Janet Reno was sworn in Friday as the nation's first woman attorney general. She pledged a quick but careful decision concerning the future of embattled FBI Director William Sessions.
Reno, who won unanimous Senate approval Thursday, took her place in the Clinton Cabinet in a White House ceremony attended by the president and members of her family. Supreme Court Justice Byron White administered the oath.President Clinton said Reno was a "strong and independent person who will give me your best legal judgment, whether or not it's what I want to hear."
For her part, Reno pledged to administer justice fairly. "There will be a new spirit in America where people will want to become involved in public service because it is the greatest undertaking you can commit for your nation," she said.
"Public service is a great undertaking," she said. "This is a new and wonderful time in American history where we want to make government reflective of its people, make its people come first and give all Americans an opportunity to be attorney general, senators, and serve the people."
Her niece, also named Janet Reno, held the Bible as she took the oath of office.
Reno said a decision on Sessions, who is midway through his 10-year term as FBI director, would be "one of the most urgent concerns." But, she said, "I certainly won't prejudge that issue."
Sessions was accused of various ethical lapses, including abusing travel privileges, in a report by the Justice Department earlier this year.
Clinton has said he was waiting to make a decision on Sessions' future until his new attorney general could review the allegations and the FBI director's response.
Reno, 54, takes command of the 93,000-employee Justice Department, which had been run by a Republican holdover since Inauguration Day.
The Senate's 98-0 vote to confirm her Thursday ended Clinton's troubled search for an attorney general and rounded out his Cabinet.
"It's an extraordinary experience, and I hope I do the women of America proud," Reno said at the White House where she stopped by to receive Clinton's congratulations.
"I'm elated," Clinton said. "That may be the only vote I carry 98-0 this year."
Clinton's first nominee, insurance company lawyer Zoe Baird, withdrew during her confirmation hearings in the face of public uproar over her illegal hiring of undocumented aliens as household help and her failure to pay Social Security taxes on them.
The president's second choice, New York federal judge Kimba Wood, withdrew before she was nominated after it turned out that she, too, had employed an undocumented alien, though, in her case, she had done nothing illegal.
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NRA aide resigns
A National Rifle Association lobbyist has resigned after admitting he spread unsubstantiated rumors that Attorney General Janet Reno was stopped on suspicion of drunken driving but not charged.
"We do not truck in unsubstantiated rumors," Jim Baker, the NRA's chief lobbyist, said Thursday after David Gibbons stepped down as director of federal affairs.
Reno shrugged off the incident Friday. "One person may have done it, but I don't think the National Rifle Association did it," she told CBS News.