[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

[[Page 1113]]

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

[[Page 1114]]

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

[[Page 1115]]

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.