Legal News

Who Will be the Next FBI Director? Lawyers Make up the Short List

By Ashby Jones

Robert Mueller’s 10-year tenure as FBI director will expire in early September, and the Obama administration is mulling over possible replacements.

The candidates, according to this story by the WSJ’s Evan Perez, include some heavy-hitting, accomplished and well-connected lawyers. The list includes former Bush and Clinton administration officials.

They include Merrick Garland, a well-regarded judge on the D.C. Circuit; James Comey, the former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and a former deputy U.S. attorney general; WilmerHale partner Jamie Gorelick; U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois Patrick Fitzgerald; and O’Melveny partner Kenneth Wainstein.

Being FBI director in this day and age isn’t exactly easy. You get it from the right and from the left pretty much regardless of what you do.

Republicans, for instance, have criticized President Obama and the FBI for their national-security policies, particularly those dealing with Guantanamo Bay detainees and interrogation of terror suspects.

Meanwhile, civil-liberties groups and some Democrats have criticized the bureau for its policies on conducting terror investigations, particularly those involving Muslim communities in the U.S.

As he prepares to take his leave, Mueller, 66, is receiving pretty good reviews. He has emerged from the last decade with admirers in both parties, owing in part to his low-key style and aversion for publicity.

Mueller (pictured) steered the FBI away from some controversial Bush-era policies. He also managed the agency through missteps in its investigation of the 2001 anthrax attacks, and Justice Department audits that showed FBI agents abused their power in the use of investigative subpoenas known as national security letters.

So who should take over? Michigan Rep. Mike Rogers, a Republican who is chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and a former FBI agent, said the next FBI director should have an understanding of agents. “The next 10 years are almost more important because you now have to incorporate [intelligence into] the agent’s mission and you have to get the agents to buy in to this,” Rogers said.

Interrogations of high-value terrorism suspects are now led by the FBI, under an Obama administration policy change, as opposed to the Central Intelligence Administration.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on March 16, 2011 (boomark / email).