FBI Director Defends Patriot Act

By Jennifer A. Dlouhy HEARST NEWSPAPERS

WASHINGTON — FBI Director Robert Mueller pleaded with senators Tuesday not to curtail the Patriot Act that empowers the federal government to secretly obtain personal records, although a Justice Department investigator discovered that the bureau had failed to obey its requirements.

The problem wasn’t the law, Mueller told the Senate Judiciary Committee; it was the FBI.

“The statute did not cause the errors,” Mueller said. “The FBI’s implementation of the statute did.”

Mueller’s mea culpa came two weeks after Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine reported that the FBI repeatedly violated internal regulations and federal law in issuing some “national security letters” between 2003 and 2005.

Those letters — demands for information sent to telecommunications companies and banks — can be used to get financial, travel and phone records without a court order or grand jury finding that there is probable cause to believe the information is connected to a terrorism investigation. The government has been able to use the letters since 1978, but the 2001 Patriot Act expanded the authority.

In some cases, Fine found, FBI agents used the letters to get personal records of U.S. residents and foreign visitors by claiming emergency situations, even when there was no emergency.

On Tuesday, Mueller said he made a mistake in not implementing a “compliance program” to audit the letters and make sure they were being used properly. The FBI director has since launched an audit, and Mueller left open the possibility Tuesday that some agents could be punished for not complying with Justice Department regulations governing the letters.

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