President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he will nominate Christopher Wray, a former Justice Department official and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's personal attorney, to replace ousted FBI Director James Comey.
Trump described Wray as "a man of impeccable credentials" in a tweet on Wednesday.
"I wish him luck", Mr Trump said of Mr Comey, as he met with Republicans on Wednesday.
The American Civil Liberties Union was less enthusiastic, issuing a statement saying that Wray's history, which includes work by his firm on behalf of the Trump family, "makes us question his ability to lead the Federal Bureau of Investigation with the independence, even-handed judgment, and commitment to the rule of law that the agency deserves".
The announcement comes ahead of former Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey's testimony before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on the circumstances that he was sacked by Trump amid the ongoing probe into alleged Russian meddling into the U.S. election last November. The pick caps an extraordinary month in which Mr Trump has been buffeted by his own shifting explanations for why he dismissed the former FBI director, allegations that he shared highly classified information with top Russian officials in the Oval Office and the naming of a special counsel to oversee the investigation into his campaign's possible ties with Moscow.
Wray, in the same statement issued by the White House, said he was honored to be selected.
While it is almost a quarter-century since Wray was there, the Fourth Circuit has earned Trump's ire recently for refusing to reinstate his administration's proposed travel ban.
He previously served as the Assistant Attorney General in charge of Criminal Division of the Justice Department from 2003 to 2005. Mr Wray represented Mr Christie in the matter of the closure of traffic lanes on the George Washington Bridge in 2013. Christie is an occasional member of Trump's circle of advisers, but he was shut out of the White House - reportedly by first son-in-law Jared Kushner, who's never forgiven Christie for prosecuting Kushner's father.
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Senator Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat and vice chairman of the panel where Comey will testify Thursday, said on MSNBC that Trump's timing was "curious" and appeared meant to change the subject from Comey's testimony.
From 1997 to 2001, Wray was an assistant USA attorney in northern Georgia.
Delaware Sen. Chris Coons, a Democrat on the Judiciary panel, said he, too, was encouraged that Trump's pick is a veteran of law enforcement "rather than a career in partisan politics, as was rumored over the past several weeks".
On Thursday, Comey will give his much-anticipated congressional testimony to dispute President Donald Trump's blanket claim that he was told he was not under investigation multiple times, according to sources familiar with Comey's thinking.
Christie made a public pitch for Wray last week, but he recently declined to say whether or not he recommended Wray to Trump.
Wray is not a politician, but the New York Times reports that Wray seems to have Republican leanings - he has donated at least $35,000 to Republican candidates or committees in the last decade.
Wray graduated cum laude from Yale University in 1989, received his law degree from the school in 1992 and served as executive editor of the Yale Law Journal.
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