Attorney General Eric Holder said Tuesday that the search for a new FBI director is underway, and that the administration hoped to have Robert Mueller's successor selected and confirmed by the Senate well before his retirement in September.
"The goal is to have somebody nominated and ready to go," Holder told reporters at a Justice Department briefing. "We have to move relatively soon."
Mueller, the longest-serving FBI director since J. Edgar Hoover, is scheduled to complete his 10-year term Sept. 4.
Holder declined to elaborate on possible candidates for the job.
"Bob is a hard person to replace," Holder said, referring to Mueller, whose term was defined by the government's response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people in New York City, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
