Sessions Doubts Top FBI Aide’s Loyalty to Him

Escalating his battle to save his job, FBI Director William S. Sessions on Sunday questioned the loyalty of the bureau’s No. 2 official, Floyd I. Clarke, for failing to warn him about Justice Department findings that he abused his office.

Senior FBI officials were stunned by Sessions’ comments on ABC-TV’s “This Week With David Brinkley,” contending that Clarke, the deputy director who runs the bureau’s day-to-day operations, has never wavered in his loyalty to Sessions.

Sessions noted that Clarke had worked “very closely” with former Atty. Gen. William P. Barr, who approved the highly critical report on the FBI director, “but never gave me any indication of this at all.”

Sessions, who has blamed the report on Barr’s “animus” toward him, said Clarke also failed to indicate “that there was actually some animus between Mr. Barr and myself.”

Sessions’ criticism of Clarke, who is one of the most respected officials by those inside the agency, seemed certain to intensify turmoil in the bureau. The FBI has not been shaken by such conflict at its upper management level since 1973, when former Acting Director L. Patrick Gray III resigned in disgrace after disclosing that he had burned evidence related to the Watergate scandal in his fireplace.

“This will cause him (Sessions) severe problems internally,” one source said.

Sessions’ criticism of the report as being riddled with errors and distortions has already caused strain in the bureau because agents from the its Office of Professional Responsibility conducted the scores of interviews under oath that led to the conclusions in the report by its counterpart agency in the Justice Department.

The report by the Office of Professional Responsibility, the Justice Department’s internal watchdog unit, found that Sessions had taken part in a “sham” arrangement to avoid taxes on his use of a limousine, had taken personal trips on FBI aircraft that he sought to present as official travel, had refused to cooperate in an investigation of his home mortgage and had misused funds for a fence at his home that could not be justified on security grounds.

One source saw “irony” in Sessions’ questioning Clarke’s loyalty, saying Sessions had directed bureau officials to establish strong working relationships with their counterparts at the Justice Department and that Barr and Clarke came to know each other well while serving as deputies of their organizations.

Clarke could not be reached for comment. An FBI source said Clarke would not comment because “he doesn’t want to become a participant, prejudice the director or create a split between the director and top management.”

Barr said he did not want to be drawn into Sessions’ efforts to “personalize” the report’s findings, but he did say that Clarke played no part in the investigation and had been “completely loyal to the bureau.”

Sessions said Sunday that he had provided his “preliminary” response attacking the report’s findings to Bernard Nussbaum, counsel to President Clinton, on Saturday.

George Stephanopoulos, the White House communications director, appeared on the ABC program after Sessions and said that a decision on whether or not to remove the FBI director would be based on whether he did anything “improper” or “illegal.”

“As I said the other day, the allegations that appeared in the newspaper were disturbing,” Stephanopoulos said.

Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.) advised caution in the Sessions matter when he was asked about it on NBC-TV’s “Meet the Press.”

“Let’s be careful,” he said. “Let’s give him his day before an attorney general who is neutral. That’s fair to Judge Sessions. He left the federal judgeship to take this not very rewarding, 10-year job. He’s halfway through.”

Although Sessions has served only five years of his term, he can be removed by the President.

He said Sunday that he wants to keep his job to maintain the FBI’s independence and so “that we do not have a politically influenced FBI,” which he said is critical.

Asked if anyone had ever tried to influence him, Sessions said: “Nobody has ever tried to bribe me. Nobody has ever threatened me directly.

“It’s very clear from what I see written in the paper that people believe that the independence of the FBI is threatened and that they talk about that and . . . around the country (it’s) given space. They have not threatened me directly. No.”