Bush Taps New FBI Chief
W A S H I N G T O N, July 5, 2001 -- President Bush has tapped federal prosecutor Robert Mueller to become the next director of the FBI.
"He has shown high ideals, a clear sense of purpose and a tested devotion to his country," Bush said of Mueller as he announced his nomination at a Rose Garden ceremony today. "The FBI has a great tradition that Mr. Mueller must now affirm and some important challenges he must confront."
If confirmed by the Senate, Mueller, the current U.S. attorney in San Francisco, will replace retired FBI Director Louis Freeh as head of the nation's top law enforcement agency. Since Freeh, a holdover from the Clinton administration, announced in May he would step down by the end of last month, Mueller had emerged as the leading candidate to fill the post.
"I am deeply honored by the trust that President Bush has shown in nominating me," Mueller said. "I look forward to working with the thousands of dedicated men and women who are agents and employees of the FBI to enforce our nation's laws fairly and with respect for the rights of all Americans."
Agency Reeling From High-Profile Missteps
Mueller is preparing to assume the directorship of an agency still reeling from a number of widely publicized missteps, most notably its failure to turn over evidence in the case of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.
"It is a difficult time," says former FBI counterintelligence official Harry Brandon. "Right or wrong, I think there is a feeling within the FBI that the public has lost some level of faith in them."
In recent years the bureau has faced criticism over its espionage investigation of former Los Alamos scientist Wen Ho Lee, the arrest of former FBI counterintelligence agent Robert Hanssen on charges he spied for Russia, and the FBI's mistaken targeting of Richard Jewel as a suspect in the 1996 Summer Olympics bombing in Atlanta.
"The new FBI director will inherit … an agency beleaguered by high-profile mistakes and by a culture that too often does not recognize and correct its errors," the panel's chairman, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said in a written statement this afternoon.
The Judiciary Committee, which began holding oversight hearings on the FBI last month, will soon hold confirmation hearings on Mueller.
"I will be interested in hearing Mr. Mueller's … willingness to acknowledge and correct the bureau's problems," Leahy said.
The Justice Department's Office of the Inspector General is investigating the McVeigh and Hanssen debacles, and former FBI Director William Webster is conducting an independent review of the bureau's security procedures, in light of the Hanssen case. And last month, Attorney General John Ashcroft ordered the newly created Strategic Management Council to undertake a "comprehensive review" of the agency and recommend reforms by next January.
"There has been a historical resistance to external oversight from wherever it originates and I think that that is a reflection of an arrogance on the part of the FBI," says former Inspector General Michael Bromwich.
Mueller's nomination also comes at a time when the FBI is adapting to new and expanding threats, such as global terrorism, international drug cartels and cybercrime.
"The FBI's world is different — very different from what it was even 15 years ago," says Brandon.
Nominee Is Former Marine, Veteran Prosecutor
Bush said today that Mueller "earned my trust" while serving as acting deputy attorney general from January up until last month.
"Agents of the bureau prize three virtues above all: fidelity, bravery and integrity," the president added, quoting the FBI motto. "This new director is a man who exemplifies them all."
Mueller is a decorated former Marine and a veteran federal prosecutor. As head of the Justice Department's Criminal Division under the president's father, former President Bush, Mueller oversaw the successful prosecutions of former Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega and mobster John Gotti and the investigation into the 1988 terrorist bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.
White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said Bush interviewed Mueller for the position in the Oval Office roughly one month ago and, after meeting with a number of other candidates, decided on Mueller last Friday. The president notified Mueller of his decision the same day and informed members of the Judiciary Committee earlier this week.
Today, Republicans and Democrats alike lavished praise on the nominee.
"I believe him to be an individual of the highest integrity and his extensive background in criminal justice makes him an excellent candidate to lead the FBI," Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., a member of the Judiciary Committee, said in a written statement.
Freeh often clashed publicly with former Attorney General Janet Reno and the Clinton administration, particularly over alleged Democratic campaign finance improprieties. White House aides hope Mueller will be a less politically controversial director.
"The FBI must remain independent of politics and uncompromising in its mission," the president said.
The FBI has an annual budget of $3.6 billion and has some 11,400 special agents and more than 16,000 support personnel.
Mueller is expected to be easily confirmed by the full Senate, perhaps as early as next month. Although FBI directors are confirmed to 10-year terms, none has ever served a full term. Mueller would be the sixth person to hold the position.
ABCNEWS' Pierre Thomas and Beverley Lumpkin contributed to this report from the Justice Department and ABCNEWS' John Berman and John Cochran contributed from the White House.