Senators Demand Explanation About FBI Investigation Lapses
WASHINGTON — High-ranking members of the Senate are calling on the FBI to explain what appear to be a series of blunders in the agency’s recent investigations of political officials and organizations.
A newly revealed internal audit from 2019 said the FBI averaged two rule violations for each politically sensitive investigation.
The violations included agents failing to get approval from supervisors to start an investigation, failing to obtain proper legal clearances and not keeping prosecutors informed.
Leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee sent a letter this week to FBI Director Christopher Wray asking what is being done about the problems.
“These widespread and apparently systemic violations of approval and notification requirements make clear that the FBI has failed to rigorously adhere to the [Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide],” the letter said.
“The sheer number of FBI investigations that failed to comply with the DIOG’s rules suggests a pattern and practice of evading the rules, which consequently opens the door for political and other improper considerations to infect the investigative decision-making process,” it said.
The letter was sent by Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the committee’s ranking member.
Justice Department and FBI policies require federal agents to designate investigations involving public officials, political candidates, religious or political organizations or their leaders, the news media and other similarly sensitive matters as “sensitive investigative matters.”
In those cases, the agents are required to follow procedures in the FBI’s internally-generated DIOG. The guide is supposed to steer the FBI away from cases ending in prosecutions that are politically motivated, rather than based on the same kind of evidence and criteria as other criminal cases.
The senators warned about the risks in the part of their letter that said, “Due to the nature of their subjects, these investigations present heightened constitutional and civil liberties concerns and therefore merit greater scrutiny and supervision.”
The audit was based on an FBI inspection division’s review of the agency’s cases between Jan. 1, 2018, and June 30, 2019.
It found that agents violated FBI rules at least 747 times during the 18-month period reviewed.
Examples of violations identified in the audit include:
- In 45 investigations, the FBI did not conduct a legal review before opening a politically sensitive investigation.
- In 40 investigations, FBI agents who opened a politically sensitive investigation did not obtain approval from a special agent in charge or assistant special agent in charge.
- In 250 cases — 70% of those audited — the relevant FBI field office did not notify the U.S. Attorney’s Office within 30 days of opening a politically sensitive investigation, and in 46 cases the FBI field office did not notify FBI headquarters within 15 days.
- In dozens of cases, FBI headquarters or the Justice Department were not notified of intrusive investigative steps, such as search warrants and wiretaps.
The Judiciary Committee leaders sent a second letter to the Justice Department’s inspector general asking for a follow-up audit.
FBI officials have so far declined to comment.
Tom can be reached at [email protected]
