Washington Week with The Atlantic

PAUL DUKE

We have a new chief of the FBI, Jack, President Clinton announcing his choice this week at the same time that he got some stunning news affecting the White House family.

JACK NELSON

Well, he named Judge Louis Freeh, a federal judge in New York, as the new director replacing William Sessions, the FBI director who had been the director for five and a half years who insisted on being fired. They tried to get him to retire. He insisted on being fired, and so the president accommodated him. He fired him and named this judge.

NELSON

The agency has been very troubled under the directorship of Mr. Sessions because, as you know, Mr. Sessions leaves with a cloud over his head, having been accused of all sorts of improprieties misuse of a FBI plane and other things.

DUKE

Well, why did he stick around so long?

NELSON

Well, he stuck around, Paul, because he says that he needed to show that the FBI was not going to be subjected to political pressure and that, if he were to just leave, it would be like there was political pressure. So he not only stuck around until he was fired; he went around to all the talk show last night and this morning and talked about the FBI and the independence of the FBI. But the thing about it was I think that President Clinton let him hang in there for about six months because he wanted to show that there was nothing political about getting rid of him.