FBI Director Flew Bureau Plane to Ballet : Ethics: Trip occurred as William S. Sessions is under investigation for alleged improprieties, including questionable aircraft use.

FBI Director William S. Sessions, already under investigation for alleged use of FBI aircraft for personal travel, flew to Atlantic City on a bureau plane last month to see the Bolshoi Ballet at the Sands Hotel & Casino, it was learned Thursday.

Russian Ambassador Vladimir Lukin invited Sessions and his wife, Alice, to attend the Nov. 27 performance and the FBI director cleared the trip in advance with Deputy Atty. Gen. George J. Terwilliger, FBI officials said.

Senior bureau officials, however, gave Sessions conflicting advice on whether he should attend. The advice against making the trip was “tied to concerns that the director and his wife were traveling by bureau aircraft on what could be perceived as a social function,” FBI chief spokesman John Collingwood said.

The FBI director “firmly” decided in favor of making the trip because “the Russian ambassador was reaching out to him to make official contact,” Collingwood said. He noted that the bureau is providing police training for Poland and is hopeful of doing so for other former Communist states. “This was indeed a rare opportunity,” Collingwood said.

The Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility began an investigation this year of a wide range of alleged ethical improprieties involving Sessions, his wife and former executive assistant Sarah Munford. The allegations include Sessions’ misuse of FBI aircraft.

Sessions is “absolutely adamant that he is not going to have the . . . inquiry affect his running of the bureau,” Collingwood said. He also said that then-acting Secretary of State Lawrence S. Eagleburger encouraged Sessions to accept the Russian ambassador’s invitation.

Once at the ballet, however, Sessions’ position became more complicated when he learned that the $50 tickets for the affair apparently were paid for by the Sands, Collingwood acknowledged. It would appear to be inappropriate for the director of the FBI to accept such a gift from a gambling establishment.

It was “apparent on the face of the ticket that the Sands had some involvement in this,” Collingwood said.

Sessions is now seeking advice from Joseph R. Davis, the FBI’s top lawyer, on whether accepting the tickets was improper and what to do to “cure” any such problem.

“My guess is there’s no problem, because the tickets were given by the Sands to Lukin, and he can give to whomever he wants,” Collingwood said. “It’s a gift (to Sessions) from a foreign government.”

It could not be determined whether the investigation of Sessions, expected to be completed this month, has been widened to include the Atlantic City trip. Department officials indicated that it is increasingly likely the results of the inquiry will be held over for a decision by the incoming Clinton Administration’s attorney general.

Sessions, who has completed half of his 10-year term as FBI director, has indicated that he intends to remain in office. He messaged all field offices of the bureau on the night of the presidential election that he was looking forward “to our next five years together.”

Ron Kessler, whose study of the agency, done with Sessions’ approval, led to several of the allegations now under Justice Department review, criticized the trip. “Sessions has lost credibility within the FBI as a result of his actions, and this latest incident seems to indicate that he has a self-destructive streak,” said Kessler, whose book about the FBI is to be published next year.

Alice Sessions took the Atlantic City flight on a “cost-reimbursable, space-available” basis, the FBI said, which Collingwood described as a “narrow interpretation” of tightened Justice Department travel rules. He could not specify the cost, but said it is the same as commercial coach fare.

The General Accounting Office has cited estimates that the hourly cost of operating the FBI’s Sabreliner ranges from $750 to $1,362.

Sessions considered driving rather than flying to Atlantic City because of the “potential for this issue being raised.” But Davis and Collingwood contended that the trip was government business and thus the plane was appropriate, Collingwood said.

“The director clearly did not view this as pleasure,” Collingwood said.