's investigation into Russian election meddling and ties to Trump's presidential campaign.
Wray met Trump on May 30 at the White House, while the president was interviewing candidates for the FBI post.
At the Justice Department, Wray had a key role in pursuing a wave of high-profile corporate scandals in the early 2000s, including overseeing the government's Enron task force.
He had led investigations or developed policy in areas including securities fraud, trade sanctions violations, bank secrecy and money laundering, public corruption, cybercrime, racketeering and terrorism.
Wray must win confirmation from the Senate, which unanimously approved his appointment as assistant attorney general in 2003. The FBI director serves a 10-year term but can be fired by the president.
Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut and frequent Trump critic, tweeted on Wednesday that he had "concerns on Wray nomination timing."
Wray "has solid credentials - now this job will require independence & guts to stand up to political interference," Blumenthal wrote.
Norm Eisen, a Washington lawyer who was former president Barack Obama's White House ethics chief, hailed the choice of Wray, whom he described as "very respected in white collar bar."
He said Wray did a "good job" on the Enron case, in which top executives were convicted of securities fraud after the company's 2001 collapse.
"I endorse him," Eisen tweeted.
Wray worked as a federal prosecutor in Atlanta, Georgia, 1997-2001, and was associate deputy attorney general 2001-03.
He graduated with honours from Yale University in 1989 and in 1992 from Yale Law School.
By Frank Fuhrig
