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FBI director visits Denver office
Associated Press Writer
DENVER – As an appointee of George W. Bush, FBI Director Robert Mueller is one of a few holdovers of the Bush administration who will serve under President-elect Barack Obama, who campaigned on the premise of change.
Mueller was appointed on Sept. 4, 2001, and his 10-year term doesn’t end until 2011. Mueller said Wednesday during a visit to Denver that it was too early to tell how Obama’s administration might affect his agency.
He said the current and future administrations both recognize the need to work with state and local officials to keep communities safe.
The FBI, the investigative arm of the Justice Department, will work with a new attorney general, though. Obama has nominated Washington lawyer Eric Holder for the post. Holder and Mueller have worked together before: As a U.S. attorney in Washington, Holder hired Mueller to prosecute homicides.
“He would make a fine attorney general,” Mueller said of Holder.
Mueller regularly visits FBI offices around the country and was in Denver to meet with managers and employees Wednesday, spokeswoman Kathy Wright said. He spoke to reporters afterward.
Mueller said a growing population in Denver and the West present new challenges for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which is seeing more violent gang activity. Though counterrorism remains a top priority for the bureau, the FBI also is focused on combating violent crimes, which a multiagency, Denver-area gang task force has been addressing in partnership with the FBI.
Other priorities for the FBI include white-collar crimes – such as mortgage fraud – public corruption and cybercrimes. Mueller said last spring that the FBI had seen a 50 percent increase in pending mortgage-fraud investigations over fiscal 2006.
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