关于美国联邦调查局未来的政治戏剧在本周发生了另一个转折宣布的他将在1月20日拜登任期结束时辞去该机构主任的职务。
就在几周前，当选总统唐纳德·特朗普表示，他希望用卡什·帕特尔取代雷有争议的盟友他为1月6日的骚乱者辩护，威胁要解雇美国联邦调查局特工，并发誓要调查记者。
虽然看起来似乎雷的辞职为帕特尔在1月20日成为特朗普第一天办公室的主任提供了更清晰的道路，但专家们表示，联邦法规禁止他在参议院确认之前这样做，甚至禁止他成为代理主任。
他们说，参议院的完全批准可能需要几周，或者更长时间。
事实上，根据《联邦空缺改革法案》(FVRA)的指导方针，美国联邦调查局将由代理主任领导，他们是新政府早期的资深人士，乔治城法学院的宪法教授马蒂·莱德曼告诉ABC新闻。
然而，根据前司法部律师莱德曼的说法，这些法规也有一些小漏洞，可以让特朗普有一些选择，对那些“权宜之计”的领导人发表意见。
“我认为雷辞职与他(1月20日)被特朗普免职的实际影响充其量是不确定的，”他告诉美国广播公司新闻。
莱德曼和其他人说，FVRA为总统批准、参议院确认的角色提供了规则。
据FVRA报道，一旦雷离开他的职位，他的直接副手-目前是机构元老保罗·阿巴特-将被要求担任代理美国联邦调查局主任。法律规定，在永久领导人需要得到参议院批准之前，这位代理主任的工作时间将被限制在210天。
据《FVRA》报道，如果副主任离职，代理主任的继任人选将继续由美国联邦调查局的其他高级成员担任。
阿巴特于1996年加入美国联邦调查局，2021年被雷任命为副主任。
特朗普没有就阿巴特在他的政府中的作用或他在雷离开后即将担任代理主任一事发表评论或发表声明。
《FVRA》中没有任何关于填补因终止合同而空缺的职位的直接措辞，因此不清楚如果特朗普回到白宫后继续推进取代雷的计划，情况会如何。
然而，FVRA确实给了在任总统从主席团以外的更大的候选人中选择另一个人担任代理主任的选项，尽管是根据严格的标准。
该法案允许总统任命任何目前担任联邦职务的人，经参议院批准，在同样的210天期间担任代理主任。
乔治城大学(Georgetown University)的法学教授斯蒂芬·弗拉德克(Stephen Vladeck)研究并撰写了有关联邦空缺改革法案的文章，他告诉美国广播公司新闻(ABC News)，只有少数几个经参议院批准的特朗普任命的人仍在各个联邦办公室工作，因此他无法在第一天任命一位中意的候选人领导该局。
然而，根据弗拉德克的说法，当选总统可以在他的更多行政选择得到确认后任命某人领导美国联邦调查局，即使是与司法部无关的行政选择。
FVRA还提供了第三种选择，根据这种选择，总统可以任命一名按“GS-15或以上级别”支付123，041美元的机构雇员，并且在空缺之前的过去365天中至少有三个月是该机构的雇员。
“法令是一个迷宫，但它给了总统很大的灵活性，可以提名范围广泛的人，”弗拉德克说。
据接受美国广播公司新闻采访的专家称，帕特尔在特朗普第一届政府的最后几个月担任国防部参谋长，在过去四年中没有在政府工作过，不符合FVRA下三个选项的标准，也不能立即担任美国联邦调查局的领导。
从未为美国联邦调查局工作过的帕特尔最近几天一直在与参议员会面，以获得他的批准，并表示他已经准备好“第一天”管理该局。
莱德曼和弗拉德克表示，帕特尔有一种极端的可能性，即在没有参议院立即确认的情况下提前担任美国联邦调查局:如果川普或司法部长解雇副主任阿巴特，并让帕特尔担任这一职务。
根据专家的说法，鉴于司法部内部的复杂情况和悬而未决的领导层变动，以及特朗普的司法部长人选走马上任所需的时间，这种情况似乎不太可能。
莱德曼补充说，如果他让帕特尔担任副主任，FVRA不仅会限制他担任代理主任的任期，还会迫使他在川普完成提名后下台。
莱德曼指出，帕特尔已经因为他的极端观点受到了极端的审查和批评，他还必须为他在担任代理主任期间在这种情况下做出的行动和政策负责。
“这让参议院感到不安，因为你已经在没有确认程序的情况下任命了那个人，但这也让他们在那个职位上做的一切成为提名的素材，”他说，并强调这是非常不可能的。
司法部和政府监管机构将密切关注正在进行的诉讼程序，莱德曼表示，最终，川普将不得不提名一名永久的美国联邦调查局主任，这将取决于参议院是否有足够的支持支持帕特尔或另一个选择。
他确实指出，特朗普可以利用FVRA担任联邦政府的其他职位，并指出，他和其他总统利用这些漏洞任命了符合其政府目标的代理董事。
特朗普特别利用该法案在没有任何批准的情况下保留了他的选择，如乍得·沃尔夫(Chad Wolf)，他首次被任命为国土安全部(Department of Homeland Security)未经参议院批准的职位，之后一系列有争议的辞职导致他在2019年成为该机构的代理主任。
一年后，一家联邦法院发现沃尔夫的任命不合法，但他直到特朗普离任前一周才辞职。
“包括我在内的许多人都写过特朗普的行为是如何将这一行为变成椒盐卷饼的，”莱德曼说。
莱德曼说，不断有人呼吁国会加强该法案，以防止行政部门对参议院批准的任命行使权力，并坚持认为这是一个需要立即解决的两党问题。
他说:“人们普遍认为，该法案走得太远，大部分内容过于慷慨，国会应该修正它。”。
Chris Wray's FBI departure won't immediately clear path for Kash Patel: Experts
The political drama over the future of the FBI took another turn this week when Christopher Wrayannouncedhe will resign as the agency's director by the end of the Biden administration on Jan. 20.
The announcement came just weeks after President-elect Donald Trump said he wanted to replace Wray with Kash Patel, acontroversial allywho has defended Jan. 6 rioters, threatened to fire FBI agents and vowed to investigate journalists.
Although it might seem as if Wray's resignation provides a clearer path for Patel to immediately become director on Trump's first day office on Jan. 20, experts say federal regulations bar him from doing so until he's confirmed by the Senate -- and even from becoming acting director.
Full Senate approval could take weeks -- or possible longer, they say.
In fact, under the guidelines of the Federal Vacancies Reform Act (FVRA), the FBI will be led by acting directors who are veterans of the agency in the early part of the new administration, Marty Lederman, a constitutional law professor at Georgetown Law School, told ABC News.
Those same regulations, however, also give small loopholes that could allow Trump some options to have his say about who those "stopgap" leaders are, according to Lederman, a former Justice Department attorney.
"I think the practical effects of Wray resigning versus him being removed by Trump [on Jan. 20] are uncertain at best," he told ABC News.
Lederman and others said FVRA provides rules for presidentially approved, Senate confirmed, roles.
Once Wray leaves his position, his direct deputy -- currently Paul Abbate, an agency veteran -- would be called on to serve as acting FBI director, according to the FVRA. This acting director would be limited to 210 days on the job before a permanent leader is required to be approved by the Senate, the law mandates.
The line succession for acting director would continue down to other senior FBI members if the deputy director leaves the job, according to the FVRA.
Abbate joined the FBI in 1996 was named deputy director by Wray in 2021.
Trump has not commented or made a statement about Abbate's role in his administration or his pending assumption to acting director once Wray leaves.
The FVRA doesn't include any direct language about filling roles vacated due to termination so it would have been unclear how it would have played out if Trump went forward with his plans to replace Wray when he returned to the White House.
However, the FVRA does give a sitting president options on choosing another person to be acting director from a larger pool of candidates -- outside the bureau -- albeit according to strict criteria.
The act allows the president to name any person currently serving in a federal position who was approved by the Senate to serve as the acting director for the same 210-day period.
Stephen Vladeck, a law professor at Georgetown University who has studied and written about the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, told ABC News that there are a only handful of Senate-approved Trump appointees still working in various federal offices, so he wouldn't be able to appoint a favored candidate to lead the bureau on Day 1.
However, the president-elect could appoint someone to lead the FBI after more of his administrative picks are confirmed even ones unrelated to the Justice Department, according to Vladeck.
The FVRA also provides a third option under which a president can appoint an agency employee who is paid at the "GS-15 rate or above", which is $123,041, and who has been an employee of the agency for at least three months of the past 365 days preceding the vacancy.
"The statute is a maze but it gives the president a lot of flexibility to nominate a wide range of folks," Vladeck said.
Patel, who served as chief of staff in the Defense Department in the final months of the first Trump administration and hasn't had a government job in the last four years, does not fit the criteria for the three options under the FVRA and could not immediately assume FBI leadership, according to experts who spoke to ABC News.
Patel, who has never worked for the FBI, nonetless has been meeting with senators in recent days to make the case for his approval and said he is ready "Day 1" to run the bureau.
Lederman and Vladeck said there is one extreme possibility for Patel to serve as FBI earlier and without immediate Senate confirmation: if Trump or the attorney general fires Deputy Director Abbate and installs Patel in that role.
Given the complications and pending leadership changes within the Justice Department and the time it will take for Trump's attorney general pick to assume office, this scenario seems unlikely, according to the experts.
Lederman added that if he were to install Patel as the deputy director, the FVRA would not only limit his tenure as acting director but also force him to step down if Trump follows through with his nomination.
Patel, who is already under extreme scrutiny and criticism for his extreme views, would also have to answer for actions and policies that he made during his time as acting director under this scenario, Lederman noted.
"It upsets the Senate because you already put that person in place without the confirmation process but it also makes everything they do in that position fodder for the nomination," he said, stressing it is very unlikely.
The Justice Department and government watchdog groups will be keeping their eye on the ongoing proceedings and Lederman said that at the end of the day, Trump will have to nominate a permanent FBI director and it will come down to if there is enough support in the Senate to back Patel or another pick.
He did note that Trump could use the FVRA for other positions throughout the federal government and noted that he and other presidents have used the loopholes to appoint acting directors that aligned with their administration's goals.
Trump in particular used the act to keep his picks in office without any approval, picks such as Chad Wolf, who was first appointed to non Senate-approved position in the Department of Homeland Security before a series of controversial resignations led to his becoming the agency's acting director in 2019.
A year later, a federal court found Wolf's appointment unlawful but he did not resign until a week before Trump left office.
"Lots of people including me have written about the ways Trump's behavior has turned this act into a pretzel," Lederman said.
Lederman said there have been constant calls for Congress to strengthen the act to prevent the executive branch from asserting its power over Senate-approved appointees and maintains that this is a bipartisan issue that needs to be addressed immediately.
"There is broad consensus that the act goes way too far and much of is too generous and that Congress should fix it," he said.
