These resulted in Congress giving FBI responsibility for internal security and intelligence, "One of the most dynamic transformations in the history of the FBI.".
The problem with the modern FBI jumps out from its official mission statement: "The FBI is an intelligence-driven and threat-focused national security organization with both intelligence and law enforcement responsibilities. It is the principal investigative arm of the U.S. Department of Justice and a full member of the U.S. Intelligence Community." With competing missions - and a large increase in size - the FBI fell afoul of the imperative to simplify decision-making.
Thomas J. Baker, an FBI agent for 33 years, explained that placing intelligence higher than the original law-enforcement mission had changed the FBI fundamentally from a fact-gathering agency, where an agent would have to swear in court - and a "Lack of candor" was a firing offense - to an intelligence agency dealing with "Estimates and best guesses" not admissible in court.
Intelligence is more centralized than legal investigations, and decisions are placed in more media-sensitive hands, like those of Peter Strzok, the FBI intelligence director who was found to have discussed the possibility of using FBI authority against a presidential candidate he opposed.
No U.S. law-enforcement or intelligence agency thought the conversation was evidence of collusion, but the FBI launched a formal investigation anyway without "Any significant review of its own intelligence databases" or "Conducting interviews of witnesses essential to understand the raw information it had received." The FBI also opened full investigations of four members of Mr. Trump's campaign team.
Former FBI attorney Kevin Clinesmith, Baker explains, "Committed a criminal offense by fabricating language in an email that helped the FBI obtain" a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court "Surveillance order" against Trump foreign policy adviser Carter Page, "Us[ing] an unverified dossier as probable cause in its FISA applications." Durham charged that those working on those applications displayed "a cavalier attitude towards accuracy and completeness."
Who could blame Wray? He is the lone presidentially appointed executive at the FBI. Even if he were fired, who could fix things when everyone is protected by civil service laws in an environment manifesting secrecy? Separating domestic legal investigation and national-security functions into separate agencies could help, and legally restricting FBI actions to specific national laws could enable a return to a more constitutional federalism, but FBI history suggests that a proper balance would be arduous.
https://spectator.org/fbi-own-history-exposes-an-often-rogue-agency-with-conflicting-missions/
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