The FBI

 

Background: The Federal Bureau of Investigations began its existence with an order from the United States Attorney General Charles Bonaparte to establish an organization within the DOJ to investigate matters that its already established agents couldn’t deal with.  These “special agents” would report directly to the Department's “Chief Examiner” who would, in turn, report to the AG.[1]  From this beginning in 1906 would grow the Bureau of Investigation, which would become the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

J. Edger Hoover became the first Director of the Bureau of Investigation in 1924, following the Teapot Dome Scandal.  One of his first acts was to fire the women agents in the agency as he “cleaned house” of all those who could be associated in any way with the bribery.  He then spent the rest of his career attempting to put the agency in the best light while he picked the cases they would investigate and feed to the press the highlights of their successes.  Many of those cases became fodder for Hollywood movies or television shows, always with the complete cooperation of the agency.  He remained the director until his death in 1972.  Along the way the FBI took on the mantel of the supreme law enforcement agency in America, although it was revealed shortly before his death that he had gone after “subversives and deviants” using tactics such as infiltration, burglaries, illegal wiretaps, planted evidence and false rumors leaked on suspected groups and individuals.  He called Dr. Martin Luther King the “most dangerous negro in the future of this nation.”[2]  It is said J. Edger Hoover remained director for so long because he was so highly respected.  It is also said he remained director for so long because his political opponents feared the information, he had in his folders on each of them.

Today: With this as the historical background of the FBI should we be shocked to see the abuse of the agency as it strove to prevent the election of an outsider, or falsified evidence to further its investigations of people the leadership in Washington felt should not be allowed to govern?  There is very little evidence in the history of the FBI to indicate it is a non-partisan organization.  The real question - does its partisan allegiance shift from party to party as administrations change or does it, like J. Edger, keep files on everyone to use to protect what the agency believes is its self-interest?

From my lowly position it would seem those in authority of the FBI believe it is their job to protect those individuals who may be useful to them in future administrations, and the concept of political neutrality be damned.

 

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[1] https://www.fbi.gov/history/brief-history

[2] https://www.biography.com/law-figure/j-edgar-hoover

A Few Observations on the FBI

“Absolute power corrupts absolutely”      

Lord Acton (19^th Century British Politician)

The Office of the United States Attorney General came into being with the creation of the Executive Branch of Government formed with the approval of our Constitution, and the recognition by Congress the nation needed a lawyer.  At the time of its creation, Edmund Jennings Randolph was appointed the first Attorney General[1].  Along with Randolph, there was a staff of U.S. Attorneys appointed to serve the litigation needs of the new nation.  In that same act, the U.S. Marshalls office was created to serve as the enforcement/apprehension arm of the newly created department.

Things moved along as they usually do in government with the Department growing in size and responsibilities as the nation grew.  The current Department of Justice was established by Congress in 1870.  In 1908, Attorney General Charles Bonaparte created the “Bureau of Investigations” when he selected 10 individuals from the Secret Service to help streamline the investigations of criminal activities.  The Bureau of Investigations was renamed the Federal Bureau of Investigations in 1935.

In 1920, after the overthrow of the Russian Czars and strikes by the Boston Police and thousands of steelworks, and following an assassination attempt on the U.S. Attorney General[2] came the first “Red Scare” with the federal government suddenly concerned about the possibility that communists would do the same here.  This is where J. Edger Hoover enters our history in a significant way.

John Edger Hoover[3] was born in Washington D.C on January 1, 1895.  He studied law at George Washington University, receiving a Masters of Law in 1917, and went to work for the Department of Justice as a "file reviewer."  Two years later he had risen to become the special assistant to the Attorney General, A. Mitchell Palmer.  Because of his documentation of suspected communists, he was placed in charge of their roundup and deportations.  As a result of his work, he was then appointed as Director of the Bureau of Investigations in 1924.  It was a position he held until his death (May 2, 1972), and was responsible for the growth of the Bureau to the FBI in the mid-1930s.

J. Edger was an “anti-radical” who was opposed to activists from both the left and the right.  He had no problem tracking down communists, white supremacist movements like the Ku Klux Klan, or those seeking racial equality like Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).  He had no problem keeping them, and others he disliked (including politicians), under surveillance (often without judicial approval).

Under his directorship, the FBI evolved from a small investigative body into a national force supposedly defending America from organized crime, and the subversive threats, both external and internal.  It proudly cites all its successes like the killings of bank robbers like John Dillinger and “Machine Gun” Kelly, the arrest of spies like the Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, or the prosecutions of Mafia Godfathers like John Gotti.  At the same time, it quietly sweeps under the rug its failures and dubious actions like building dossiers on potential political enemies, not following up on potential mass murders, or even failing to identify and apprehend the terrorists who would destroy the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

Today we see much about how the political leadership of the FBI is following in the footsteps of their first director.  Their involvement in the political process of this nation should be troubling for all of us, yet it isn’t.  Its former director, James Comey, tweets from his perch the moral condemnations of a duly elected President.  It is his right to do so, but those willing to agree with him so easily dismiss the significant failures in the due process he allowed and perhaps encouraged during his time as the director.

From the abuses of process and the bureau’s lies in seeking FISA court approval to spy on Americans, to encouraging the flagrant partisanship of an organization that is supposed to be non-partisan, James Comey encouraged a corruption of an organization the average American thought was supposed to be incorruptible.

As Lord Acton observed, too much power in one organization will ultimately destroy the integrity of that organization.  This is precisely why our founders created a tripartite government where two branches can check the power of the third.  Perhaps it is time to rethink the organization of America’s secret police?

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[1] https://www.justice.gov/ag/historical-bios?page=4

[2] https://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/modern-world-history-1918-to-1980/america-1918-1939/the-red-scare-in-the-1920/

[3] https://www.britannica.com/biography/J-Edgar-Hoover