Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation

When the Bureau of Investigation (BOI) was established in 1908, its head was called Chief of the Bureau of Investigation.[14] It was changed to the Director of the Bureau of Investigation in the term of William J. Flynn (1919–1921) and to its current name when the BOI was renamed FBI in 1935.

No.	Portrait	Name	Term[14]	Length	President(s) served under
1		Stanley Finch	July 26, 1908 – April 30, 1912	3 years, 279 days	Theodore Roosevelt William Howard Taft
2		A. Bruce Bielaski	April 30, 1912 – February 10, 1919	6 years, 286 days	William Howard Taft Woodrow Wilson
—		William E. Allen (Acting)	February 10, 1919 – June 30, 1919	140 days	Woodrow Wilson
3		William J. Flynn	July 1, 1919 – August 21, 1921	2 years, 51 days	Woodrow Wilson Warren G. Harding
4		William J. Burns	August 22, 1921 – May 10, 1924	2 years, 262 days	Warren G. Harding Calvin Coolidge
5		J. Edgar Hoover	May 10, 1924 – June 30, 1935	11 years, 51 days	Calvin Coolidge Herbert Hoover Franklin D. Roosevelt

The FBI became an independent service within the Department of Justice in 1935.[15] In the same year, its name was officially changed to the present-day Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), with J. Edgar Hoover receiving the current title of Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Since 1972, the United States Senate has to confirm the nomination of a permanent officeholder.

No.	Portrait	Name	Term[14]	Length	President(s) served under
1		J. Edgar Hoover	July 1, 1935 – May 2, 1972	36 years, 306 days	Franklin D. Roosevelt Harry S. Truman Dwight D. Eisenhower John F. Kennedy Lyndon B. Johnson Richard Nixon
—		Clyde Tolson (Acting)	May 2, 1972 – May 3, 1972	1 day	Richard Nixon
—		L. Patrick Gray (Acting)	May 3, 1972 – April 27, 1973	359 days	Richard Nixon
—		William Ruckelshaus (Acting)	April 30, 1973 – July 9, 1973	70 days	Richard Nixon
2		Clarence M. Kelley	July 9, 1973 – February 15, 1978	4 years, 221 days	Richard Nixon Gerald Ford Jimmy Carter
—		James B. Adams (Acting)	February 15, 1978 – February 23, 1978	8 days	Jimmy Carter
3		William H. Webster	February 23, 1978 – May 25, 1987	9 years, 91 days	Jimmy Carter Ronald Reagan
—		John E. Otto (Acting)	May 26, 1987 – November 2, 1987	160 days	Ronald Reagan
4		William S. Sessions	November 2, 1987 – July 19, 1993	5 years, 259 days	Ronald Reagan George H. W. Bush Bill Clinton
—		Floyd I. Clarke (Acting)	July 19, 1993 – September 1, 1993	44 days	Bill Clinton
5		Louis Freeh	September 1, 1993 – June 25, 2001	7 years, 297 days	Bill Clinton George W. Bush
—		Thomas J. Pickard (Acting)	June 25, 2001 – September 4, 2001	71 days	George W. Bush
6		Robert Mueller	September 4, 2001 – September 4, 2013	12 years	George W. Bush Barack Obama
7		James Comey	September 4, 2013 – May 9, 2017	3 years, 247 days	Barack Obama Donald Trump
—		Andrew McCabe (Acting)	May 9, 2017 – August 2, 2017	85 days	Donald Trump
8		Christopher A. Wray	August 2, 2017 – Present	5 years, 95 days	Donald Trump Joe Biden

Just before Bill Clinton was inaugurated as the 42nd President of the United States on January 20, 1993, allegations of ethical improprieties were made against Sessions. A report by outgoing Attorney General William P. Barr presented to the Justice Department that month by the Office of Professional Responsibility included criticisms that he had used an FBI plane to travel to visit his daughter on several occasions, and had a security system installed in his home at government expense.[17] Janet Reno, the 78th Attorney General of the United States, announced that Sessions had exhibited "serious deficiencies in judgment."[18]

Although Sessions denied that he had acted improperly, he was pressured to resign in early July, with some suggesting that President Clinton was giving Sessions the chance to step down in a dignified manner. Sessions refused, saying that he had done nothing wrong, and insisted on staying in office until his successor was confirmed. As a result, President Clinton dismissed Sessions on July 19, 1993, five and a half years into a ten-year term. Clinton's public explanation was that there had been a loss of confidence in Sessions’ leadership, and then-Attorney General Reno recommended the dismissal.[19]

Ronald Kessler's book, The FBI: Inside the World's Most Powerful Law Enforcement Agency, led to the dismissal by President Clinton of Sessions as FBI director over his abuses. According to The Washington Post, "A Justice Department official...noted that the original charges against Sessions came not from FBI agents but from a journalist, Ronald Kessler [who uncovered the abuses while writing a book about the FBI, leading to Sessions' dismissal by President Clinton]..."[20] The New York Times said Kessler's FBI book "did indeed trigger bureau and Justice Department investigations into alleged travel and expense abuses [by FBI Director William Sessions, leading to his departure]...[21]

Clinton nominated Louis Freeh to be FBI Director on July 20. Then-FBI Deputy Director, Floyd I. Clarke, who Sessions suggested had led a coup to force his removal, served as Acting Director until September 1, 1993, when Freeh was sworn in.[22]

On May 9, 2017, President Trump dismissed Comey after the recommendation of United States Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.[23] Rosenstein's memorandum to Sessions objected to Comey's conduct in the investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails.[24] This was contradicted by multiple unnamed sources to news outlets, who said that Trump and high-level officials personally asked for Comey to be fired.[25][26] Comey was fired after he asked for more money for the investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections.[27] Many members of Congress, mostly Democrats, expressed concern over the firing and argued that it would put the integrity of the investigation into jeopardy.[28]

Comey's termination was immediately controversial, even being characterized as corrupt by news commentators. It was compared, by the aforementioned news outlets, to the Saturday Night Massacre, President Richard Nixon's termination of special prosecutor Archibald Cox, who had been investigating the Watergate scandal,[29][30] and to the firing of Acting Attorney General Sally Yates in January 2017.

In the dismissal letter Trump stated that Comey had asserted “on three separate occasions that I am not under investigation" which was later confirmed by Comey to the Senate while under oath.[31] This is disputed by reporting from multiple news agencies with multiple sources. According to the reporting, Trump had been openly talking about firing Mr. Comey for at least a week before his dismissal. Trump and Democratic leaders had long questioned Comey's judgment. Moreover, Trump was angry that Comey would not support his claim that President Barack Obama had his campaign offices wiretapped, frustrated when Comey revealed in Senate testimony the breadth of the counterintelligence investigation into Russia's effort to sway the 2016 U.S. presidential election and that Comey was giving too much attention to the Russia probe and not to internal leaks within the government. On May 8, 2017, he gave Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein a directive to explain in writing a case against Comey. That directive was forwarded to Trump as a recommendation to dismiss Comey the following day, which Trump did.[32][33][34]

Comey first learned of his termination from television news reports that flashed on screen while he was delivering a speech to agents at the Los Angeles Field Office.[35] Sources said he was surprised and caught off guard by the termination. Comey immediately departed for Washington, D.C., and was forced to cancel his scheduled speech that night at an FBI recruitment event at the Directors Guild of America in Hollywood, California.[36]

In the absence of a Senate-confirmed FBI Director, Deputy Director Andrew McCabe automatically became the acting director, serving until the confirmation of Christopher Wray.[37]