Senators Write Letter to FBI Director Mueller

W A S H I N G T O N, May 24 -- Three senators — Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.; Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa; and Arlen Specter, R-Pa. — sent a letter today to FBI Director Robert Mueller asking for a copy of a letter written by FBI Agent Coleen Rowley. Leahy is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee while the other two senators are committee members.

The Honorable Robert S. MuellerDirector, Federal Bureau of Investigation

Dear Director Mueller:

Thank you for meeting with the Committee in classifiedsession on May 21, 2002, and making available FBIAgents from the Phoenix field office to discuss thePhoenix memorandum regarding suspicious activity atcivil aviation schools. We want to follow up on anumber of matters from this meeting.

First, we want to make sure that you are now aware ofthe Committee's practice of holding all classifiedsessions on the record with a transcript. TheCommittee planned to hold the May 21 meeting on therecord, as is regularly done by this Committee and theSelect Committee on Intelligence for classifiedsessions. As you can appreciate, these are importantmatters for all Members of the Committee but allMembers are not always able to attend the fullsessions. Transcripts are the only mechanism to keepall members entitled to review this importantinformation fully informed. For this reason theSelect Committee on Intelligence always putsclassified hearings and meetings with Members presenton the record. The Judiciary Committee does the same.

At the outset of the meeting, you requested that aformal record transcript not be made of the statementsof Agent Kenneth Williams and Supervisory SpecialAgent Billy Kurtz. Your request was granted so thatwe could proceed without disrupting or delaying themeeting and over the objection of one of us — SenatorSpecter — who appropriately and correctly requestedthat regular order be followed and a record be made.

Subsequently, the Committee has learned that you andthe same two Phoenix Agents met with the SelectCommittee on Intelligence, including both Members andstaff, on May 22, 2002, and that this meeting was onthe record with a formal transcript made of thestatements of the Agents. Please explain thedisparity in the FBI's position regarding making aformal transcript of the proceedings before theJudiciary Committee and the Select Committee onIntelligence.