[President Bill] Clinton’s action ended an agonizing public debate that began last January when a scathing report from the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) accused Sessions of numerous ethical lapses. Although a Clinton spokesman immediately described the report as “disturbing” and administration officials concluded within weeks of taking office that Sessions had to be replaced, the White House permitted him to stay on for months — a delay that senior FBI officials say badly demoralized the bureau and exacerbated an already painful rift between the director and top bureau managers. . . .

Sessions’s future was thrown into doubt earlier this year when the OPR report found that he had abused his office by setting up official appointments to justify charging the government for personal travel, improperly billed the FBI nearly $10,000 for a fence around his home, and refused to turn over documents on his $375,000 home mortgage, which investigators said they suspected involved a “sweetheart deal.”