Senators Grill FBI Chief On Laws Being Broken by FBI

March 27, 2007
Senators Grill FBI Chief On Laws Being Broken by FBI

WASHINGTON -- FBI Director Robert Mueller labored Tuesday to persuade skeptical senators that the FBI can properly use its Patriot Act authority to gather telephone, e-mail and financial records of Americans and foreigners while pursuing terrorists.

He appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee after the Justice Department inspector general revealed abuses in the FBI's use of documents called national security letters to gather such data without approval from a judge.

"We're going to be re-examining the broad authorities we granted the FBI in the Patriot Act," Committee Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., told Mueller.

Mueller urged the panel not to revise the law.

"The statute did not cause the errors," Mueller said. "The FBI's implementation did."