Ashcroft to Tighten FBI Supervision

Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft took his first concrete steps Wednesday to rein in the FBI after months of turmoil, giving Justice Department watchdogs greater power to investigate allegations of misconduct at the beleaguered law enforcement agency.

The move eliminates bureaucratic hurdles that had prevented outside Justice Department investigators from probing FBI abuses. And it could preempt similar efforts by congressional lawmakers who complain that the FBI’s “arrogance” makes it impervious to outside scrutiny.

Ashcroft’s directive allows the Justice Department’s inspector general to begin investigating abuses within the FBI for the first time without getting prior approval from higher-ups. For years, the FBI has been largely exempted from inspector general investigations and left to police itself except in rare situations.

That long-standing policy, which makes the FBI “untouchable” in the view of some Justice Department officials, effectively barred the inspector general’s office from probing the FBI’s controversial actions in cases such as the Wen Ho Lee espionage investigation in New Mexico and the FBI’s close relationship with known mob figures in Boston.

Such restrictions “have prevented us from doing misconduct investigations at the FBI in the same way that we do at other components of the Department of Justice,” Inspector General Glen Fine said in an interview. “This opens the FBI up to more outside scrutiny, and that’s an important development.”

Ashcroft’s decision to untie the inspector general’s hands is the first in what could prove a long series of reforms at the FBI in the fallout over the Robert Philip Hanssen spy scandal, the eleventh-hour discovery of thousands of pages of material in the Oklahoma City bombing investigation, missteps in the Lee probe and other recent embarrassments.

The series of imbroglios has triggered four separate investigations into the FBI, along with mounting pressure from Congress for an overhaul of the bureau’s management practices. Critics are calling on Robert Mueller, picked last week by President Bush to succeed Louis J. Freeh as head of the FBI, to move aggressively with reforms if he is confirmed for the job.

Strengthening the inspector general’s oversight of the FBI is an idea that congressional critics have trumpeted repeatedly in recent weeks, and several proponents said they welcomed Ashcroft’s decision to move ahead on the issue on his own.

“I’ve said for years that the FBI should not be allowed to police itself, and I’m encouraged by . . . the establishment of a free and independent oversight entity,” said Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and a frequent FBI critic.

Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), the chairman of the judiciary panel, called Ashcroft’s decision “a solid step forward in accountability.”

But an aide to Leahy said Congress may still move ahead with efforts to legislate the inspector general’s power to investigate the FBI. Because the Justice Department could again decide to change its policy “on a whim, there’s still some merit to a change in the law,” said the aide, who asked not to be identified while proposals are pending.

Ashcroft decided to expand the inspector general’s powers to investigate both the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration, another Justice Department agency that also has been largely exempted from inspector general probes.

The attorney general said that the inspector general’s office has proved itself to be “a very constructive part of the department” with the tools to take on tough issues. Indeed, in a few notable exceptions, the inspector general’s office in recent years has been granted the authority by the attorney general’s office or the deputy attorney general to pursue questions of misconduct at the FBI.

The inspector general uncovered shortcomings at the FBI in its lab operations, its review of campaign finance abuses in the 1996 presidential election and its role in the Aldrich H. Ames spy scandal at the CIA in 1994. In recent months, at Ashcroft’s direction, the inspector general has also started investigations into the Hanssen spy case and the FBI’s failure to turn over material to lawyers for Oklahoma City bomber Timothy J. McVeigh.

In those few cases where the Justice Department did allow outside investigations, the FBI “made life both difficult and unpleasant” for the inspector general’s personnel, former Inspector General Michael Bromwich told a Senate hearing last month. The FBI’s frustrating lack of cooperation, he said, meant less and less oversight of the 11,000-agent bureau.

FBI spokesman John Collingwood said the bureau is in “full support of this change” by Ashcroft.

After years of resistance to the idea of greater oversight, FBI officials realized that such a move appeared inevitable after the recent slew of bad publicity heaped upon the bureau, said another FBI official who asked not to be identified. “‘Times have changed, and I think we realized this is the direction things were going on this issue, so we’ll support it,” the official said.