‘Turf Wars,’ Inquiry Facing Meese : Sessions Sees Challenges in Problems Within FBI

WASHINGTON — FBI Director-designate William Steele Sessions said Friday that he has “a wealth of ignorance about running the FBI,” but he demonstrated that he appreciates the revolutionary changes the bureau has undergone since he left Washington in 1971 and the challenges he faces in “turf wars” and other problems within the agency.

In an unusually straightforward discussion for a nominee facing Senate confirmation, Sessions stressed his hard line against obscenity--calling it “not a victimless crime.” And he showed no reluctance to take the FBI job at a time when his superior, Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III, is being investigated by two independent counsels staffed with FBI agents.

The federal district judge from San Antonio appeared to relish a reporter’s description of him as a “West Texas tough guy,” a characterization that falls directly in line with the comments he made in a meeting with the press at the Justice Department.

But his well-earned reputation as a law-and-order conservative did not stem the flow of high praise from observers on the other side of the ideological spectrum. Despite his political leanings, he has ruled in favor of civil rights plaintiffs in major cases and has not been afraid to take on powerful members of the state’s Establishment.

As a judge, for example, he took control of San Antonio’s Bexar County Jail in 1981 after finding that overcrowding and lack of sanitary facilities violated constitutional guarantees against cruel and unusual punishment. And as U.S. attorney for Texas’ Western District from 1971-1974, he won a tax fraud case against one of the state’s most powerful figures, George Parr, known as the Duke of Duval for his legendary control of Texas’ Duval County.

And, in his meeting with reporters Friday, he stressed a strong commitment to protecting citizens’ constitutional rights. “I’m very aware, keenly aware, of Fourth, Fifth, First, Sixth Amendment rights,” he said. “These are the things judges are made of.”

“I dare say we probably wouldn’t agree on a single political issue, but I probably would have rather tried a case in his court than any judge I felt a kinship with ideologically,” said Gerald H. Goldstein of San Antonio, general counsel of the Texas Civil Liberties Union.

Devoted to Hard Work

To Sessions, his steely reputation is the product of a career devoted to hard work, not the hard right. “If I’m a West Texas tough guy, it’s simply because we’ve dealt with difficult problems . . . drug and immigration problems. Whether you are a judge or whether you are involved in prosecution or defense, these are very difficult times,” he said.

He was asked if this would be a particularly difficult time to take over the FBI, given the independent counsel investigations and criticism of the department over its role in the Iran- contra investigation.

“I would think not. It’s the natural function in a free society--people seeking to see what’s going on in their government,” he replied. With Meese standing beside him, Sessions added: “Although it’s awkward many times, that’s the stuff of which freedom is made, and I believe in it. I think we’re all answerable.”

Inquiry Assailed

The attorney general’s preliminary inquiry into the affair has been denounced as incompetent and has led to suspicion that he intentionally avoided vigorous pursuit of leads that could have implicated top Administration officials.

Sessions took note of another issue directly involving Meese that many regard as the FBI’s biggest problem--his decision not to fully merge the Drug Enforcement Administration into the FBI, often leading to rivalries in the field between the two agencies.

Handling the sensitive issue with diplomatic deftness, he noted that “every federal judge has dealt with the problems” of competition between law enforcement agencies and he said it is “quite natural” when you have vigorous enforcement to have turf battles.

Unpretentious Informality

Outside the courtroom, Sessions has a reputation for unpretentious informality in private that is in sharp contrast with his no-nonsense formal image as a jurist.

The 57-year-old judge and former prosecutor was described by friends and associates as a devoted outdoorsman and sometime mountain climber. He keeps a book about Texas’ rugged Guadalupe Mountains next to a volume about Abraham Lincoln on the coffee table in his office. He has taken several trips to the Himalayas and considers himself a “trekker.”

Interviews of lawyers who have practiced before Sessions, judges who serve alongside him and Justice Department veterans who remember his work there portray him as a take-charge jurist who insists on “personal accountability.” He is especially tough when sentencing those convicted of crimes that challenge the “integrity of the process,” such as perjury or obstruction of justice.

Controversial Rulings

He is probably best-known for presiding over the 1982 and 1983 trials related to the assassination of District Judge John H. Wood Jr.