July 06, 2001|By David L. Greene and Thomas Healy | David L. Greene and Thomas Healy,SUN NATIONAL STAFF
WASHINGTON - President Bush nominated yesterday Robert S. Mueller III, a veteran federal prosecutor with deep roots in the Justice Department, as the next director of the FBI, which recently has suffered a series of embarrassing blows to its credibility.
If confirmed by the Senate, Mueller would take over the nation's premier law enforcement agency at a time when it has lost the trust of many in Congress. In addition to lapses that led to the recent spy scandal involving former agent Robert P. Hanssen, the FBI was accused of bungling the espionage investigation of nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee and of mishandling documents in the prosecution of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy J. McVeigh.
Mueller, 56, would succeed Louis J. Freeh, who ended a tumultuous tenure last month by resigning two years before his 10-year term would have expired.
"The FBI has a great tradition that Mr. Mueller must now affirm and some important challenges he must confront," Bush said at a ceremony in the White House Rose Garden. "Like the Department of Justice, the FBI must remain independent of politics and uncompromising in its mission."
The president praised Mueller's dedication to public service, from his time as a decorated Marine during the Vietnam War to appointments at the Justice Department under two administrations.
Mueller (pronounced MULL-er) was appointed by the president's father in 1990 as an assistant attorney general in charge of the criminal division. President Bill Clinton later named him U.S. attorney for Northern California, heading a team of prosecutors in San Francisco that is one of the nation's largest.
"He has shown high ideals, a clear sense of purpose and a tested devotion to his country," Bush said.
Some familiar with Mueller's record describe him as the ideal person to repair an agency in need of a sharply focused manager.
"He's an excellent administrator, he's very well organized, he's politically independent," said Sandy Svetcov, a San Francisco lawyer who has known Mueller since working with him in the U.S. attorney's office there from 1978 to 1981. "Those kinds of character traits will enable him to bring the FBI what it needs."
Advisers said Bush had considered numerous candidates and reviewed their records carefully since Freeh announced his departure, mindful of the FBI's recent blunders and knowing that his nominee would be appointed for 10 years to head an agency with 11,000 agents and 16,000 other employees.
White House officials said Bush interviewed other candidates before he felt certain, by Friday, that Mueller was the best choice to be the FBI's sixth director.
Tough questions ahead
The nominee is likely to face tough questions during his confirmation hearings, if only because of an urgency in Congress to ensure that the FBI can quickly restore its reputation. Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who chairs the Judiciary Committee and will preside over the hearings, served notice that its members would evaluate Mueller's ability to deal with the FBI's weaknesses.
"The new FBI director will inherit an agency with superb resources and capabilities, but it is also an agency beleaguered by a series of high-profile mistakes and by a culture that too often does not recognize and correct its errors," Leahy said. "It will be the committee's job to determine if Mr. Mueller is the right person for the job."
Sen. Charles E. Grassley, an Iowa Republican and member of the Judiciary Committee, said he wants to be sure that Mueller is "equipped to take on the serious problems" facing the bureau.
"There's a management culture with an air about it that the FBI can do no wrong," Grassley said. "That attitude is at the root of the problems we've seen in high-profile cases."
Among the FBI's embarrassments were the collapse last year of the Lee case after it was revealed that FBI agents had used heavy-handed tactics against the Los Alamos nuclear scientist even while lacking clear evidence against him; the recent discovery that Hanssen, a longtime FBI agent, might have spent years spying for Russia without being noticed; and the mishandling of documents that forced a delay in the execution of McVeigh for the Oklahoma City bombing.
In choosing Mueller, however, Bush could risk frustrating some conservatives who prefer a candidate with firmer Republican roots. Though Mueller is a Republican, he was nominated to his most recent post by Clinton, a Democrat, and has been backed enthusiastically by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat who wrote to Bush, urging him to select Mueller.
Mueller faced criticism for his handling of an investigation of money laundering at the Bank of Credit and Commerce International while in the Justice Department's criminal division. Critics complained that his office did not pursue the case vigorously enough.
