“Name any high office in federal law enforcement [ ] odds are Jim Comey’s had it over the years,” says NPR about President Obama’s choice to succeed Robert Mueller as FBI director. Comey, 52, was the Deputy Attorney General during the George W. Bush administration. In 2004, he rushed to a hospital to be with then-Attorney General John Ashcroft to help thwart White House counsel Alberto Gonzales’ attempt to pressure Ashcroft into reauthorizing a controversial wiretapping program.
Comey’s career also includes stints as the top federal prosecutor in New York City. Before that, while working as a prosecutor in Virginia, Comey worked to take guns off the streets of Richmond. Politico reports that the “expected nomination would bestow an exceedingly important and sensitive post on a registered Republican” who is “widely viewed as an apolitical prosecutor.” Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA), ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, said Comey would have to answer questions about his recent work in the hedge fund industry.” Comey was general counsel to Connecticut-based hedge fund Bridgewater Associates from 2010 until this year. He now lectures at Columbia Law School.