WASHINGTON — 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.
