Comey to be officially nominated as FBI director
President Obama will officially announce Friday that he's nominating James Comey to be the next director of the FBI, according to the White House, confirming the news that was reported three weeks ago.
Comey, 52, who served as deputy attorney general under former President George W. Bush from 2003 to 2005, will replace current director Robert Mueller, who is stepping down in September.
"In Jim Comey, the men and women of the FBI will have the leadership of one of our nation's most skilled and respected national security and law enforcement professionals," a White House official said in a statement. "In more than 2 decades as a prosecutor and national security professional, Jim has demonstrated unwavering toughness, integrity, and principle in defending both our security and our values."
During his time at the Bush Justice Department, Comey earned plaudits from opponents of the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program by initially refusing to reauthorize it. When he and Mueller threatened to resign as a result of the program, Bush revised it.
Comey is admired by both Republicans and Democrats, CBS News' Stephanie Lambidakis reports, especially because of his riveting testimony about the wiretapping struggle, which included a dramatic scene at the hospital bed of then-Attorney General John Ashcroft, who also refused to sign-off on renewing the surveillance program.
Comey told a Senate panel that when he declined to approve the program, Bush White House counsel Alberto Gonzales and chief of staff Andy Card headed to Ashcroft's sick bed in the intensive care unit at George Washington University Hospital.
When Gonzales begged Ashcroft to sign off, the sick attorney general again detailed his problems with the program and pointed out that Comey, his deputy, currently held the powers of the attorney general while he was incapacitated.
Watching the struggle in the hospital room unfold, "I was angry," Comey explained to the Senate panel. "I thought I had just witnessed an effort to take advantage of a very sick man who did not have the powers of the attorney general."
A day after the confrontation, after he was threatened with the resignations of Comey and Mueller, Bush ordered revisions to the program in accommodation of the officials' concerns.
After his stint in the Bush administration, Comey joined a Connecticut-based hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates, in 2010, where he remained until earlier in 2013, when he departed to become a lecturer at Columbia Law School.
His time at the hedge fund has drawn fire from the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley.
"If he's nominated, he would have to answer questions about his recent work in the hedge fund industry," Grassley said last month after reports surfaced that Comey was Mr. Obama's choice to run the FBI. "The administration's efforts to criminally prosecute Wall Street for its part in the economic downturn have been abysmal, and his agency would have to help build the case against some of his colleagues."