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The following is a list of controversies involving the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Throughout its history, the
FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...
has been the subject of a number of controversial cases, both at home and abroad.


Files on U.S. citizens

The FBI has maintained files on numerous people, including celebrities such as
Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was an American singer and actor. Referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one of the most significant cultural figures of the ...
,
Frank Sinatra Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Honorific nicknames in popular music, Nicknamed the "Chairman of the Board" and "Ol' Blue Eyes", he is regarded as one of the Time 100: The Most I ...
,
John Denver Henry John Deutschendorf Jr. (December 31, 1943 – October 12, 1997), known professionally as John Denver, was an American Country music, country and Folk music, folk singer, songwriter, and actor. He was one of the most popular acoustic m ...
,
John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer-songwriter, musician and activist. He gained global fame as the founder, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of the Beatles. Lennon's ...
,
Jane Fonda Jane Seymour Fonda (born December 21, 1937) is an American actress and activist. Recognized as a film icon, Jane Fonda filmography, Fonda's work spans several genres and over six decades of film and television. She is the recipient of List of a ...
,
Groucho Marx Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx (; October 2, 1890 – August 19, 1977) was an American comedian, actor, writer, and singer who performed in films and vaudeville on television, radio, and the stage. He is considered one of America's greatest comed ...
,
Charlie Chaplin Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is considered o ...
, the band
MC5 MC5 was an American rock music, rock band formed in Lincoln Park, Michigan, in 1963. The classic lineup consisted of vocalist Rob Tyner, guitarists Wayne Kramer and Fred "Sonic" Smith, bassist Michael Davis (bassist), Michael Davis, and drummer ...
,
Lou Costello Louis Francis Cristillo (March 6, 1906 – March 3, 1959), better known as Lou Costello, was an American comedian, actor and producer. He was best known for his double act with Bud Abbott and their routine " Who's on First?". Abbott and Cos ...
,
Sonny Bono Salvatore Phillip "Sonny" Bono ( ; February 16, 1935 – January 5, 1998) was an American singer, songwriter, actor, and politician. In partnership with his second wife, Cher, he formed the singing duo Sonny & Cher. A member of the Republican Pa ...
,
Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan; born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Described as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture over his nearly 70-year ...
,
Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Michael Jackson, one of the most culturally significan ...
, and
Mickey Mantle Mickey Charles Mantle (October 20, 1931 – August 13, 1995), nicknamed "the Mick" and "the Commerce Comet", was an American professional baseball player who played his entire Major League Baseball (MLB) career (1951–1968) with the New York ...
. The reason for the existence of the files varied. Some of the subjects were investigated for alleged ties to the Communist party (Charlie Chaplin and Groucho Marx), or in connection with antiwar activities during the
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...
(John Denver, John Lennon, and Jane Fonda). Numerous celebrity files concern threats or
extortion Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit (e.g., money or goods) through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, although making unfounded ...
attempts against them (Sonny Bono, John Denver, John Lennon, Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, Mickey Mantle, Groucho Marx, and Frank Sinatra).


Domestic surveillance

A 1985 wiretapping and civil liberties report by the U.S. Congress found that the FBI had "installed over 7,000 national security surveillances," including many on American citizens, from 1940 to 1960.


Covert operations on political groups

COINTELPRO COINTELPRO (a syllabic abbreviation derived from Counter Intelligence Program) was a series of covert and illegal projects conducted between 1956 and 1971 by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) aimed at surveilling, infiltr ...
tactics have been alleged to include discrediting targets through
psychological warfare Psychological warfare (PSYWAR), or the basic aspects of modern psychological operations (PsyOp), has been known by many other names or terms, including Military Information Support Operations ( MISO), Psy Ops, political warfare, "Hearts and Mi ...
, smearing individuals and/or groups using forged documents and by planting false reports in the media, harassment, wrongful imprisonment, and illegal violence, including
assassination Assassination is the willful killing, by a sudden, secret, or planned attack, of a personespecially if prominent or important. It may be prompted by political, ideological, religious, financial, or military motives. Assassinations are orde ...
.The FBI'S Covert Action Program to Destroy the Black Panther Party
FBI Secrets: An Agent's Expose. M. Wesley Swearingen. Boston.
South End Press South End Press was a non-profit book publisher run on a model of participatory economics. It was founded in 1977 in Boston's South End. It published books written by political activists, notably Arundhati Roy, Noam Chomsky, bell hooks, Win ...
. 1995. Special Agent Gregg York: "We expected about twenty Panthers to be in the apartment when the police raided the place. Only two of those black nigger fuckers were killed, Fred Hampton and Mark Clark."
The FBI's stated motivation was "protecting
national security National security, or national defence (national defense in American English), is the security and Defence (military), defence of a sovereign state, including its Citizenship, citizens, economy, and institutions, which is regarded as a duty of ...
, preventing violence, and maintaining the existing social and political order." FBI records show that 85 percent of COINTELPRO resources targeted groups and individuals that the FBI deemed "subversive", including
communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...
and
socialist Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...
organizations; organizations and individuals associated with the civil rights movement, including
Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister, civil and political rights, civil rights activist and political philosopher who was a leader of the civil rights move ...
and others associated with the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) is an African Americans, African-American civil rights organization based in Atlanta, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. SCLC is closely associated with its first president, Martin Luther King Jr., ...
, the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is an American civil rights organization formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. B. Du&nbs ...
, and the
Congress of Racial Equality The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) is an African-American civil rights organization in the United States that played a pivotal role for African Americans in the civil rights movement. Founded in 1942, its stated mission is "to bring about ...
and other civil rights organizations;
black nationalist Black nationalism is a nationalist movement which seeks representation for Black people as a distinct national identity, especially in racialized, colonial and postcolonial societies. Its earliest proponents saw it as a way to advocate for ...
groups (e.g.,
Nation of Islam The Nation of Islam (NOI) is a religious organization founded in the United States by Wallace Fard Muhammad in 1930. A centralized and hierarchical organization, the NOI is committed to black nationalism and focuses its attention on the Afr ...
and the
Black Panther Party The Black Panther Party (originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense) was a Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist and Black Power movement, black power political organization founded by college students Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newto ...
); the
American Indian Movement The American Indian Movement (AIM) is an Native Americans in the United States, American Indian grassroots movement which was founded in Minneapolis, Minnesota in July 1968, initially centered in urban areas in order to address systemic issues ...
; a broad range of organizations labeled "
New Left The New Left was a broad political movement that emerged from the counterculture of the 1960s and continued through the 1970s. It consisted of activists in the Western world who, in reaction to the era's liberal establishment, campaigned for freer ...
", including
Students for a Democratic Society Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) was a national student activist organization in the United States during the 1960s and was one of the principal representations of the New Left. Disdaining permanent leaders, hierarchical relationships a ...
and the Weathermen; almost all groups protesting the
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...
, as well as individual student demonstrators with no group affiliation; the
National Lawyers Guild The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) is a progressive public interest association of lawyers, law students, paralegals, jailhouse lawyers, law collective members, and other activist legal workers, in the United States. The group was founded in 193 ...
; organizations and individuals associated with the
women's rights Women's rights are the rights and Entitlement (fair division), entitlements claimed for women and girls worldwide. They formed the basis for the women's rights movement in the 19th century and the feminist movements during the 20th and 21st c ...
movement; nationalist groups such as those seeking independence for
Puerto Rico ; abbreviated PR), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a Government of Puerto Rico, self-governing Caribbean Geography of Puerto Rico, archipelago and island organized as an Territories of the United States, unincorporated territo ...
,
United Ireland United Ireland (), also referred to as Irish reunification or a ''New Ireland'', is the proposition that all of Ireland should be a single sovereign state. At present, the island is divided politically: the sovereign state of Ireland (legally ...
, and Cuban exile movements including Orlando Bosch's Cuban Power and the Cuban Nationalist Movement. The remaining 15% of COINTELPRO resources were expended to marginalize and subvert
white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...
hate groups, including the
Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to KKK or Klan, is an American Protestant-led Christian terrorism, Christian extremist, white supremacist, Right-wing terrorism, far-right hate group. It was founded in 1865 during Reconstruction era, ...
and the
National States' Rights Party The National States' Rights Party was a white supremacist political party that briefly played a minor role in the politics of the United States. Foundation Founded in 1958 in Knoxville, Tennessee, by Edward Reed Fields, a 26-year-old chiropra ...
.


Files on Puerto Rican independence advocates

The FBI also spied upon and collected information on Puerto Rican independence leader
Pedro Albizu Campos Pedro Albizu Campos (June 29, 1893Luis Fortuño Janeiro. ''Album Histórico de Ponce (1692–1963).'' p. 290. Ponce, Puerto Rico: Imprenta Fortuño. 1963. – April 21, 1965) was a Puerto Rican attorney and politician, and a leading figure in ...
and his
Nationalist Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation,Anthony D. Smith, Smith, A ...
political party in the 1930s. Albizu Campos was convicted three times in connection with deadly attacks on US government officials: in 1937 (Conspiracy to overthrow the government of the United States), in 1950 (attempted murder), and in 1954 (after an armed assault on the US House of Representatives while in session; although not present, Albizu Campos was considered the mastermind). The FBI operation was covert and did not become known until U.S. Congressman Luis Gutierrez had it made public via the
Freedom of Information Act Freedom of Information Act may refer to the following legislations in different jurisdictions which mandate the national government to disclose certain data to the general public upon request: * Freedom of Information Act (United States) of 1966 * F ...
in the 1980s. In the 2000s, researchers obtained files released by the FBI under the Freedom of Information Act revealing that the San Juan FBI office had coordinated with FBI offices in
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...
,
Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
and other cities, in a decades-long surveillance of Albizu Campos and Puerto Ricans who had contact or communication with him. The documents available are as recent as 1965.


Activities in Latin America

From the 1950s to the 1980s, the governments of many Latin American and Caribbean countries, including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Mexico and others were infiltrated by the FBI. These operations began in World War II as 700 agents were assigned to monitor Nazi activity, but soon expanded to monitoring communist activity in places like Ecuador.


Viola Liuzzo

In one particularly controversial 1965 incident, white civil rights worker Viola Liuzzo was murdered by
Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to KKK or Klan, is an American Protestant-led Christian terrorism, Christian extremist, white supremacist, Right-wing terrorism, far-right hate group. It was founded in 1865 during Reconstruction era, ...
smen, who gave chase and fired shots into her car after noticing that her passenger was a young black man; one of the Klansmen was Gary Thomas Rowe, an acknowledged FBI informant.Gary May, The Informant: The FBI, the Ku Klux Klan, and the Murder of Viola Luzzo, Yale University Press, 2005. The FBI spread rumors that Liuzzo was a member of the Communist Party and a heroin addict and had abandoned her children to have sexual relationships with
African Americans African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa ...
involved in the civil rights movement. FBI records show that
J. Edgar Hoover John Edgar Hoover (January 1, 1895 – May 2, 1972) was an American attorney and law enforcement administrator who served as the fifth and final director of the Bureau of Investigation (BOI) and the first director of the Federal Bureau o ...
personally communicated these insinuations to President Johnson.


Waco siege

The
Waco siege The Waco siege, also known as the Waco massacre, was the siege by US federal government and Texas state law enforcement officials of a compound belonging to the religious cult known as the Branch Davidians, between February 28 and April 19, 1993 ...
in 1993 was a failed raid by the ATF that resulted in the deaths of four ATF agents and six
Branch Davidians The Branch Davidians (or the General Association of Branch Davidian Seventh-day Adventists, or the Branch Seventh-day Adventists) are a religious sect founded in 1955 by Benjamin Roden. They regard themselves as a continuation of the General A ...
. The FBI and
US military The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. U.S. federal law names six armed forces: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and the Coast Guard. Since 1949, all of the armed forces, except th ...
became involved with the 51-day siege that followed. The building housing the Davidians was burnt down, killing 76 of them, including 26 children.
Timothy McVeigh Timothy James McVeigh (April 23, 1968 – June 11, 2001) was an American domestic terrorist who masterminded and perpetrated the Oklahoma City bombing on April 19, 1995. The bombing itself killed 167 people (including 19 children), injured ...
was reportedly motivated by the outcome of this siege, along with
Ruby Ridge The Ruby Ridge standoff was the siege of a cabin occupied by the Weaver family in Boundary County, Idaho, in August 1992. On August 21, deputies of the United States Marshals Service (USMS) came to arrest Randy Weaver under a bench warrant fo ...
incident, to carry out the
Oklahoma City bombing The Oklahoma City bombing was a domestic terrorist truck bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, United States, on April 19, 1995. The bombing remains the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history. Perpetr ...
in 1995.


Ruby Ridge

The Ruby Ridge siege in 1992 was a shootout between the FBI and Randy Weaver over his
failure to appear A "failure to appear" (FTA), also known as "bail jumping", occurs when a defendant or respondent does not come before a tribunal as directed in a summons. In the United States, FTAs are punishable by fines, incarceration, or both when committed by ...
in court on weapons charges. Weaver's wife and son were killed by FBI gunmen in the incident. A US Marshal was shot in what was ruled reasonable self-defense. The US Government paid over 3 million dollars in an out-of-court settlement and $380,000 court awarded settlement.


1996 campaign finance controversy

The U.S. Department of Justice investigation into the fund-raising activities had uncovered evidence that Chinese agents sought to direct contributions from foreign sources to the
Democratic National Committee The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is the principal executive leadership board of the United States's Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party. According to the party charter, it has "general responsibility for the affairs of the ...
(DNC) before the 1996 presidential campaign. The Chinese embassy in Washington, D.C. was used for coordinating contributions to the DNC. In addition to partisan complaints from Republicans, a number of FBI agents suggested the investigations into the fund-raising controversies were willfully impeded.Krauthammer, Charles
"Reno's Humiliation"
(Opinion), ''Washington Post'', October 10, 1997
Safire, William

(Opinion), ''New York Times'', October 7, 1999
Kondracke, Morton
"GOP must launch new probe of Chinagate"
(Opinion), ''
Jewish World Review ''Jewish World Review'' is a politically conservative, online magazine updated Monday through Friday (except for legal holidays and holy days), which seeks to appeal to "people of faith and those interested in learning more about contemporary ...
'', August 9, 1999
FBI agent Ivian Smith wrote a letter to FBI Director Louis Freeh that expressed "a lack of confidence" in the Justice Department's attorneys regarding the fund-raising investigation. FBI agent Daniel Wehr told Congress that the first head U.S. attorney in the investigation, Laura Ingersoll, told the agents they should "not pursue any matter related to solicitation of funds for access to the president. The reason given was, 'That's the way the American political process works.' I was scandalized by that," Wehr said. The four FBI agents also said that Ingersoll prevented them from executing
search warrant A search warrant is a court order that a magistrate or judge issues to authorize Police, law enforcement officers to conduct a Search and seizure, search of a person, location, or vehicle for evidence of a crime and to Confiscation, confiscate an ...
s to stop destruction of evidence and micromanaged the case beyond all reason."FBI agents criticize Justice Department"
''Associated Press'', September 22, 1999
FBI agents were also denied the opportunity to ask President
Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...
and Vice President
Al Gore Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American former politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. He previously served as ...
questions during Justice Department interviews in 1997 and 1998 and were only allowed to take notes."Justice's Clinton, Gore inquiry criticized"
''Associated Press'', December 16, 1999


Internal investigations of shootings

During the period from 1993 to 2011, FBI agents fired their weapons on 289 occasions; FBI internal reviews found the shots justified in all but 5 cases, in none of the 5 cases were people wounded. Samuel Walker, a professor of criminal justice at the
University of Nebraska Omaha The University of Nebraska Omaha (UNO) is a public research university in Omaha, Nebraska, United States. Founded in 1908 by faculty from the Omaha Presbyterian Theological Seminary as a private non-sectarian college, the university was origin ...
said the number of shots found to be unjustified was "suspiciously low." In the same time period, the FBI wounded 150 people, 70 of whom died; the FBI found all 150 shootings to be justified. Likewise, during the period from 2011 to the present, all shootings by FBI agents have been found to be justified by internal investigation. In a 2002 case in Maryland, an innocent man was shot, and later paid $1.3 million by the FBI after agents mistook him for a bank robber; the internal investigation found that the shooting was justified, based on the man's actions.


The Whitey Bulger case

The FBI has been criticized for its handling of Boston organized crime figure Whitey Bulger. Beginning in 1975, Bulger served as an informant for the FBI. As a result, the Bureau largely ignored his organization in exchange for information about the inner workings of the Italian American
Patriarca crime family The Patriarca crime family (, ), also known as the New England Mafia, the Boston Mafia, the Providence Mafia, the Boston–Providence Mafia,
. In December 1994, after being tipped off by his former FBI handler about a pending indictment under the
Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act is a United States federal law that provides for extended criminal penalties and a civil cause of action for acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization. RICO was e ...
, Bulger fled Boston and went into hiding. For 16 years, he remained at large. For 12 of those years, Bulger was prominently listed on the
FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives The FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives is a most wanted list maintained by the United States's Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The list arose from a conversation held in late 1949 between J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the FBI, and William ...
list. Beginning in 1997, the New England media exposed criminal actions by federal, state, and local law enforcement officials tied to Bulger. The revelation caused great embarrassment to the FBI."Capture Of Boston Gangster Could Mean More Scandal"
NPR.
In 2002, Special Agent John J Connolly was convicted of federal racketeering charges for helping Bulger avoid arrest. In 2008, Special Agent Connolly completed his term on the federal charges and was transferred to Florida where he was convicted of helping plan the murder of John B Callahan, a Bulger rival. In 2014, that conviction was overturned on a technicality. Connolly was the agent leading the investigation of Bulger. In June 2011, the 81-year-old Bulger was arrested in
Santa Monica, California Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...
. Bulger was tried on 32 counts of
racketeering Racketeering is a type of organized crime in which the perpetrators set up a coercion, coercive, fraud, fraudulent, extortionary, or otherwise illegal coordinated scheme or operation (a "racket") to repeatedly or consistently collect a profit. ...
,
money laundering Money laundering is the process of illegally concealing the origin of money obtained from illicit activities (often known as dirty money) such as drug trafficking, sex work, terrorism, corruption, and embezzlement, and converting the funds i ...
,
extortion Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit (e.g., money or goods) through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, although making unfounded ...
, and weapons charges; including complicity in 19 murders. In August 2013, the jury found him guilty on 31 counts, and having been involved in 11 murders. Bulger was sentenced to two consecutive life terms plus five years.


Robert Hanssen

On February 20, 2001, the bureau announced that a special agent,
Robert Hanssen Robert Philip Hanssen (April 18, 1944 – June 5, 2023) was an American Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent who spied for Soviet and Russian intelligence services against the United States periodically from 1979 to 2001. His espionage w ...
(born 1944) had been arrested for spying for the Soviet Union and then Russia from 1979 to 2001. He was serving 15 consecutive
life sentences Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment under which the convicted individual is to remain incarcerated for the rest of their natural life (or until pardoned or commuted to a fixed term). Crimes that result in life imprisonment are co ...
without the possibility of parole at
ADX Florence United States Penitentiary, Administrative Maximum Facility (abbreviated as USP Florence ADMAX; commonly known as ADX Florence, Florence Supermax, and the Alcatraz of the Rockies) is a United States federal prison in Fremont County, Colorado, op ...
, a federal
supermax prison A super-maximum security (supermax) or administrative maximum (ADX) prison is a "control-unit" prison, or a unit within prisons, which represents the most secure level of custody in the prison systems of certain countries. The objective is to ...
near Florence, Colorado until his death on June 5, 2023. Hanssen was arrested on February 18, 2001, at
Foxstone Park Foxstone Park is a park located at 1910 Creek Crossing Road in Vienna, Fairfax County, Virginia, USA and run by the Fairfax County Park Authority. Robert Hanssen Robert Hanssen, who was convicted of spying for the Soviet Union and Russia, co ...
near his home in
Vienna, Virginia Vienna () is a town in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, Vienna has a population of 16,473. Significantly more people live in ZIP codes with the Vienna postal addresses (22180, 22181, ...
, and was charged with selling US secrets to the
USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
and subsequently
Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
for more than US$1.4 million in cash and diamonds over a 22-year period. On July 6, 2001, he pleaded guilty to 15 counts of
espionage Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering, as a subfield of the intelligence field, is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information ( intelligence). A person who commits espionage on a mission-specific contract is called an ...
in the
United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia (in case citations, E.D. Va.) is one of two United States district courts serving the Commonwealth of Virginia. It has jurisdiction over the Northern Virginia, Hampton Roa ...
.''Transcript of Hanssen Guilty Plea''
, July 6, 2001. Retrieved February 22, 2007.
United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a United States federal executive departments, federal executive department of the U.S. government that oversees the domestic enforcement of Law of the Unite ...
br>''Thompson Statement Regarding Hanssen Guilty Plea''
July 6, 2001. Retrieved February 22, 2007.
His spying activities have been described by the
US Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the U.S. government that oversees the domestic enforcement of federal laws and the administration of justice. It is equ ...
's Commission for the Review of FBI Security Programs as "possibly the worst intelligence disaster in U.S. history".


Killing of Filiberto Ojeda Rios

In 2005, fugitive Puerto Rican Nationalist leader
Filiberto Ojeda Ríos Filiberto Ojeda Ríos (April 26, 1933 September 23, 2005) was a Puerto Ricans, Puerto Rican independence activist who cofounded the Boricua Popular Army, also known as ''Los Macheteros,'' and its predecessor, the Fuerzas Armadas de Liberació ...
died in a gun battle with FBI agents that some believe was an assassination. Puerto Rico Governor
Aníbal Acevedo Vilá Aníbal Salvador Acevedo Vilá (born 13 February 1962) is a Puerto Rican politician and lawyer who served as the governor of Puerto Rico from 2005 to 2009. He is a Harvard University alumnus ( LL.M. 1987) and a graduate of the University of ...
criticized the FBI assault as "improper" and "highly irregular" and demanded to know why his government was not informed of it. The FBI refused to release information beyond the official press release, citing security and agent privacy issues. The Puerto Rico Justice Department filed suit in federal court against the FBI and the US Attorney General, demanding information crucial to the Commonwealth's own investigation of the incident. The case was dismissed by the U.S. Supreme Court. Ojeda Rios' funeral was attended by a long list of dignitaries, including the highest authority of the
Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
in Puerto Rico, Archbishop Roberto Octavio González Nieves, ex-Governor
Rafael Hernández Colón Rafael Hernández Colón (October 24, 1936 – May 2, 2019) was a Puerto Rican politician who served as the governor of Puerto Rico from 1973 to 1977 and 1985 to 1993 for a total of three terms. An experienced politician, Hernández held the ...
, and numerous other personalities. In the aftermath of his death, the
United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...
Special Committee on Decolonization The United Nations Special Committee on the Situation with Regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, or the Special Committee on Decolonization (C-24), is a committee of ...
approved a draft resolution urging a "probe of hepro-independence killing, human rights abuses", after "Petitioner after petitioner condemned the assassination of Mr. Ojeda Rios by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)".


Associated Press impersonation case

In 2007, an agent working in Seattle, Washington for the FBI impersonated an
Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...
(AP) journalist and unwittingly infected the computer of a 15-year old suspect with a malicious surveillance software. The incident sparked a strongly-worded statement from the AP demanding the bureau refrain from ever impersonating a member of the news media again. Moreover, in September 2016 the incident resulted in a condemnation by the Justice Department. In December 2017, following a US court appearance, a judge ruled in favor of the AP in a lawsuit against the FBI for fraudulently impersonating a member of the news media.


Wikipedia edits

In August 2007, Virgil Griffith, a
Caltech The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private university, private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small g ...
computation and neural-systems graduate student, created WikiScanner, a searchable database that linked changes made by anonymous Wikipedia editors to companies and organizations from which the changes were made. The database cross-referenced logs of Wikipedia edits with publicly available records pertaining to the Internet
IP address An Internet Protocol address (IP address) is a numerical label such as that is assigned to a device connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication. IP addresses serve two main functions: network interface i ...
es edits were made from. Griffith was motivated by the edits from the United States Congress, and wanted to see if others were similarly promoting themselves. The tool was designed to detect conflict of interest edits. Among his findings were that FBI computers were used to edit the FBI article on Wikipedia. Although the edits correlated with known FBI IP addresses, there was no evidence that the changes actually came from a member or employee of the FBI, only that someone who had access to their network had edited the FBI article on Wikipedia. Wikipedia spokespersons received Griffith's "WikiScanner" positively, noting that it helped prevent conflicts of interest from influencing articles as well as increasing transparency and mitigating attempts to remove or distort relevant facts.


Ibragim Todashev custodial death

After the Boston Marathon Bombings in 2013, Ibragim Todashev was killed by the FBI during an interrogation. Todashev was an associate of
Tamerlan Tsarnaev Tamerlan Anzorovich Tsarnaev (; October 21, 1986 – April 19, 2013) ; ; ; was a Russian-born terrorist of Chechens, Chechen and Avars (Caucasus), Avar descent who, with his younger brother Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, planted pressure cooker bombs at ...
, the mastermind of the two bombers who was killed by the Boston police.


Florida school shooting

On February 16, 2018, two days after the
Stoneman Douglas High School shooting On February 14, 2018, a mass shooting occurred when 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz opened fire on students and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, part of the Miami metropolitan area, Parkland, Florida, killing 17 people and injuring 18 ot ...
, the FBI released a statement detailing information the organization's Public Access Line had received a month prior, on January 5, from a person close to Nikolas Cruz, the suspected shooter. According to the statement, "The caller provided information about Cruz's gun ownership, desire to kill people, erratic behavior, and disturbing social media posts, as well as the potential of him conducting a school shooting." After conducting an investigation, the FBI reported that it had not followed protocol when the tip was not forwarded to the Miami Field Office, where further investigative steps would have been taken to prevent the mass killing.


Hillary Clinton email investigation

On July 5, 2016, then-FBI Director
James Comey James Brien Comey Jr. (; born December 14, 1960) is an American lawyer who was the seventh director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from 2013 until Dismissal of James Comey, his termination in May 2017. Comey was a registered Repub ...
announced the bureau's recommendation that the
United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a United States federal executive departments, federal executive department of the U.S. government that oversees the domestic enforcement of Law of the Unite ...
file no criminal charges relating to the
Hillary Clinton email controversy During Hillary Clinton's tenure as Secretary of State, her tenure as the United States secretary of state, Hillary Clinton drew controversy by using a private email server for official public communications rather than using official State Depa ...
. During an unusual 15 minute press conference in the J. Edgar Hoover Building, Comey called Secretary Clinton's and her top aides' behavior "extremely careless", but concluded that "no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case". On October 28, 2016, less than two weeks before the presidential election, Director Comey, a long-time Republican, announced in a letter to Congress that additional emails potentially related to the Clinton email controversy had been found and that the FBI will investigate "to determine whether they contain classified information as well as to assess their importance to our investigation." At the time Comey sent his letter to Congress, the FBI had still not obtained a warrant to review any of the e-mails in question and was not aware of the content of any of the e-mails in question. After Comey's letter to Congress, commentator Paul Callan of CNN and Niall O'Dowd of Irish Central compared Comey to J. Edgar Hoover in attempting to influence and manipulate elections. On November 6, 2016, in the face of constant pressure from both Republicans and Democrats, Comey conceded in a second letter to Congress that through the FBI's review of the new e-mails, there was no wrongdoing by Clinton. On November 12, 2016, former Democratic presidential candidate
Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, lawyer and diplomat. She was the 67th United States secretary of state in the administration of Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, a U.S. senator represent ...
directly attributed her election loss to Comey.


DOJ Watchdog Report

On June 14, 2018, Michael E. Horowitz, the Inspector General of the Department of Justice, released a report of a year-long investigation into misconduct at the DOJ and FBI over its probe of Hillary Clinton's private email server. Horowitz faulted James Comey, FBI Director at the time of the email server investigation, for deviating from bureau and Justice Department protocol, which damaged the agencies’ image of impartiality, according to the watchdog report. Comey was also faulted for a 'troubling lack of direct or substantive communication' with Attorney General
Loretta Lynch Loretta Elizabeth Lynch (born May 21, 1959) is an American attorney who served as the 83rd attorney general of the United States from 2015 to 2017. She was appointed by President Barack Obama to succeed Eric Holder and previously served as the ...
ahead of his July 5, 2016 press conference on Clinton's email probe and his subsequent letter to Congress in October 2016. The report read: "We found it extraordinary that, in advance of two such consequential decisions, the FBI director decided that the best course of conduct was to not speak directly and substantively with the attorney general about how best to navigate those decisions." Moreover, it was determined, according to an internal FBI email and a memo from two GOP-led House committees, that foreign actors may had obtained access to Clinton's emails, including at least one email classified as "secret." The memo did not specify who the foreign actors involved were nor the content of the emails. The watchdog probe found no evidence of political bias or criminal misconduct in Comey's decisions throughout the entire email server investigation. "We found no evidence that the conclusions by department prosecutors were affected by bias or other improper considerations," the report stated. Shortly after the release of the report, FBI Director Christopher Wray held a news briefing in Washington where he defended the bureau's integrity over the report's highly-critical findings, but vowed to hold agents accountable for any misconduct and said the FBI will make its employees undergo bias training. Former Secretary of State Clinton, President Trump, lawmakers, and academics have commented on the report's findings, denouncing Comey and his breach of bureau norms, and five FBI employees that exchanged questionable text messages leading up to the 2016 US election. All five employees, which include former counter-intelligence agent Peter Strzok, were referred by Horowitz for a separate investigation.


James Comey dismissal, IG probe


Dismissal of Comey

On May 9, 2017, President Trump dismissed FBI Director Comey after Comey had misstated several key findings of the email investigation in his testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Many mainstream news outlets had questioned whether the dismissal was in response to Comey's request for more resources to expand the probe into Russian interference into the Presidential election. Following Comey's dismissal, Deputy Director Andrew G. McCabe became acting director. On August 1, 2017, President Trump's nominee for FBI director Christopher A. Wray was officially confirmed by the Senate in a 92–5 vote and was sworn in as Director the next day.


Horowitz's Findings

The Inspector General of the Department of Justice, Michael E. Horowitz, publicized a report into misconduct at the DOJ and FBI over its handling of the Hillary Clinton private email server investigation. Horowitz criticized James Comey, FBI Director at the time of the investigation, for not following bureau and Justice Department protocol. The IG report, however, did not find any evidence of political bias or criminal misconduct in Comey's decisions throughout the email server investigation. According to the report, Horowitz found that Comey had a 'troubling lack of direct or substantive communication' with Attorney General Loretta Lynch ahead of his July 5, 2016 press conference on Clinton's email probe and his letter to Congress in October 2016. "We found it extraordinary that, in advance of two such consequential decisions, the FBI director decided that the best course of conduct was to not speak directly and substantively with the attorney general about how best to navigate those decisions," according to the IG findings. Moreover, the report also uncovered the use of a private Gmail account for FBI business utilized by Comey, despite warning employees about its usage. The act of misconduct was "inconsistent with" Justice Department policy, the watchdog investigation determined.


The Nunes memo, FISA warrant

On February 2, 2018, a four-page confidential memo by Republican House Intelligence Committee chairman
Devin Nunes Devin Gerald Nunes (; born October 1, 1973) is an American businessman and politician who serves as the Chair of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board since January 20, 2025, and as chief executive officer of the Trump Media & Technolog ...
was released after being signed by President Trump. According to the memo, a dossier by Christopher Steele and opposition research firm Fusion GPS was utilized by DOJ and FBI officials like E. W. Priestap for FISA warrants to surveil Trump's campaign member Carter Page. Additionally, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, who resigned before the release of the memo, stated that the FISA warrant wouldn't have been obtained without the information in the Steele dossier. All four FISA applications were signed by McCabe, Rod Rosenstein, and former FBI Director
James Comey James Brien Comey Jr. (; born December 14, 1960) is an American lawyer who was the seventh director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from 2013 until Dismissal of James Comey, his termination in May 2017. Comey was a registered Repub ...
. President Trump commented on the release of the memo, saying: "A lot of people should be ashamed."


Andrew McCabe dismissal and investigation

On March 16, 2018, Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired Andrew McCabe, former FBI deputy director, for allowing FBI officials to leak information to the media surrounding the Clinton Foundation investigation and then misleading investigators about the incident. The FBI's Office of Professional Responsibility recommended the firing two days prior. The allegations of misconduct were the result of an investigation by Michael E. Horowitz, the Inspector General specific to the DOJ appointed by former US President Barack Obama, who announced in January 2017 that the DOJ would be probing the FBI's actions leading up to the 2016 US election. On March 21, 2018, FBI Director Christopher Wray said the firing of McCabe was done "by the book" and was not politically motivated. On June 12, 2018, a lawyer representing McCabe sued the Department of Justice and the FBI pertaining to his firing. On September 6, 2018, it was disclosed to the media that a grand jury had begun investigating McCabe and summoning witnesses to determine if criminal charges should be filed for having misled the bureau. The probe is currently being handled by the U.S. attorney's office in D.C. McCabe was never charged with criminal wrongdoing, and on October 14, 2021, the Justice Department reversed his firing, settling the lawsuit he had filed asserting he was dismissed for political reasons. The government agreed to "rescind and vacate" McCabe's removal and correct its records to reflect that McCabe retired in good standing on March 19, 2018, as deputy director, and to pay his pension as well as $200,000 in missed pension payments. The government also agreed to pay more than $500,000 in legal fees McCabe had incurred and expunge any record of his being fired from FBI personnel records. On October 27, 2021, Attorney General
Merrick Garland Merrick Brian Garland (born November 13, 1952) is an American lawyer and jurist who served as the 86th United States attorney general from 2021 to 2025. He previously served as a circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Dist ...
testified about McCabe's lawsuit at an oversight hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, stating that the DOJ lawyers defending the case "concluded that they needed to settle the case because of a likelihood of loss on the merits."


OIG Investigation

On April 13, 2018, a section regarding McCabe from the Department of Justice watchdog report was released to the public. According to the report, McCabe "lacked candor," including under oath, and authorized disclosures to the media in violation of FBI policy during a federal investigation into the
Clinton Foundation The Clinton Foundation (founded in 2001 as the William J. Clinton Presidential Foundation, and renamed in 2013 as the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation) is a nonprofit organization under section 501(c)(3) of the U.S. tax code. It was e ...
. On April 19, 2018, the Justice Department inspector general had referred the findings of McCabe's misconduct to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington, D.C. for possible criminal charges, according to media reports. McCabe has denied the accusations of misconduct.


Allegations of sexual discrimination

In late-2017, during an interview with Circa, former FBI Supervisory special agent Jeffrey Danik spoke out against McCabe and the bureau over his handling of cases surrounding sexual discrimination, Hatch Act Violations, and Hillary Clinton's email server. Around the same period of time, another former Supervisory Special Agent, Robyn Gritz, one of the bureau's top intelligence analysts and terrorism experts, filed a sexual discrimination complaint against the bureau. Gritz came forward with allegations of harassment by McCabe, who she said created a “cancer-like” bureaucracy striking fear in female agents, causing others to resign, and "poisoning the 7th floor," where management is housed in the FBI's Hoover Building. In an additional case, where a federal lawsuit was filed, another agent came forward with allegations of harassment and misogynistic behavior against women in particular, describing an increasing problem of sexism at the bureau.


Peter Strzok's dismissal

On August 10, 2018, Peter Strzok, a former counter-intelligence agent reassigned to the FBI's Human Resources department, was fired by the Bureau amid tensions over his role in exchanging questionable text messages with another FBI employee, Lisa Page, with whom he was engaged in an extramarital affair. An attorney representing Strzok criticized the Bureau's actions, calling it "a departure from typical Bureau practice" and noting that it also "contradicts Director Wray's testimony to Congress and his assurances that the FBI intended to follow its regular process in this and all personal matters." The firing came within months of an incident where Strzok was escorted out of an FBI building and also the release of an OIG report by the Department of Justice's inspector general Michael E. Horowitz. Several employees, including Strzok, were referred for a separate investigation by Horowitz for possible misconduct during the Clinton email probe. President Trump praised the Bureau's dismissal, tweeting the following: “Agent Peter Strzok was just fired from the FBI ― finally. The list of bad players in the FBI & DOJ gets longer & longer.” Strzok and Page each sued the Justice Department in 2019. Their lawsuits were consolidated. In May 2024, they reached a tentative settlement with the Justice Department. On July 26, it was revealed that Strzok will receive $1.2 million and Lisa Page will receive $800,000.


Use of DMV photos for facial recognition

In 2019, the ''Washington Post'' acknowledged that released documents show that agents of the FBI and ICE Immigration and Customs Enforcement were using Department of Motor Vehicles, DMV state driver's license photos for facial-recognition searches.


Charles McGonigal indictment

In January 2023, a retired senior FBI official and former agent in charge of the F.B.I.’s counterintelligence division in New York, Charles McGonigal, was charged with falsifying FBI reports,
money laundering Money laundering is the process of illegally concealing the origin of money obtained from illicit activities (often known as dirty money) such as drug trafficking, sex work, terrorism, corruption, and embezzlement, and converting the funds i ...
, conspiracy, and violating Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, sanctions by working for Oleg Deripaska, a Russian aluminum manufacturer and Russian oligarch, oligarch.


FBI surveillance since 2010

Defending Rights & Dissent, a civil liberties group, cataloged known instances of First Amendment to the United States Constitution, First Amendment abuses and political surveillance by the FBI since 2010. The organization found that the FBI devoted disproportionate resources to spy on left-leaning civil society groups, including Occupy Wall Street, economic justice advocates, racial justice movements, environmentalists, Abolish ICE, and various Anti-war movement, anti-war movements. In late 2020, the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU filed a lawsuit demanding information about the FBI's Electronic Device Analysis Unit. The civil rights group believes that the EDAU has been quietly breaking into iPhones and other devices. In 2023, the FBI admitted for the first time that it bought location data rather than obtain a warrant.


The Crypto Six

In March 2021 in Keene, New Hampshire, the FBI led a raid, along with the ATF and other agencies, on the Free Talk Live studios (a libertarian radio show) against Ian Freeman (director of FTL) alleging that he operated an unlicensed money transmitting business in the form of Bitcoin ATM machines. The raid was conducted in the middle of the night and the joint taskforce used Bearcat armored vehicles, flashbang grenades, and destroyed security cameras and windows on Freeman's property. The taskforce also confiscated $180,000 in cash, boxes full of goldbacks, 101 physical Bitcoins, and other possessions of Ian Freeman. The homes of several other individuals were raided that night, later being referred to as "the Crypto Six." While the FBI's main justification for this raid was that scammers were using the Bitcoin vending machines to scam people, Ian Freeman counters saying that he frequently warned ATM users of scams and used his Bitcoin vending machines to improve the businesses in his community. The prosecution had originally charged Freeman with 25 felony counts, eventually dropping 17 counts as the trial went on. Freeman's attorney asserted that the charges against Freeman were "absolute nonsense" and described Freeman as a nonviolent man that assists people with avoiding scams rather than aiding scams. Freeman received public support during his trial, with overflow rooms established to accommodate his supporters and one security officer noting, "I’ve never seen the courtroom like that" when referencing the number of attendees. On December 23, 2022, Ian Freeman was convicted on all eight felony counts and his case is pending sentencing and appeal. His appeal is scheduled for April 14, 2023.


See also

* PRISM (surveillance program), PRISM a mass surveillance NSA program. * National Security Agency (NSA) * Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) * Backdoor (computing) An installation made on a computer in order to break into a computer. * Twitter Files * List of ATF Controversies * List of CIA controversies


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:FBI controversies Federal Bureau of Investigation controversies, Lists of controversies