I’ve spent much of this spring and summer working on a giant piece for the magazine about the FBI Director Robert Mueller and the Bureau post-9/11. It was a fascinating story to write and researchóI was really surprised at how little institutional attention had been paid to the Bureau by the media.
Here’s the story, “The Ultimate G-Man: Robert Mueller“:
The sun had just come up when Robert Mueller and James Comey walked up to the West Wing of the White House shortly after 7 am on March 12, 2004. Mueller and Comey had been up for much longer. Neither the FBI director nor the deputy attorney general had slept much in the previous week, and that was before al Qaeda terrorists killed 191 people in train bombings around Madrid. It was windy and cool; the thermometer hovered at 40 degrees as the two men prepared to brief the President.
It was, both fully expected, the last time they would enter the White House. In their desks at the FBI and Justice Department were letters of resignation they expected to submit; they would be joined by a dozen other Justice and FBI officials. The only reason the letters hadnít been submitted already was that the men, at the request of the attorney generalís chief of staff, were waiting until John Ashcroft had recuperated from gallbladder surgery to the point where he could resign as well.
To understand that day, you have to go back to the 73-word oath that kicks off every federal career.
If you read it for nothing else, read it for the final story about the hospital incident with John Ashcroft and Alberto Gonzales.
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