[Home] [Headlines] [Latest Articles] [Latest Comments] [Post] [Sign-in] [Mail] [Setup] [Help]
Status: Not Logged In; Sign In
|
National News See other National News Articles Title: EXCLUSIVE: Audit reveals FBI rule-breaking in probes involving politicians, religious groups, media FBI agents violated their own rules at least 747 times in 18 months while conducting investigations involving politicians, candidates, religious groups, the news media and others, according to a 2019 FBI audit obtained by The Washington Times. The internal review revealed a ratio of slightly more than two “compliance errors” per each sensitive investigative matter (SIM) reviewed by FBI auditors. These errors involved things like agents failing to get approval from senior FBI officials to start an investigation, agents failing to document a necessary legal review occurring before they opened an investigation and agents failing to tell prosecutors what they were doing, among other things. Cato Institute senior fellow Patrick Eddington uncovered the audit in litigation his organization brought against the FBI for access to government records. He said the audit reveals how far “off-the-chain” FBI field offices have strayed. “When they open investigations without authorization, to me that’s about as radical as it gets,” Mr. Eddington said. The FBI auditors reviewed a small portion of the bureau’s total portfolio. They studied 353 cases involving sensitive investigative matters — fewer than half of the total number of such cases — and found rules broken 747 times between Jan. 1, 2018, and June 30, 2019. Ron DeSantis takes on Disney, gay-rights groups over sex-ed ban in elementary school Sensitive investigative matters are actions that may impact constitutional rights because they involve people engaged in such things as politics, governance, religious expression and the news media. SEE ALSO: 2019 FBI audit A majority of the cases studied, 191, involved domestic public officials. Dozens of cases involved religious organizations or their prominent members and dozens of cases involving domestic political organizations and individuals. Ten cases involved domestic political candidates and 11 cases involved the news media. The identities of the people and groups investigated by the FBI are not revealed in the audit. FBI investigations have come under intense scrutiny for allegedly cutting corners in recent years, particularly stemming from its Crossfire Hurricane investigation into Trump-Russia collusion in the 2016 presidential election. Former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith pleaded guilty in 2020 to falsifying information to justify surveillance of a former Trump campaign adviser and was sentenced to one year of probation. Mr. Clinesmith’s offense pre-dated the period examined in the 2019 FBI audit. The 2019 FBI audit said 70% of the 747 compliance errors were “related to approvals, notifications, and administrative matters.” For example, 35 full investigations and four preliminary investigations did not have the approval of an FBI special agent in charge. Mr. Eddington said a portion of the violations could be construed as housekeeping and bookkeeping issues, but he believes there is a lot that goes way beyond individual sloppiness. The FBI audit’s recommendations to correct the compliance errors are redacted in the audit. The FBI said it does not comment on matters involving pending litigation and refused to answer questions from The Washington Times. Federal lawmakers are searching for answers about the FBI’s work too. House Oversight Committee lawmakers requested on Monday a new review of the FBI’s conduct in domestic operations. Reps. Jamie Raskin, Maryland Democrat, and Nancy Mace, South Carolina Republican, wrote a letter to the Government Accountability Office requesting a review of the FBI’s practice of surveilling people through assessments. They wrote that they had concerns such assessments resulted in the “improper monitoring of protected First Amendment activity” and wanted to know if the FBI had controls to prevent violations of constitutional protections. Other lawmakers have tried with little success to get information about the FBI‘s domestic operations. In December 2021, the FBI told Sen. Charles E. Grassley, Iowa Republican, that it did not need to explain its 2016 probe of the conservative group Concerned Women for America and declined to answer questions about the bureau’s reasoning. The FBI revealed last year that there was nothing to pursue at Concerned Women for America after conducting an assessment. The 2019 FBI audit does not state how many of the sensitive investigative matters lead to prosecutions or convictions. In and around the timespan of the audit, the Justice Department and FBI repeatedly came under scrutiny for questionable investigations involving lawmakers and news reporters. Department of Justice investigations into leaks of classified information resulted in the seizure of records of at least a dozen people connected to the House Intelligence Committee in 2017 and early 2018. Prosecutors allegedly gathered information on lawmakers, aides, and family members. CNN said in May 2021 that the Justice Department informed its Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr that prosecutors had obtained her phone and email records covering two months in the summer of 2017. Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a new policy in July 2021 that “restricts the use of compulsory process” to get information from reporters gathering news. Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
|
||
|
[Home]
[Headlines]
[Latest Articles]
[Latest Comments]
[Post]
[Sign-in]
[Mail]
[Setup]
[Help]
|
||