Under pressure from Congress, FBI Director Louis J. Freeh removed his friend Larry Potts as the bureau's deputy director on Friday because of controversy over Potts' role in a deadly 1992 FBI siege in Idaho.
That public debate, fanned by a continuing Justice Department investigation and impending congressional hearings, had left Potts "unable to effectively perform his duties as deputy director," Freeh concluded.Freeh acted just before two House subcommittees opened joint hearings next Wednesday into another deadly FBI siege, in 1993 at the Branch Davidian cult compound near Waco, Texas. Both operations were managed from headquarters by Potts while he was an assistant director of the FBI.
The action also came the same week that Freeh put another senior FBI official, E. Michael Kahoe, on administrative leave from his job as chief of the FBI's Jacksonville, Fla., office.
Kahoe was placed on leave after admitting he destroyed the after-action report on the Idaho incident, according to administration and congressional officials, who demanded anonymity. He was chief of the shooting review team.
That report might have shed light on whether Potts approved much-criticized "shoot on sight" orders issued to FBI snipers during the standoff in Idaho with white separatist Randy Weaver. An FBI sniper shot and killed Weaver's unarmed wife, Vicki, as she stood behind a door at the couple's remote Ruby Ridge cabin. The government says the sniper was aiming at an armed associate of Weaver's who was running into the cabin.
Freeh went from door to door in Congress earlier this week providing individual briefings about Kahoe to key members on committees that oversee the FBI. Two congressional aides said Freeh heard calls for Potts' removal from both Democrats and Republicans who thought his promotion last May was a bad move and that the latest revelations about Ruby Ridge only worsened Potts' position.
Republicans and Democrats hailed Freeh's move Friday.
"Freeh did the right thing," said Rep. Charles Schumer of New York, ranking Democrat on the crime subcommittee holding theWaco hearings. "Larry Potts' removal takes a sword away from those who believe that Waco and Ruby Ridge were a grand government conspiracy."
Republican Sen. Larry Craig of Idaho, who had criticized Potts' promotion, said, "We now may be moving in the direction of full public disclosure of this incident and the behavior of the agents in-volved."
Rep. Helen Chenoweth, R-Idaho, who had asked Attorney General Janet Reno to remove Potts on Wednesday, applauded his transfer and urged that he be fired.
Freeh informed Reno during a Justice Department meeting Friday of his decision to transfer Potts to the FBI's training division. Freeh said he would select a new deputy soon and, in the meantime, William J. Esposito, assistant director in charge of criminal investigations, would serve as acting deputy.
White House press secretary Mike McCurry said the president has made clear any wrongdoers will be fired, adding, "We are satisfied that the Justice Department is now pursuing this diligently and conducting an appropriate inquiry into the facts."
A central issue in the Idaho case has been who was responsible for special rules of engagement that said FBI snipers "could and should" use deadly force against armed men spotted in the open at the Weaver compound. Longstanding FBI policy bars the use of lethal force except in self-defense.
Potts has denied he approved or even saw such language. But Richard Rogers, head of the FBI hostage rescue team, and Eugene Glenn, who was Salt Lake City office chief and field commander in the Idaho standoff, have sworn that Potts did.
Kahoe's admissions came during a two-month-old Justice Department investigation of charges by Glenn, whom Freeh blamed for the "shoot on sight" order, that previous FBI reviews of Ruby Ridge were designed to cover up for Potts.
Both House and Senate committees are gearing up to look into the Idaho incident in September.
The House hearings beginning Wednesday will examine an FBI tear gas assault on the Branch Davidian compound in 1993. During the attack, a fire broke out that destroyed the complex. Eighty-one bodies were found in the ashes.