Washington, DC - FBI director Christopher Wray, who announced his resignation last month, has defended his record on CBS's 60 Minutes program, and justified the bureau's 2022 Mar-a-Lago raid.

Outgoing FBI director Christopher Wray defended the FBI's decision to send federal agents to Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in search of classified documents, explaining that his job is to "follow the facts wherever they lead."

"Part of the FBI's job is to safeguard classified information," Wray said in an interview with 60 Minutes' Scott Pelley, while being careful not to discuss specifics of the investigation.

"When we learn that classified material is not being properly stored, we have a duty to act," Wray said.

"And I can tell you that in investigations like this one, a search warrant is not and here was not anybody's first choice."

Mar-a-Lago was raided by the FBI in August 2022 in search of classified documents that Trump's people had already signed off as having been returned to the federal government.

At the time, President Trump called the raid "prosecutorial misconduct" and implied that the so-called left-wing establishment was behind it because he had "stood up to America's bureaucratic corruption."

Wray explained on Sunday, however, that the FBI had tried every means possible to get the documents returned voluntarily or via subpoena, but were eventually forced into physically raiding the resort.

He continued, saying, "If after all that we learn that the agents haven't been given all the classified material, our agents are left with no choice but to go to a federal judge, make a probable cause showing, and get a search warrant. That's what happened here."

During the 60 Minutes interview, outgoing FBI director Christopher Wray revealed that he had chosen to step down in a bid to avoid causing more problems for the bureau under Trump's second term.

"My conclusion was that the thing that was best for the bureau was to try to do this in an orderly way, to not thrust the FBI deeper into the fray," Wray told Pelley after revealing that it was one of the "hardest decisions" of his life.

Wray served seven years in office, after being appointed to lead the FBI by President Trump when James Comey was fired in May 2017.

Although his relationship with Trump has deteriorated significantly since the 2022 Mar-a-Lago raid, it was not always cozy even during the President's first term.

In 2019, Trump lambasted Wray for comments he made about Inspector General Michael Horowitz's report on the Russia investigation.

"I don’t know what report current Director of the FBI Christopher Wray was reading, but it sure wasn’t the one given to me," Trump said at the time.

"With that kind of attitude, he will never be able to fix the FBI, which is badly broken despite having some of the greatest men & women working there," he added.