    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1993, Book I)]
    [July 19, 1993]
    [Pages 1112-1115]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks on the Dismissal of FBI Director William Sessions and an
    Exchange With Reporters
    July 19, 1993

        The President. Good afternoon. In recent months, serious questions
    have been raised about the conduct and the leadership of the Director of
    the FBI William Sessions. Among other matters, the Department's Office
    of Professional Responsibility has issued a report on certain conduct by
    the Director. I asked the Attorney General, Janet Reno, to assess the
    Director's tenure and the proper response to the turmoil now in the
    Bureau. After a thorough

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    review by the Attorney General of Mr. Sessions' leadership of the FBI,
    she has reported to me in no uncertain terms that he can no longer
    effectively lead the Bureau and law enforcement community.
        I had hoped very much that this matter could be resolved within the
    Justice Department. The Attorney General met with Judge Sessions over
    the weekend and asked him to resign, but he refused. In accord with the
    recommendation of the Attorney General, with which I fully agree, I
    called Director Sessions a few moments ago and informed him that I was
    dismissing him, effective immediately, as the Director of the FBI.
        We cannot have a leadership vacuum at an agency as important to the
    United States as the FBI. It is time that this difficult chapter in the
    Agency's history is brought to a close. The FBI is the Nation's premier
    investigative and enforcement agency. Law-abiding citizens rely on the
    FBI to handle a wide array of complex and sensitive matters, to protect
    our shores against terrorism, our neighborhoods against the scourge of
    drugs and guns, our public life against white-collar crime, corruption,
    and crimes of violence. The Agency's brilliant detective work in the
    wake of the World Trade Center bombing has shown even in a time of
    difficulty the men and women on the street and in the labs have
    continued to give their country their best. With a change in management
    in the FBI, we can now give the crimefighters the leadership they
    deserve.
        Tomorrow I expect to make an announcement about my nominee to be the
    next Director of the FBI. In the meanwhile, the Attorney General and I
    have asked Floyd Clark to serve as Acting Director of the Bureau.
        Q. Mr. President, are you--what did he do wrong? And are you
    confident that there was not an internal vendetta against Judge Sessions
    because he wanted to broaden the look of the FBI, take in more
    Hispanics, blacks, and women?
        The President. Well, let me answer the second question first. I
    think that will be remembered as the best thing about his tenure. And he
    deserves the support and thanks of the American people for trying to
    broaden the membership of the FBI to make it look more like America and
    to follow the lead of some other agencies and the United States
    military.
        Now, but beyond that, if you read the report of the Office of
    Professional Responsibility and you do what the Attorney General did, if
    you look at that and all of the other circumstances and you assess the
    capacity of the present Director to lead or the incapacity of the
    Director to lead, she reached the judgment, which she communicated to
    me, that he ought to resign. And I fully agreed with that judgment.
    There are lots of reasons for it.
        Q. Mr. President, do you think that this will in any way create the
    impression that the FBI is being politicized and hurt the longstanding
    tradition that the FBI not be subject to political pressure?
        The President. Absolutely not. As a matter of fact, that's one of
    the reasons we have taken the amount of time that we have. The Attorney
    General, when she took office, was asked by me to review this matter.
    Both of us agreed that in the normal course of events, the Director of
    the FBI should not be changed just because administrations changed, even
    when, perhaps even especially when, there's a change of political party
    in the White House. So the Attorney General was very deliberate, very
    thorough in this, and I think has gone out of her way to avoid the
    appearance of political impropriety.

    Homosexuals in the Military

        Q. Mr. President, won't your new policy on homosexuals in the
    military require gays in the military to stay in the closet? And do you
    hope that the courts will take this policy further?
        The President. No, it will not necessarily require them to stay in
    the closet. The policy as written gives people a limited right,
    obviously, to express their sexual orientation. But if they do so, they
    are at risk of having to demonstrate in some credible way that they are
    observing the rules of conduct applied in the military service. That is
    much more than they had before.
        Over and above that, the investigative rules, which are part of the
    policy, go far beyond anything that was written in law before in terms
    of respecting the privacy and associational rights of homosexuals in the
    military service and others, and nonhomosexuals, heterosexuals, in the
    military.
        Q. Mr. President, you said in your speech that you thought you had
    done what was right. You had earlier said that what was right was
    lifting the ban. How did you reach the decision not to stick with your
    guns, go ahead, lift the ban, take the heat? This is going to be decided

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    in the courts anyway. Why not stand by your principles?
        The President. First of all, I think I did stand by my principles.
    Under this policy, a person can say, ``I am a homosexual, but I am going
    to strictly adhere to the Code of Conduct.'' If you go back through
    every statement I have made, I never said that I would be in favor of
    changing any of the rules of conduct. I said I did not agree with the
    whole policy. The only part of this policy with which I do not agree is
    that the rebuttable presumption, in effect, puts the burden on the
    service member to demonstrate credibly that he or she understands the
    rules of conduct and is going to adhere to them. That is the only part
    of it with which I do not agree.
        On the investigative rules governing conduct, there is more
    protection for privacy rights and for associational rights than I ever
    discussed in the campaign, than I have ever discussed as President. And
    it is a significant change, significant in the policy operations of the
    United States military. So from the point of view of homosexuals who
    wish to serve honorably, I think it was a substantial advance. That's
    one answer.
        The second point is, I think it is very important for the President,
    whenever possible, to work with the military services who will have to
    carry out the policy in a way that maintains the kind of cooperation
    manifested today. I think all of you who know anything about this issue
    know that the Joint Chiefs moved a very long way from where they were
    today, compared to where they were when I first met with them after I
    became President.
        The third issue--there's one last issue--the third issue is that had
    I done that, that position would have faced certain swift and immediate
    defeat in the United States Congress because of the opposition of the
    Joint Chiefs, which they are by law required to give if asked in
    congressional testimony.
        Q. Do you have a sense now that Senator Nunn will not bring about
    that result by virtue of what he tries to enact? Have you talked to him?
        The President. Well, I hope he doesn't. We have been in regular
    contact with him. Since I basically was not involved in the negotiations
    of the policy until just a couple of days ago, the Secretary of Defense,
    at my instruction, was in regular and almost constant contact with
    Senator Nunn and with some others. And I hope very much that he won't.
        There were some changes, a few minor changes and one that was
    important to me, made in the last few days at my suggestion. But the
    Joint Chiefs signed off on them. It seems to me that their judgment,
    given the fact that they were all opposed to the changes which we are
    now making--they've worked through these things; they've looked at the
    legal, at the practical, at the factual situations that we face--it
    seems to me that their judgment ought to count for a great deal and that
    we should not get in the business of legislating every personnel policy.
    I would hope that Senator Nunn would support this policy.
        One more.
        Q. Mr. President, how does what people do in private, whether
    they're gay or straight, have any bearing on their fitness to serve in
    the military?
        The President. Well, you know that I don't believe it does, but
    today--now, wait a minute, go back and read the policy. Read the policy.
    Today the Joint Chiefs took the position that any violation of the Code
    of Conduct must be applied in an even-handed way as it reflects
    heterosexuals and homosexuals. And you have to go back and read the
    whole Military Code to understand the significance of that, but it is
    quite a significant statement by them.
        Thank you very much.

    FBI Director

        Q. One for the Attorney General?
        Q. Attorney General Reno, there have been sort of two tracks in
    terms of the allegations against the FBI Director: one, the ethical
    problems that were in the original report that was carried over from the
    Bush administration. The other is that in the months since, he has lost
    the confidence of his Agency and, therefore, the ability to do his job
    effectively. For which of those two things is he being dismissed?

    [At this point, Attorney General Reno read the letter she sent to the
    President recommending the dismissal of Mr. Sessions.]

        Q. Mr. President----
        Q. Does that mean it was both?
        Q. Mr. President----
        Q. Let me follow up for just a second, Sarah [Sarah McClendon,
    McClendon News Service]. Did you find that he did violate any laws or

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    Government regulations as charged in the original report? And where did
    that fall in terms of the confidence that members----
        Attorney General Reno. I concluded that, based on the report and the
    responses to the report, that the Director had exhibited a serious
    deficiency in judgment regarding matters in the report.
        Q. Mr. President, we have seen here an Agency maneuvering the White
    House, the press, the public, and getting their own head of the Agency
    that they want. We have seen them push out a man here, and let me tell
    you--don't you think it's about time to protect American people from any
    actions, operations of the FBI, that we should write a charter for them
    in Congress? They only exist by an Executive order which Teddy Roosevelt
    wrote in 1908.
        The President. Well, I don't agree with the characterization you
    made of what has occurred. So I can't comment on it. I flat disagree.
        Q. Would you look into that, because you obviously have not looked
    into that?
        The President. No, I just disagree.

    Note: The President spoke at 4:15 p.m. in the Briefing Room at the White
    House.