Washington Post
July 12, 2001
Ashcroft Expands Power to Probe FBI
By Dan Eggan
Attorney General John D. Ashcroft turned up the heat yesterday on the FBI, bestowing broad new powers on the Justice Department's inspector general to investigate wrongdoing in the bureau.
The FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration, both of which are part of the Justice Department, previously were shielded from direct investigations by the inspector general's office, which had to seek permission from the attorney general or his deputy before launching a probe of either agency.
Two such requests were denied under former attorney general Janet Reno, including a proposed inquiry into FBI missteps during the investigation of former Los Alamos scientist Wen Ho Lee, which was handed to an outside prosecutor.
Ashcroft's order removes those obstacles and allows the inspector general's office to investigate allegations as it sees fit, officials said.
The change comes amid widespread calls for reform at the FBI, which has been embarrassed this year by the arrest of a veteran agent, Robert P. Hanssen, as a Russian spy and by the discovery of documents that delayed the execution of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.
Sens. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) and Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), who had proposed a similar expansion of the inspector general's powers, praised Ashcroft's move yesterday but said they would press ahead with legislation making the change permanent.
"I've said for years that the FBI should not be allowed to police itself, and I'm encouraged by the response of the attorney general," said Grassley, one of the FBI's sharpest critics on Capitol Hill.
The Ashcroft order comes at a time of tumult at the FBI, which is without a permanent director and is under four separate investigations stemming from the Hanssen and McVeigh debacles. Ashcroft has ordered outside and internal reviews of the bureau, and the Senate Judiciary Committee is holding hearings focused on proposed reforms.
President Bush last week named Robert S. Mueller III, a longtime prosecutor, to succeed Louis Freeh as FBI director. Leahy, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said after meeting with Mueller on Tuesday that he would work to speed his confirmation.
FBI officials have long resisted any change in oversight, preferring to keep a system in which the bureau's Office of Professional Responsibility had jurisdiction over complaints.
Copyright © 2001, Washington Post. All rights reserved.
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