WASHINGTON, Dec 11 (Reuters) - FBI Director Chris Wray will step down from his post early next year, he said on Wednesday, after Republican President-elect Donald Trump signaled his intent to fire the veteran official and replace him with firebrand Kash Patel.

His resignation makes him the second straight FBI director driven out by Trump, who during his first term in office fired Wray's predecessor James Comey, after souring on him over the FBI's investigations into alleged contacts between Trump's 2016 campaign and Russia.

Wray will leave before the end of the 10-year term that Trump himself appointed him to in 2017.

"In my view, this is the best way to avoid dragging the bureau deeper into the fray, while reinforcing the values and principles that are so important to how we do our work," Wray told FBI employees in a town hall meeting.

Trump and his hardline allies turned on Wray, and the FBI more generally, after agents conducted a court-approved search of Trump's Florida resort in 2022 to recover classified documents he had retained after leaving office.

That sparked one of two federal prosecutions Trump faced while out of power, neither of which went to trial. Trump denied wrongdoing and described all the cases against him as politically motivated. Federal prosecutors ended their efforts after his election, citing longstanding Justice Department policy not to prosecute a sitting president.

Trump's Republican allies joined him in alleging that the FBI had become politicized, though there is no evidence that Democratic President Joe Biden interfered with its investigative processes.

On his social media platform Truth Social, Trump called Wray's resignation "a great day for America."

"It will end the Weaponization of what has become known as the United States Department of Injustice. I just don’t know what happened to him," Trump wrote.

As he has built out his roster of Cabinet officials over the past few weeks, Trump has assembled a team ready to carry out two of his biggest priorities: retribution against his political adversaries and a wholesale reshaping of the U.S. government.

Patel, who would need to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate, has never worked at the FBI and only spent three years at the Justice Department earlier in his career in the National Security Division's Counterterrorism Section. If confirmed, he has pledged to shut down the FBI's headquarters building in Washington and drastically redefine the bureau's role with intelligence-gathering.

In a statement to Reuters, Patel said, "I will be ready to serve the American people on day one."

Trump allies welcomed the news.

"Reform is badly needed at FBI," Republican Senator Charles Grassley wrote on X, adding the American people deserve transparency and accountability.

WRAY DENIED BIAS

Throughout his term, Wray said that he strove to impartially carry out the FBI's duties. During a 2023 hearing before a House of Representatives panel he rebuffed the idea that he was pursuing a Democratic partisan agenda, noting that he had been a lifelong Republican.

"The idea that I am biased against conservatives seems somewhat insane to me, given my own personal background," Wray said.

FBI directors are appointed for 10-year terms, a measure meant to avoid the appearance of partisanship after political turnover in the White House every four years.

Wray's term was not due to expire until 2027.

Senate Democrats on Wednesday thanked Wray for his service, with some raising concern for the bureau's future without him.

"The FBI is critical to our nation's security and our families' safety," Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin said. "It will soon embark on a perilous new era with serious questions about its future."

The FBI Agents Association in a statement said the bureau's mission "does not waver when there are changes in a presidential administration."

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland also praised Wray, noting in a statement that the FBI director is charged with protecting the bureau's independence from "inappropriate influence" in its criminal investigations.

"That independence is central to preserving the rule of law," said Garland.

FISA WARRANTS, JAN. 6 PROBES

The FBI has faced increasing criticism by Trump's supporters for its various roles in investigating Trump over the years.

Some of the concerns pre-dated Wray's tenure, including several damning reports by the Justice Department's inspector general which faulted the bureau for making errors in its warrant applications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court during its early investigation into Trump's 2016 campaign known as "Crossfire Hurricane."

During his tenure, Wray has overseen reforms of the FBI's processes for securing FISA warrants.

The FBI during Wray's time has also played a major role in helping to investigate and arrest many Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in a failed bid to block Congress from certifying Biden's election victory.

More than 1,500 people were criminally charged in the attack.

Trump has pledged to grant clemency to some of the Jan. 6 defendants, though he has not provided details.

Throughout his time as FBI director, Wray has been known for his hawkish views on China, and has frequently warned that China represents the biggest national and economic security threat facing the United States.

Wray started his career at the Justice Department in 1997 as a federal prosecutor in Atlanta.

He was nominated by Republican President George W. Bush in 2003 to lead the department's Criminal Division, where he oversaw a variety of investigations including post-9/11 efforts to combat terrorism and the Enron Task Force.

Wray also practiced law for about 17 years with the law firm King & Spalding, and he clerked for former Judge J. Michael Luttig in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit after earning his law degree from Yale Law School.

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Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Additional reporting by Ismail Shakil, Doina Chiacu, Richard Cowan and Tim Reid; Editing by Scott Malone and Daniel Wallis