FBI head Mueller responds to DeLay criticism

FBI Director Robert Mueller yesterday defended his agency in the wake of criticism from former Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) that it has dragged out an investigation of DeLay’s wife and former political associates.

DeLay recently told The Hill that he has given the FBI evidence exonerating his wife of accusations that she had accepted improper payments from two lobbyist-linked organizations.

{mosads}“She did her work and she was underpaid for the work she did and they can’t make the case,” he said. “It’s a Justice Department that is running amok. Fish or cut bait.”

Christine DeLay accepted payments from ARMPAC and Alexander Strategy Group, two groups affiliated with Ed Buckham, a lobbyist under investigation.

Rep. Rick Renzi (R-Ariz.), who is also the subject of an FBI investigation, has leveled similar charges. Renzi told a local television station that he is the victim of a smear campaign by the Justice Department.
At a breakfast sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor, Mueller said his agents have acted properly in public corruption investigations.

“In each case, I’m comfortable that we’ve taken the steps that are appropriate in the course of the investigation,” he said.

“Every investigation we do, we follow whatever leads, whatever pieces of information that will take us to a just resolution of the case,” he said, adding that, after counterterrorism, public corruption has been the FBI’s No. 1 criminal priority.

“It’s important to democracy that democracy be exercised without being waylaid by those who engage in public corruption,” he said.