President Obama is reportedly preparing to nominate former Justice Department official James Comey to head the FBI. The New York Times reports Obama will tap Comey, a Republican, to replace Robert Mueller when Mueller departs in September. Comey is well known for refusing to re-authorize the Bush administration’s warrantless spy program while serving as acting attorney general in the place of John Ashcroft, who was recovering from surgery. Comey alerted Ashcroft after top White House aides rushed to Ashcroft’s hospital bed in a failed bid to win his approval for the spying. In 2003, Comey came under criticism from the civil rights attorney Lynne Stewart. Stewart accused Comey of “pure vindictiveness” in pursuing her and two co-defendants after the judge in the case threw out terrorism charges.