Trump Says It's Possible He Could Pick FBI Head By Next Week
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WASHINGTON (CBSMiami/AP) — President Donald Trump wants to "make a fast decision" on a new FBI director, possibly by late next week, before he leaves on his first foreign trip since taking office.
"Even that is possible," he told reporters when asked whether he could announce his nominee by Friday, when he is scheduled to leave for the Mideast and Europe.
Four candidates to be the bureau's director were in line Saturday for the first interviews with Attorney General Jeff Sessions and his deputy, Rod Rosenstein, at Justice Department headquarters. They are among nearly a dozen candidates Trump is considering, a group that includes several lawmakers, attorneys and law enforcement officials.
"I think the process is going to go quickly. Almost all of them are very well known," Trump said while flying to Lynchburg, Virginia, where he was giving the commencement address at Liberty University. "They've been vetted over their lifetime essentially, but very well known, highly respected, really talented people. And that's what we want for the FBI."
The Trump administration is looking to fill the job, which requires Senate confirmation, after Trump abruptly fired Director James Comey on Tuesday.
The first candidate to arrive was Alice Fisher, a high-ranking Justice Department official in the George W. Bush administration. She left after about an hour and a half inside the building and declined to comment to reporters.
Among those also expected to be coming were acting FBI director Andrew McCabe, Michael J. Garcia, an associate judge on New York's highest court, and GOP Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Senate leader and a former state attorney general. That's according to two people familiar with the search process who weren't authorized to publicly discuss the deliberations and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Fisher formerly served as assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's Criminal Division. She faced resistance from Democrats during her confirmation over her alleged participation in discussions about detention policies at the Guantanamo Bay facility in Cuba. She also was deputy special counsel to the Senate special committee that investigated President Bill Clinton's Whitewater scandal.
The FBI has never had a female director.
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