Obama nominates Comey as FBI director Lauding him as "a man who stands very tall for justice and rule of law," President Obama on Friday officially nominated the six-foot-eight James Comey to be the next director of the FBI. The president said of Mueller in his announcement at the White House: "I'll say it as clearly as I can: countless Americans are alive today and our country is more secure because of the FBI's outstanding work under the leadership of Bob Mueller." As the administration battles complaints of overreach amid leaked government surveillance programs, Mr. Obama commended Comey's ability to balance national security and citizens' constitutional right to privacy: "As we've seen in recent days," he said, "this work of striking a balance between our security but also making sure we are maintaining fidelity to those values that we cherish is a constant mission." Comey told a Senate panel that upon hearing the news that Ashcroft had declined to approve the program, Bush White House counsel Alberto Gonzales and chief of staff Andy Card headed to Ashcroft's sick bed in the intensive care unit at George Washington University Hospital. Comey: "Excited" to return to the FBI Watching the struggle in the hospital room unfold, "I was angry," Comey explained to the panel. Mr. Obama on Friday did not directly mention the 2004 episode, but called Comey a man of "fierce independence and deep integrity," who "was prepared to give up a job he loved rather than be part of something he felt was fundamentally wrong."