'I Am Responsible,' FBI Director Tells Congress

March 27, 2007— -- Facing sharp questioning over the FBI's misuse of national security letters to obtain phone, computer and financial records of Americans while searching for terrorists, director Robert Mueller took full responsibility for the actions of his agents and employees when he testified before Congress today.

"We in the FBI, myself in particular, fell short in our obligations to report to Congress on the frequency with which we use this tool and in the internal controls we put into place to make sure that it was used only in accordance with the letter of the law, " Mueller said. "I am responsible for those shortcomings."

Mueller made an appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee to testify about a recent Justice Department inspector general audit of the FBI's use of the letters. The bureau used national security letters to obtain information on Americans from phone companies, Internet service providers, credit bureaus and banks. The report found excessive use of these letters to gather such data without approval from a judge.

Some of the Democratic senators questioning Mueller indicated that this national security letters abuse could open the door to a re-examination of the Patriot Act.

"We're going to be re-examining the broad authorities we granted the FBI in the Patriot Act," Committee Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., told Mueller.

But Mueller countered that the Patriot Law is not at fault.

"The statute did not cause the errors," Mueller said. "The FBI's implementation did."

Mueller, a former U.S. attorney in the Reagan and Clinton administrations, was also asked about another growing controversy surrounding the Justice Department: the growing controversy over eight fired U.S. attorneys and the circumstances that led to their firing.

Mueller was questioned about a January San Diego Union Tribune article and a comment from the special agent in charge of the FBI field office who was reported as saying, "I guarantee politics is involved," in the firing of former U.S. attorney Carol Lam. Mueller responded, saying, "Our chief out there believes he was misquoted." Mueller added that the firing of that U.S. attorney will not slow his department's investigations.

Asked about the charge that former New Mexico U.S. attorney David Iglesias was fired because he did not pursue a politically heated voter fraud case, Mueller said, "I will tell you that I had not heard any concern from that office about prosecutorial decisions that were made one way or the other."

On the firing of John McKay, former U.S. attorney in Washington State, Mueller was asked about a regional database that he had worked on with local law enforcement. "Mr. McKay was innovative in pulling together a number of different departments to work together on a combined database," Mueller said.