CLINTON FIRES SESSIONS AS FBI DIRECTOR
By Michael Isikoff and Ruth Marcus - July 20, 1993
President Clinton fired FBI Director William S. Sessions yesterday, ending a six-month drama during which the former federal judge refused repeated requests from administration officials to resign.
Clinton telephoned Sessions yesterday afternoon to inform him that he had been fired and then called back several minutes later to remind him that the dismissal was "effective immediately." The president told reporters afterwards that he acted after Attorney General Janet Reno "reported to me in no uncertain terms that he {Sessions} can no longer effectively lead the bureau and law enforcement community" and that he agreed with that assessment.
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Most troubling to administration officials was the OPR finding of a "sham" arrangement to claim a tax exemption on the value of his chauffeur-driven FBI limousine to and from work. Sessions had received a legal opinion from the chief FBI lawyer that he could use the exemption if he carried a firearm or kept one in the limousine.
The OPR reported that Sessions then obtained a handgun and kept it unloaded in a briefcase in the car. He never took any training, prompting former attorney general William P. Barr on his last day in office to write in a blistering memo to Sessions that the FBI director's use of the exemption "does not even pass the red face test."
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