Probe of FBI Chief Finds No Criminal Acts

The FBI has found no evidence of criminal wrongdoing in its investigation of alleged misconduct by FBI Director William S. Sessions, but is continuing an administrative review into charges that Sessions permitted his wife and his special assistant to abuse FBI power and privileges, officials said Friday.

Atty. Gen. William P. Barr has notified a panel of appellate judges that he will not seek appointment of an independent prosecutor in the matter, according to a statement issued by the FBI. Sources familiar with the case said that means Justice Department investigators found no evidence of criminality in Sessions’ actions.

Sessions had been accused of making improper long-distance phone calls from his office and trying to evade local taxes by giving conflicting statements about his status as a resident of the District of Columbia, authorities said.

Sessions, in the statement released by the FBI, was described as “pleased to have this matter behind him.”

The statement said he had cooperated with the inquiry by the department’s Public Integrity Section, but another source said Sessions never had submitted to a formal interview by investigators because the department declined to provide him detailed information about the charges.

The continuing tension between the Justice Department, the parent of the FBI, and Sessions was reflected in the fact that Barr declined to announce his decision, leaving the announcement to Sessions’ own bureau. Justice Department officials also refused to answer any questions about the FBI statement.

Still unresolved are allegations being investigated by the department’s Office of Professional Responsibility that relate to Sessions’ approval or knowledge of actions taken by his wife, Alice, and his executive assistant, Sarah Munford.

This inquiry, while it could potentially harm Sessions’ career, is considered less serious because, unlike the investigation in which he was cleared, it does not involve charges of criminal wrongdoing.

One complaint of alleged ethical misconduct is that Alice Sessions requested and received an FBI building pass, which entitles her to the special privileges of an assistant FBI director or above, and that she is admitted without the pass when she forgets to carry it. Such practices allegedly have undermined respect for rules among some veteran FBI agents.

Sessions’ wife is also alleged to have unsuccessfully urged the FBI to give a friend of the family a $100,000 contract for installation of security alarms in the Sessions’ Washington home, and to have made unauthorized plane and car travel.

Also at issue is whether Sessions was aware that Texas state troopers were charging that his aide, Munford, tried to use her FBI credentials to keep them from ticketing her son in an incident late last year.

Troopers have said they approached Munford’s son, Glenn, who was driving a car in which Munford was a passenger. She allegedly leaned out the window and waved her FBI pass, saying she was an assistant to the FBI director.

The ticket was issued nonetheless. Sessions reportedly took no action against his special assistant even after a complaint was made by the trooper involved. Since the incident has become public, Sessions has placed Munford on administrative leave and threatened to fire her.

Alice Sessions and Munford are known to have told many acquaintances that the investigation of Sessions is a thinly disguised attempt by his enemies to ruin his career halfway through his 10-year statutory term.

Some friends of Sessions, while not endorsing this theory fully, have said that his well-publicized efforts to bring more blacks and women into the agency have angered many veteran white agents who form the core of the FBI bureaucracy.