Foreign and Domestic Influences - Federal Bureau of Investigation

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) enforces federal law, and investigates a variety of criminal activity including terrorism, cybercrime, white collar crimes, public corruption, civil rights violations, and other major crimes.

Mission
The mission of the FBI is: Protect the American people and uphold the Constitution of the United States[2][11]

Priorities
Currently, the FBI's top priorities are:[11]
*    Protect the United States from terrorist attacks
*    Protect the United States against foreign intelligence operations, espionage, and cyber operations
*    Combat significant cyber criminal activity
*    Combat public corruption at all levels
*    Protect civil rights
*    Combat transnational criminal enterprises
*    Combat major white-collar crime
*    Combat significant violent crime

The China Threat
The counterintelligence and economic espionage efforts emanating from the government of China and the Chinese Communist Party are a grave threat to the economic well-being and democratic values of the United States.

The Chinese government is employing tactics that seek to influence lawmakers and public opinion to achieve policies that are more favorable to China.

At the same time, the Chinese government is seeking to become the world’s greatest superpower through predatory lending and business practices, systematic theft of intellectual property, and brazen cyber intrusions.

China’s efforts target businesses, academic institutions, researchers, lawmakers, and the general public and will require a whole-of-society response. The government and the private sector must commit to working together to better understand and counter the threat.

Public corruption, the FBI’s top criminal investigative priority, poses a fundamental threat to our national security and way of life. It can affect everything from how well our borders are secured and our neighborhoods protected to how verdicts are handed down in courts to how public infrastructure such as roads and schools are built. It also takes a significant toll on the public’s pocketbooks by siphoning off tax dollars—it is estimated that public corruption costs the U.S. government and the public billions of dollars each year. The FBI is uniquely situated to combat corruption, with the skills and capabilities to run complex undercover operations and surveillance.

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 (DNC) before the 1996 presidential campaign. The Chinese embassy in Washington, D.C. was used for coordinating contributions to the DNC.[32][33]

In addition to partisan complaints from Republicans, number of FBI agents suggested the investigations into the fund-raising controversies were willfully impeded.[34][35][36] 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 warrants to stop destruction of evidence and micromanaged the case beyond all reason.[37]

Hillary Clinton email investigation
Main article: Hillary Clinton email controversy
On July 5, 2016, FBI Director Comey announced the bureau's recommendation that the United States Department of Justice file no criminal charges relating to the Hillary Clinton email controversy.[84] 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".[84]

The FBI once again spied on American citizens without court-ordered FISA warrants.

The FBI went around the FISA court and looked through NSA communications in search of ‘far-right domestic extremists’ despite being warned several years earlier it was unconstitutional (Fourth Amendment violation).

Presiding FISA judge James Boasberg said he discovered “apparent widespread violations of the querying standard.”

According to a heavily redacted FISA report dated November 18, 2020 and declassified on Monday, seven FBI field offices were implicated in violations.

An FBI analyst ran a search for NSA data “in connection with predicated criminal investigations relating to domestic terrorism” and 33 results turned up.

The FBI was warned by a federal judge in 2018 and 2019 that searching through NSA electric communications to evade warrants was unconstitutional but they did it anyway.

U.S. Attorney General Instructs FBI to Begin Investigating Parents Who Challenge School Board Policy and Decisions
October 4, 2021

With zero specific citations to support the claimed threats, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland has now instructed the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI, aka political state police) to target and investigate any parents who challenge local school board policies. [DOJ Announcement Here] The objective appears to be an overt threat to intimidate parents who are actively engaged in their child’s school education.

. . . The goal is to label dissident parents, non-conforming free range citizens, as “Domestic Terrorists.” The FBI will use the assembly of Big Tech social monitors to identify the targets for investigation. If parents do not want to see their child forced to wear a mask or have a needle injected into their arm while being told their skin color makes them less worthy of life, that person will become a target of the federal police.