Senate Wraps Up Mueller Hearings
After surviving two days of questioning by senators looking to rein in the nation's main law enforcement agency, Robert Mueller appears well on his way to confirmation as the new chief of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The Senate Judiciary Committee finished questioning Mueller on Tuesday and plan to vote on his nomination Thursday. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., has said he expects Mueller to be confirmed by the Senate at the end of the week.
"I think you understand from what you've heard from this committee how the committee will vote," the chairman, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., told Mueller at the conclusion of the hearing. "But I hope you also understand in doing that ... we are putting a lot of faith in you and a lot of hope in you as Americans and as U.S. senators."
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"This is a nominee who is quality, and he does not have a political bone in his body as far as I can tell," Boxer said. "He is here to do a job."
Added Feinstein: "He is the right man for the job and the times."
CBS News Correspondent Jim Stewart reports that Mueller had the backing of the attorney general. When John Ascroft reported to the Justice Department earlier this year, Mueller apparently showed him the ropes and gained his confidence. Ashcroft became a proponent, and went to the White House to say that Mueller was the man to run the FBI.
Although most senators say they like Mueller, their questioning was tough at times.
Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, one of the Judiciary Committee's harshest FBI critics, warned Mueller that he planned to delve into what he sees as a "cowboy culture" within the bureau.
"The FBI is in desperate need of a director who will make drastic changes in the bureau's management culture," Grassley said. "This person must be able to sweep out the culture of arrogance and replace it with a culture dedicated to truth and honorable service to the American people."
Lawmakers have offered several bills aimed at reform, including provisions for outside reviews and more power for agency watchdogs such as the inspector general's office.
The House already has approved creation of a new position within the Justice Department to oversee the FBI.
The bureau has been under fire for mistakes in investigations involving Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, spy Robert Hanssen, the bloody Branch Davidian and Ruby Ridge standoffs and Los Alamos National Laboratory nuclear scientist Wen Ho Lee.
Mueller, an ex-federal prosecutor, said the 27,000-employee agency would admit mistakes, correct them and hold agents and senior officials accountable under his leadership.
"I believe the FBI can and must do a better job of dealing with mistakes," Mueller said. "If I have the honor of being confirmed by the Senate, I will make it my highest priority to restore the public's confidence in the FBI, to re-earn the faith and trust of the American people."
Mueller hinted that he would seek changes in the FBI's senior ranks and would continue a policy of administering lie detector tests to FBI employees given access to sensitive information. "Would you be willing to take a polygraph yourself?" said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah.
"You don't ask people to do that which you're not going to do yourself. I have already taken a polygraph," Mueller said.
Mueller might have stepped into a small controversy when Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., asked him for his opinion of Attorney General John Ashcroft's plan to sharply restrict the amount of time gun purchasers' instant-background-check records can be kept.
The attorney general wants the holding time to be reduced from 90 days to a single day. Schumer and other Democrats oppose the idea.
"Doesn't it make sense that destroying these records quickly could — I'm not saying will, but could — subvert the FBI's efforts to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and go after bad delers?" Schumer asked.
"It could," said Mueller, who had said earlier he considered the attorney general to be one of his bosses. "I am not familiar with the debate or with what evidence there is, what study there has been of the impact of the change. But yes, it could." +Mueller backpedaled a little when Feinstein brought the issue back up again on Tuesday, emphasizing that he wasn't familiar enough with the topic. "In answer to the question yesterday I responded, 'It could,' because I cannot rule out any possibilities, but it is from a basis of ignorance that I respond," Mueller said.
Feinstein said she would give him a month and then demand an opinion from him on Ashcroft's policy in writing.
Senators also questioned Mueller about their concerns:
Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., on racial profiling: "Racial profiling is abhorrent to the Constitution, it's abhorrent in any way, shape or form and I would make sure from the first day an FBI agent sets foot in the academy in Quantico that refrain is repeated," Mueller said.
Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., on concerns about the FBI's device formerly known as Carnivore and now called DCS 1000 that can follow users' Web browsing, e-mail and instant messages: "I've already had meetings with privacy groups on it and will continue to look at it and evaluate it," Mueller said.
Hatch on security at the Salt Lake City Olympics: "I would expect to be personally involved in those preparations," Mueller said.
Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., on getting more information about the FBI's conduct during the investigation of the 1963 bombing of Birmingham's Sixteenth Street Baptist Church that killed four black girls: "I'll do what I can," he said.
Schumer on enforcing abortion clinic protection laws: "I'm committed to enforcing the laws and allocating the manpower to do it," Mueller said.
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