Editing Federal Bureau of Investigation (section)

== History ==
=== Background ===
In 1896, the [[National Bureau of Criminal Identification]] was founded, providing agencies across the country with information to identify known criminals. The [[Assassination of William McKinley|1901 assassination]] of President [[William McKinley]] created a perception that the United States was under threat from [[Anarchism in the United States|anarchists]]. The [[Ministry of justice|Departments of Justice]] and [[United States Department of Labor|Labor]] had been keeping records on anarchists for years, but President [[Theodore Roosevelt]] wanted more power to monitor them.<ref name="Weiner-ch2">{{cite book |last=Weiner |first=Tim |title=Enemies a history of the FBI |publisher=Random House |year=2012 |isbn=978-0-679-64389-0 |edition=1 |location=New York |pages=11–12 |chapter=Revolution |author-link=Tim Weiner}}</ref>

The Justice Department had been tasked with [[Interstate Commerce Act of 1887|the regulation of interstate commerce]] since 1887, though it lacked the staff to do so. It had made little effort to relieve its staff shortage until the [[Oregon land fraud scandal]] at the turn of the 20th century. President Roosevelt instructed Attorney General [[Charles Joseph Bonaparte|Charles Bonaparte]] to organize an autonomous investigative service that would report only to the [[United States Attorney General|Attorney General]].<ref name=FindlayMemo1943>{{cite web |last=Findlay |first=James G. |title=Memorandum for the Director: Re: Early History of the Bureau of Investigation, United States Department of Justice |url=https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/history/brief-history/docs_findlay43 |work=Historical Documents from the Bureau's Founding |publisher=Federal Bureau of Investigation |access-date=August 14, 2012 |location=Los Angeles, CA |date=November 19, 1943 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120703063000/http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/history/brief-history/docs_findlay43 |archive-date=July 3, 2012}}</ref>

Bonaparte contacted other agencies, including the [[United States Secret Service|U.S. Secret Service]], for personnel, investigators in particular. On May 27, 1908, Congress forbade this use of Treasury employees by the Justice Department, citing fears that the new agency would serve as a [[secret police]] department.<ref name=AGreport1908>{{cite web |last=Bonaparte |first=Charles Joseph |title=Annual Report of the Attorney General of the United States, 1908, p.7 |url=https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/history/brief-history/docs_ar1908 |work=Historical Documents from the Bureau's Founding |publisher=Federal Bureau of Investigation |access-date=August 14, 2012 |author-link=Charles Joseph Bonaparte |quote=In my last annual report I called attention to the fact that this department was obliged to call upon the Treasury Department for detective service, and had, in fact, no permanent executive force directly under its orders. Through the prohibition of its further use of the Secret Service force, contained in the Sundry Civil Appropriation Act, approved May 27, 1908, it became necessary for the department to organize a small force of special agents of its own. Although such action was involuntary on the part of this department, the consequences of the innovation have been, on the whole, moderately satisfactory. The Special Agents, placed as they are under the direct orders of the Chief Examiner, who receives from them daily reports and summarizes these each day to the Attorney General, are directly controlled by this department, and the Attorney General knows or ought to know, at all times what they are doing and at what cost. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120510200311/http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/history/brief-history/docs_ar1908 |archive-date=May 10, 2012}}</ref> Again at Roosevelt's urging, Bonaparte moved to organize a formal '''Bureau of Investigation''', which would then have its own staff of [[Special agent (United States)|special agents]].<ref name=Weiner-ch2 />

=== Creation of BOI ===
The Bureau of Investigation (BOI) was created on July 26, 1908.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/fbi-founded |title=FBI founded |website=History |access-date=February 9, 2021 |archive-date=December 20, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211220205033/https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/fbi-founded |url-status=live }}</ref> {{Unreliable source|date=February 2025}}Attorney General Bonaparte, using Department of Justice expense funds,<ref name=Weiner-ch2 /> hired thirty-four people, including some veterans of the Secret Service,<ref name="historicdates" /><ref name="langeluttig-p9">{{cite book |title=The Department of Justice of the United States |author=Langeluttig, Albert |publisher=Johns Hopkins Press |year=1927 |pages=9–14}}</ref> to work for a new investigative agency. Its first "chief" (the title is now "director") was [[Stanley Finch]]. Bonaparte notified the Congress of these actions in December 1908.<ref name=Weiner-ch2 />

The bureau's first official task was visiting and making surveys of the houses of prostitution in preparation for enforcing the "White Slave Traffic Act" or [[Mann Act]], passed on June 25, 1910. In 1932, the bureau was renamed the United States Bureau of Investigation.

=== Creation of FBI ===
The following year, 1933, the BOI was linked to the [[Bureau of Prohibition]] and rechristened the Division of Investigation (DOI); it became an independent service within the Department of Justice in 1935.<ref name="historicdates">{{cite web |title=Timeline of FBI History |work=FBI |url=https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/intelligence/timeline |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150316145041/http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/intelligence/timeline/ |archive-date=March 16, 2015 |access-date=March 20, 2015 |publisher=Federal Bureau of Investigation}}</ref> In the same year, its name was officially changed from the Division of Investigation to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

=== J. Edgar Hoover as FBI director ===
[[File:Hoover-JEdgar-LOC.jpg|thumb|J. Edgar Hoover, FBI director from 1924 to 1972]]

[[J. Edgar Hoover]] served as FBI director from 1924 to 1972, a combined 48 years with the BOI, DOI, and FBI. He was chiefly responsible for creating the Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory, or the [[FBI Laboratory]], which officially opened in 1932, as part of his work to professionalize investigations by the government. Hoover was substantially involved in most major cases and projects that the FBI handled during his tenure. But as detailed below, his tenure as Bureau director proved to be highly controversial, especially in its later years. After Hoover's death, Congress passed legislation that limited the tenure of future FBI directors to ten years.

Early homicide investigations of the new agency included the [[Osage Indian murders]]. During the "War on Crime" of the 1930s, FBI agents apprehended or killed a number of notorious criminals who committed kidnappings, bank robberies, and murders throughout the nation, including [[John Dillinger]], [[Baby Face Nelson|"Baby Face" Nelson]], [[Ma Barker|Kate "Ma" Barker]], [[Alvin Karpis|Alvin "Creepy" Karpis]], and [[Machine Gun Kelly (gangster)|George "Machine Gun" Kelly]].

Other activities of its early decades focused on the scope and influence of the [[white supremacist]] group [[Ku Klux Klan]], a group with which the FBI was evidenced to be working in the [[Viola Liuzzo]] lynching case. Earlier, through the work of [[Edwin Atherton]], the BOI claimed to have successfully apprehended an entire army of Mexican neo-revolutionaries under the leadership of General [[Enrique Estrada]] in the mid-1920s, east of San Diego, California.

Hoover began using [[Telephone tapping|wiretapping]] in the 1920s during [[Prohibition in the United States|Prohibition]] to arrest bootleggers.<ref name="hnn">{{cite news |title=Civil Rights: Let 'Em Wiretap! |last=Greenberg |first=David |author-link=David Greenberg (historian) |date=October 22, 2001 |publisher=History News Network |url=http://hnn.us/articles/366.html |access-date=February 15, 2011 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110301212237/http://hnn.us/articles/366.html |archive-date=March 1, 2011}}</ref> In the 1927 case ''[[Olmstead v. United States]]'', in which a bootlegger was caught through telephone tapping, the [[Supreme Court of the United States|United States Supreme Court]] ruled that FBI wiretaps did not violate the [[Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fourth Amendment]] as unlawful search and seizure, as long as the FBI did not break into a person's home to complete the tapping.<ref name="hnn" /> After Prohibition's repeal, [[United States Congress|Congress]] passed the [[Communications Act of 1934]], which outlawed non-consensual phone tapping, but did allow bugging.<ref name="hnn" /> In the 1939 case ''Nardone v. United States'', the court ruled that due to the 1934 law, evidence the FBI obtained by phone tapping was inadmissible in court.<ref name="hnn" /> After ''[[Katz v. United States]]'' (1967) overturned ''Olmstead'', Congress passed the [[Omnibus Crime Control Act]], allowing public authorities to tap telephones during investigations, as long as they obtained warrants beforehand.<ref name="hnn" />

==== National security ====
Beginning in the 1940s and continuing into the 1970s, the bureau investigated cases of [[espionage]] against the United States and its allies. Eight [[Nazism|Nazi]] agents who had planned [[sabotage]] operations against American targets were arrested, and six were executed (''[[Ex parte Quirin]]'') under their sentences. Also during this time, a joint US/UK code-breaking effort called "The [[Venona project|Venona Project]]"—with which the FBI was heavily involved—broke Soviet diplomatic and intelligence communications codes, allowing the US and British governments to read Soviet communications. This effort confirmed the existence of Americans working in the United States for Soviet intelligence.<ref name="nsa">{{cite web |last=Benson |first=Robert L. |url=http://www.nsa.gov/publications/publi00039.cfm |title=The Venona Story |publisher=National Security Agency |access-date=June 18, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060614231955/http://www.nsa.gov/publications/publi00039.cfm<!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archive-date=June 14, 2006}}</ref> Hoover was administering this project, but he failed to notify the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] (CIA) of it until 1952. Another notable case was the arrest of Soviet spy [[Vilyam Genrikhovich Fisher|Rudolf Abel]] in 1957.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Romerstein |first1=Herbert |last2=Breindel |first2=Eric |title=The Venona Secrets, Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors |publisher=Regnery Publishing, Inc. |year=2001 |isbn=0-89526-225-8 |page=209}}</ref> The discovery of Soviet spies operating in the US motivated Hoover to pursue his longstanding concern with the threat he perceived from the [[American Left]].

==== Japanese American internment ====
In 1939, the Bureau began compiling a [[FBI Index#Custodial Detention Index|custodial detention list]] with the names of those who would be taken into custody in the event of war with Axis nations. The majority of the names on the list belonged to [[Issei]] community leaders, as the FBI investigation built on an existing [[Office of Naval Intelligence|Naval Intelligence]] index that had focused on [[Japanese American]]s in Hawaii and the West Coast, but many [[Internment of German Americans|German]] and [[Internment of Italian Americans|Italian]] nationals also found their way onto the [[FBI Index]] list.<ref>{{cite web |last=Kashima |first=Tetsuden |url=http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Custodial_detention_/_A-B-C_list/ |title=Custodial detention / A-B-C list |publisher=Densho Encyclopedia |access-date=August 21, 2014 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141020034626/http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Custodial_detention_/_A-B-C_list/ |archive-date=October 20, 2014}}</ref> Robert Shivers, head of the Honolulu office, obtained permission from Hoover to start detaining those on the list on December 7, 1941, while bombs were still falling over [[Attack on Pearl Harbor|Pearl Harbor]].<ref name=Niiya-FBI>{{cite web |last=Niiya |first=Brian |url=http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Federal%20Bureau%20of%20Investigation/ |title=Federal Bureau of Investigation |publisher=Densho Encyclopledia |access-date=August 21, 2014 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141020035117/http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Federal%20Bureau%20of%20Investigation/ |archive-date=October 20, 2014}}</ref>{{Better source needed|date=May 2019}} Mass arrests and searches of homes, in most cases conducted without warrants, began a few hours after the attack, and over the next several weeks more than 5,500 Issei men were taken into FBI custody.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://encyclopedia.densho.org/history/ |title=About the Incarceration |publisher=Densho Encyclopedia |access-date=August 21, 2014 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140813044546/http://encyclopedia.densho.org/history/ |archive-date=August 13, 2014}}</ref> 

On February 19, 1942, President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt|Franklin Roosevelt]] issued [[Executive Order 9066]], authorizing the removal of Japanese Americans from the West Coast. FBI Director Hoover opposed the subsequent mass removal and confinement of Japanese Americans authorized under Executive Order 9066, but Roosevelt prevailed.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://encyclopedia.densho.org/J._Edgar_Hoover/ |website=Densho Encyclopedia |title=J. Edgar Hoover |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141106032500/http://encyclopedia.densho.org/J._Edgar_Hoover/ |archive-date=November 6, 2014}}</ref> The vast majority went along with the subsequent exclusion orders, but in a handful of cases where Japanese Americans refused to obey the new military regulations, FBI agents handled their arrests.<ref name=Niiya-FBI /> The Bureau continued surveillance on Japanese Americans throughout the war, conducting background checks on applicants for resettlement outside camp, and entering the camps, usually without the permission of [[War Relocation Authority]] officials, and grooming informants to monitor dissidents and "troublemakers". After the war, the FBI was assigned to protect returning Japanese Americans from attacks by hostile white communities.<ref name=Niiya-FBI />

==== Sex deviates program ====
According to Douglas M. Charles, the FBI's "sex deviates" program began on April 10, 1950, when J. Edgar Hoover forwarded to the White House, to the U.S. Civil Service Commission, and to branches of the armed services a list of 393 alleged federal employees who had allegedly been arrested in Washington, D.C., since 1947, on charges of "sexual irregularities". On June 20, 1951, Hoover expanded the program by issuing a memo establishing a "uniform policy for the handling of the increasing number of reports and allegations concerning present and past employees of the United States Government who assertedly [sic] are sex deviates". The program was expanded to include non-government jobs. According to [[Athan Theoharis]], "In 1951 he [Hoover] had unilaterally instituted a Sex Deviates program to purge alleged homosexuals from any position in the federal government, from the lowliest clerk to the more powerful position of White house aide." On May 27, 1953, [[Executive Order 10450]] went into effect. The program was expanded further by this executive order by making all federal employment of homosexuals illegal. On July 8, 1953, the FBI forwarded to the U.S. Civil Service Commission information from the sex deviates program. Between 1977 and 1978, 300,000 pages in the sex deviates program, collected between 1930 and the mid-1970s, were destroyed by FBI officials.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://outhistory.org/exhibits/show/fbi-history/1950-1959 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171204172602/http://outhistory.org/exhibits/show/fbi-history/1950-1959 |title=FBI and Homosexuality: 1950–1959  |archive-date=December 4, 2017 |website=OutHistory}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://outhistory.org/exhibits/show/fbi-history/1970-1979 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180605032719/http://outhistory.org/exhibits/show/fbi-history/1970-1979 |title=FBI and Homosexuality: 1970–1979  |archive-date=June 5, 2018 |website=OutHistory}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://outhistory.org/exhibits/show/fbi-history/2010-2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171204171135/http://outhistory.org/exhibits/show/fbi-history/2010-2019 |title=FBI and Homosexuality: 2010–2019  |archive-date=December 4, 2017 |website=OutHistory}}</ref>

==== Civil rights movement ====
During the 1950s and 1960s, FBI officials became increasingly concerned about the influence of civil rights leaders, whom they believed either had communist ties or were unduly influenced by communists or "[[fellow traveler]]s". In 1956, for example, Hoover sent an open letter denouncing Dr. [[T. R. M. Howard]], a civil rights leader, surgeon, and wealthy entrepreneur in Mississippi who had criticized FBI inaction in solving recent murders of [[George W. Lee]], [[Emmett Till]], and other blacks in the South.<ref>David T. Beito and Linda Royster Beito, ''Black Maverick: T.R.M. Howard's Fight for Civil Rights and Economic Power'' (Urbana: [[University of Illinois Press]], 2009), 148, 154–59.</ref> The FBI carried out controversial [[surveillance|domestic surveillance]] in an operation it called the [[COINTELPRO]], from "COunter-INTELligence PROgram".<ref name="coinpro">{{cite web |url=http://www.monitor.net/monitor/9905a/jbcointelpro.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000118104808/http://www.monitor.net/monitor/9905a/jbcointelpro.html |archive-date=January 18, 2000 |title=A Short History of FBI COINTELPRO |publisher=Monitor.net |access-date=June 6, 2006 |last=Cassidy |first=Mike M. |date=May 26, 1999}}</ref> It was to investigate and disrupt the activities of dissident political organizations within the United States, including both militant and non-violent organizations. Among its targets was the [[Southern Christian Leadership Conference]], a leading civil rights organization whose clergy leadership included the Rev. Dr. [[Martin Luther King Jr.]].<ref name="latimes">{{cite news |url=http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0308-27.htm |title=A Break-In to End All Break-Ins |newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]] |access-date=June 6, 2006 |last=Jalon |first=Allan M. |date=April 8, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060620040020/http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0308-27.htm |archive-date=June 20, 2006}}</ref>

[[File:Mlk-uncovered-letter.png|thumb|The "[[FBI–King suicide letter|suicide letter]]",<ref name="suicide letter">{{cite news |last=Gage |first=Beverly |date=November 11, 2014 |title=What an Uncensored Letter to M.L.K. Reveals |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/16/magazine/what-an-uncensored-letter-to-mlk-reveals.html |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=January 9, 2015 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150107190622/http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/16/magazine/what-an-uncensored-letter-to-mlk-reveals.html |archive-date=January 7, 2015}}</ref> mailed anonymously to King by the FBI ]]
The FBI frequently investigated King. In the mid-1960s, King began to criticize the Bureau for giving insufficient attention to the use of terrorism by white supremacists. Hoover responded by publicly calling King the most "notorious liar" in the United States.<ref>Taylor Branch, Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years 1963–1965 (Simon and Schuster, 1999), p. 524–529</ref> In his 1991 memoir, ''[[The Washington Post|Washington Post]]'' journalist [[Carl Rowan]] asserted that the FBI had sent at least one anonymous letter to King encouraging him to commit suicide.<ref name="washingtonpost">{{cite news |url=http://www.straightdope.com/columns/030502.html |title=Was Martin Luther King, Jr. a plagiarist? |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=June 6, 2006 |author-link=Cecil Adams |last=Adams |first=Cecil M. |date=May 2, 2003 |url-status=live |archive-url=http://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/20110718163413/http://www.straightdope.com/columns/030502.html |archive-date=July 18, 2011}}</ref> Historian [[Taylor Branch]] documents an anonymous November 1964 "suicide package" sent by the Bureau that combined a letter to the civil rights leader telling him "You are done. There is only one way out for you." with audio recordings of King's sexual indiscretions.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CUI6tY9RJUYC |title=Taylor Branch, Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years 1963–1965 (Simon and Schuster, 1999) p. 527-529 |isbn=978-1-4165-5870-5 |last1=Branch |first1=Taylor |date=April 16, 2007|publisher=Simon and Schuster }}</ref>

In March 1971, the residential office of an FBI agent in [[Media, Pennsylvania]], was burgled by a group calling itself the [[Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI]]. Numerous files were taken and distributed to a range of newspapers, including ''[[The Harvard Crimson]]''.<ref name="'70s 2">{{cite book |title=How We Got Here: The '70s |last=Frum |first=David |author-link= David Frum |year=2000 |publisher=Basic Books |location=New York, New York |isbn=0-465-04195-7 |page=[https://archive.org/details/howwegothere70sd00frum/page/40 40] |url=https://archive.org/details/howwegothere70sd00frum/page/40}}</ref> The files detailed the FBI's extensive [[COINTELPRO]] program, which included investigations into lives of ordinary citizens—including a black student group at a Pennsylvania military college and the daughter of Congressman [[Henry S. Reuss]] of [[Wisconsin]].<ref name="'70s 2" /> The country was "jolted" by the revelations, which included assassinations of political activists, and the actions were denounced by members of the Congress, including House Majority Leader [[Hale Boggs]].<ref name="'70s 2" /> The phones of some members of the Congress, including Boggs, had allegedly been tapped.<ref name="'70s 2" />

==== Kennedy's assassination ====
When President [[John F. Kennedy]] was shot and killed, the jurisdiction fell to the local police departments until President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] directed the FBI to take over the investigation.<ref name="history_postwar">{{cite web |url=https://www.fbi.gov/libref/historic/history/postwar.htm |title=Postwar America: 1945–1960s |publisher=Federal Bureau of Investigation |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150106195659/http://www2.fbi.gov/libref/historic/history/postwar.htm |archive-date=January 6, 2015}}</ref> To ensure clarity about the responsibility for investigation of homicides of federal officials, Congress passed a law in 1965 that included investigations of such deaths of federal officials, especially by homicide, within FBI jurisdiction.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/14/us/jfk-assassination-5-things/ |title=5 things you might not know about JFK's assassination |publisher=CNN |date=March 31, 2014 |first1=Tricia |last1=Escobedo |access-date=November 11, 2015 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151116120144/http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/14/us/jfk-assassination-5-things |archive-date=November 16, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Public Law 89-141 – Chapter 84.– PRESIDENTIAL ASSASSINATION, KIDNAPPING, AND ASSAULT |url=http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/STATUTE-79/pdf/STATUTE-79-Pg580.pdf |access-date=September 20, 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170922155440/https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/STATUTE-79/pdf/STATUTE-79-Pg580.pdf |archive-date=September 22, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/part-I/chapter-84 |title=18 U.S. Code Chapter 84 – PRESIDENTIAL AND PRESIDENTIAL STAFF ASSASSINATION, KIDNAPPING, AND ASSAULT |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303031714/https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/part-I/chapter-84 |archive-date=March 3, 2016}}</ref>

=== Organized crime ===
[[File:Donnie Brasco.jpg|thumb|An FBI surveillance photograph of [[Joseph D. Pistone]] (aka Donnie Brasco), [[Benjamin Ruggiero|Benjamin "Lefty" Ruggiero]] and [[Edgar Robb]] (aka Tony Rossi), 1980s]]
In response to organized crime, on August 25, 1953, the FBI created the Top Hoodlum Program. The national office directed field offices to gather information on [[Gangster|mobsters]] in their territories and to report it regularly to Washington for a centralized collection of intelligence on [[Racketeering|racketeers]].<ref>[https://www.fbi.gov/page2/august07/mobintel080907.htm "Using Intel to Stop the Mob, Part 2"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100616042610/https://www.fbi.gov/page2/august07/mobintel080907.htm |date=June 16, 2010 }}. Retrieved February 12, 2010.</ref> After the [[Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act]], for RICO Act, took effect, the FBI began investigating the former Prohibition-organized groups, which had become fronts for crime in major cities and small towns. All the FBI work was done undercover and from within these organizations, using the provisions provided in the RICO Act. Gradually the agency dismantled many of the groups. Although Hoover initially denied the existence of a [[National Crime Syndicate]] in the United States, the Bureau later conducted operations against known organized crime syndicates and families, including those headed by [[Sam Giancana]] and [[John Gotti]]. The RICO Act is still used today for all [[organized crime]] and any individuals who may fall under the Act's provisions.

In 2003, a congressional committee called the FBI's organized crime [[informant]] program "one of the greatest failures in the history of federal law enforcement".<ref name="Murphy" /> The FBI allowed four innocent men to be convicted of the [[Joseph Barboza#False testimony against rivals|March 1965 gangland murder of Edward "Teddy" Deegan]] in order to protect [[Stephen Flemmi|Vincent Flemmi]], an FBI informant. Three of the men were sentenced to death (which was later reduced to life in prison), and the fourth defendant was sentenced to life in prison.<ref name="Murphy">{{cite news |url=http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2007/07/27/death_deceit_then_decades_of_silence/ |title=Evidence Of Injustice |newspaper=The Boston Globe |author=Shelley Murphy |date=July 27, 2007 |access-date=November 22, 2007 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080726051938/http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2007/07/27/death_deceit_then_decades_of_silence |archive-date=July 26, 2008}}</ref> Two of the four men died in prison after serving almost 30 years, and two others were released after serving 32 and 36 years. In July 2007, U.S. District Judge [[Nancy Gertner]] in Boston found that the Bureau had helped convict the four men using false witness accounts given by mobster [[Joseph Barboza]]. The U.S. Government was ordered to pay $100&nbsp;million in damages to the four defendants.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-fbi-murder-idUSN2643274020070726 |title=Judge awards $100 mln for unjust convictions |work=[[Reuters]] |date=July 26, 2007 |access-date=March 29, 2021 |archive-date=November 8, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201108000530/https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-fbi-murder-idUSN2643274020070726 |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== Special FBI teams ===
[[File:FBI SWAT team Watervliet Arsenal b.jpg|thumb| [[FBI Special Weapons and Tactics Teams|FBI SWAT]] agents in a training exercise]]
In 1982, the FBI formed an elite unit<ref name="history_rise">{{cite web |url=https://www.fbi.gov/libref/historic/history/rise.htm |title=Rise in International Crime |publisher=Federal Bureau of Investigation |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150106201333/http://www2.fbi.gov/libref/historic/history/rise.htm |archive-date=January 6, 2015}}</ref> to help with problems that might arise at the [[1984 Summer Olympics]] to be held in Los Angeles, particularly [[terrorism]] and major-crime. This was a result of the [[1972 Summer Olympics]] in [[Munich|Munich, Germany]], when [[Munich massacre|terrorists murdered the Israeli athletes]]. Named the [[Hostage Rescue Team]], or HRT, it acts as a dedicated FBI [[SWAT]] team dealing primarily with counter-terrorism scenarios. Unlike the special agents serving on local [[FBI SWAT]] teams, HRT does not conduct investigations. Instead, HRT focuses solely on additional tactical proficiency and capabilities. Also formed in 1984 was the ''Computer Analysis and Response Team'', or CART.<ref name="history_coldwarend">{{cite web |url=https://www.fbi.gov/libref/historic/history/postcold.htm |title=End of the Cold War |publisher=Federal Bureau of Investigation |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150106195651/http://www2.fbi.gov/libref/historic/history/postcold.htm |archive-date=January 6, 2015}}</ref>

From the end of the 1980s to the early 1990s, the FBI reassigned more than 300 agents from foreign counter-intelligence duties to violent crime, and made violent crime the sixth national priority. With cuts to other well-established departments, and because terrorism was no longer considered a threat after the end of the [[Cold War]],<ref name="history_coldwarend" /> the FBI assisted local and state police forces in tracking fugitives who had crossed state lines, which is a federal offense. The FBI Laboratory helped develop [[DNA]] testing, continuing its pioneering role in identification that began with its fingerprinting system in 1924.

=== Notable efforts in the 1990s ===
[[File:Fbi egypt air 990.jpg|thumb|An FBI agent tags the [[cockpit voice recorder]] from [[EgyptAir Flight 990]] on the deck of the [[USNS Grapple (T-ARS-53)|USS ''Grapple'' (ARS 53)]] at the crash site on November 13, 1999.]]
On May 1, 1992, FBI SWAT and HRT personnel in [[Los Angeles County, California]] aided local officials in securing peace within the area during the [[1992 Los Angeles riots]]. HRT operators, for instance, spent 10 days conducting vehicle-mounted patrols throughout [[Los Angeles]], before returning to Virginia.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://cms.sofrep.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/the-unofficial-history-of-the-fbi-hostage-rescue-team.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210210055109/https://cms.sofrep.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/the-unofficial-history-of-the-fbi-hostage-rescue-team.pdf |archive-date=2021-02-10 |url-status=live |title=Anything, Anytime, Anywhere: The Unofficial History of the FBI Hostage Rescue Team, Page 10/25}}</ref>

Between 1993 and 1996, the FBI increased its [[counter-terrorism]] role following the first [[1993 World Trade Center bombing]] in [[New York City]], the 1995 [[Oklahoma City bombing]], and the arrest of the [[Ted Kaczynski|Unabomber]] in 1996. Technological innovation and the skills of FBI Laboratory analysts helped ensure that the three cases were successfully prosecuted.<ref name="history_wired">{{cite web |url=https://www.fbi.gov/libref/historic/history/wiredworld.htm |title=Rise of a Wired World |publisher=Federal Bureau of Investigation |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150106195709/http://www2.fbi.gov/libref/historic/history/wiredworld.htm |archive-date=January 6, 2015}}</ref> However, Justice Department investigations into the FBI's roles in the [[Ruby Ridge]] and [[Waco siege|Waco]] incidents were found to have been obstructed by agents within the Bureau. During the [[1996 Summer Olympics]] in [[Atlanta|Atlanta, Georgia]], the FBI was criticized for its investigation of the [[Centennial Olympic Park bombing]]. It has settled a dispute with [[Richard Jewell]], who was a private security guard at the venue, along with some media organizations,<ref name="leak">{{cite web |url=http://medialibel.org/cases-conflicts/tv/jewell.html |title=Richard Jewell v. NBC, and other Richard Jewell cases |publisher=Media Libel |access-date=June 6, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060527200834/http://medialibel.org/cases-conflicts/tv/jewell.html |archive-date=May 27, 2006}}</ref> in regard to the leaking of his name during the investigation; this had briefly led to his being wrongly suspected of the bombing.

After Congress passed the [[Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act]] (CALEA, 1994), the [[Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act]] (HIPAA, 1996), and the [[Economic Espionage Act]] (EEA, 1996), the FBI followed suit and underwent a technological upgrade in 1998, just as it did with its CART team in 1991. Computer Investigations and Infrastructure Threat Assessment Center (CITAC) and the National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC) were created to deal with the increase in [[Internet]]-related problems, such as computer viruses, worms, and other malicious programs that threatened U.S. operations. With these developments, the FBI increased its electronic surveillance in public safety and national security investigations, adapting to the telecommunications advancements that changed the nature of such problems.

{{Anchor|1990s tier system}}In response to the [[1998 U.S. embassy bombings]] in Kenya and Tanzania, the FBI developed its ''Strategic Plan 1998–2003'' to prioritize counterterrorism and national security.<ref>{{Cite web |title=- THE FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION'S STRATEGIC PLAN AND PROGRESS ON REFORM |url=https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-110shrg48097/html/CHRG-110shrg48097.htm |access-date=2025-04-19 |website=www.govinfo.gov}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Robert M. "Bear" Bryant |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/robert-m-bear-bryant/ |access-date=2025-04-19 |website=[[Frontline (American TV program)|FRONTLINE]] |language=en-US}}</ref> This plan introduced a three-tiered system to classify and prioritize investigative programs agency-wide. Tier one, the highest priority, included national security programs such as counterterrorism and counterintelligence; tier two encompassed major criminal investigations, such as organized crime and white-collar crime, while tier three covered lower-priority matters, including "the most significant" crimes against property and individuals.<ref>{{cite web |title=Federal Bureau of Investigation Casework and Human Resource Allocation |url=https://oig.justice.gov/reports/FBI/a0337/exec.htm |publisher=Office of the Inspector General, U.S. Department of Justice |date=September 2003 |access-date=2025-04-18}}</ref>

The September 11, 2001, attacks accelerated the FBI’s implementation of the tier system, leading to a significant reallocation of resources toward Tier 1 programs. A 2003 audit by the Department of Justice [[Office of the Inspector General]] (OIG) reported that the average number of agents assigned to terrorism-related investigations more than doubled{{Emdash}}from 2,126 in [[Fiscal year|FY]] 2000 to 4,680 by FY 2002{{Emdash}}largely due to the expansion of the Counterterrorism Division’s Joint Terrorism Task Forces and related initiatives.<ref>{{cite web |date=September 2003 |title=FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION CASEWORK AND HUMAN RESOURCE ALLOCATION |url=https://oig.justice.gov/reports/FBI/a0337/final.pdf |access-date=2025-04-19}}</ref>

=== September 11 attacks ===
[[File:9-11 Pentagon Emergency Response 3.jpg|thumb|September 11 attacks at the Pentagon]]
During the [[September 11 attacks|September 11, 2001, attacks]] on the [[World Trade Center (1973–2001)|World Trade Center]], FBI agent [[Leonard W. Hatton Jr.]] was killed during the rescue effort while helping the rescue personnel evacuate the occupants of the South Tower, and he stayed when it collapsed. Within months after the attacks, FBI Director [[Robert Mueller]], who had been sworn in a week before the attacks, called for a re-engineering of FBI structure and operations. He made countering every federal crime a top priority, including the prevention of terrorism, countering foreign intelligence operations, addressing cybersecurity threats, other high-tech crimes, protecting civil rights, combating public corruption, organized crime, white-collar crime, and major acts of violent crime.<ref name="history_current">{{cite web |url=https://www.fbi.gov/libref/historic/history/changeman.htm |title=Change of Mandate |publisher=Federal Bureau of Investigation |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150106195636/http://www2.fbi.gov/libref/historic/history/changeman.htm |archive-date=January 6, 2015}}</ref>

In February 2001, [[Robert Hanssen]] was caught selling information to the Russian government. It was later learned that Hanssen, who had reached a high position within the FBI, had been selling intelligence since as early as 1979. He pleaded guilty to [[espionage]] and received a [[Life imprisonment|life sentence]] in 2002, but the incident led many to question the security practices employed by the FBI. There was also a claim that Hanssen might have contributed information that led to the September 11, 2001, attacks.<ref name="9_11">{{cite web |url=http://www.dailytimes.com.pk |title=Osama access to state secrets helped 9/11 |work=[[Daily Times (Pakistan)|Daily Times]] |publisher=Computer Crime Research Center |access-date=June 6, 2006 |last=Seper |first=Jerry |archive-date=June 8, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060608124653/http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/ |url-status=live}}</ref>

The [[9/11 Commission]]'s final report on July 22, 2004, stated that the FBI and [[Central Intelligence Agency]] (CIA) were both partially to blame for not pursuing intelligence reports that could have prevented the September 11 attacks. In its most damning assessment, the report concluded that the country had "not been well served" by either agency and listed numerous recommendations for changes within the FBI.<ref name="abc">{{cite web |url=http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2004/s1160100.htm |title=9/11 Commission finds 'deep institutional failings' |publisher=ABC Au |last=Shovelan |first=John |date=June 23, 2004 |access-date=June 6, 2006 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060221224609/http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2004/s1160100.htm |archive-date=February 21, 2006}}</ref> While the FBI did accede to most of the recommendations, including oversight by the new [[director of National Intelligence]], some former members of the 9/11 Commission publicly criticized the FBI in October 2005, claiming it was resisting any meaningful changes.<ref name="cbsnews">{{cite news |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ex-fbi-chief-on-clintons-scandals/ |title=Ex-FBI Chief On Clinton's Scandals |work=CBS News |date=October 6, 2004 |access-date=June 6, 2006 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060614142823/http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/10/06/60minutes/main923095.shtml |archive-date=June 14, 2006}}</ref>

On July 8, 2007, ''[[The Washington Post]]'' published excerpts from [[University of California, Los Angeles|UCLA]] Professor Amy Zegart's book ''Spying Blind: The CIA, the FBI, and the Origins of 9/11''.<ref name="cis">{{cite web |url=http://faculty.spa.ucla.edu/zegart/tableofcontent.asp |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071013114822/http://faculty.spa.ucla.edu/zegart/tableofcontent.asp |archive-date=October 13, 2007 |title=Spying Blind |publisher=Princeton University Press |access-date=July 8, 2007 |last=Zegart |first=Amy |date=September 1, 2007}}</ref> The ''Post'' reported, from Zegart's book, that government documents showed that both the CIA and the FBI had missed 23 potential chances to disrupt the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The primary reasons for the failures included: agency cultures resistant to change and new ideas; inappropriate incentives for promotion; and a lack of cooperation between the FBI, CIA, and the rest of the [[United States Intelligence Community]]. The book blamed the FBI's decentralized structure, which prevented effective communication and cooperation among different FBI offices. The book suggested that the FBI had not evolved into an effective counter-terrorism or counter-intelligence agency, due in large part to deeply ingrained agency cultural resistance to change. For example, FBI personnel practices continued to treat all staff other than special agents as support staff, classifying [[intelligence analysis|intelligence analysts]] alongside the FBI's auto mechanics and janitors.<ref name="wpz">{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/06/AR2007070602004.html |title=Our Clueless Intelligence System |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=July 8, 2007 |last=Zegart |first=Amy |date=July 8, 2007 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070713075345/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/06/AR2007070602004.html |archive-date=July 13, 2007}}</ref>

=== Faulty bullet analysis ===
For over 40 years, the FBI crime lab in Quantico had believed that lead alloys used in bullets had unique chemical signatures. It was analyzing the bullets with the goal of matching them chemically, not only to a single batch of ammunition coming out of a factory, but also to a single box of bullets. The [[National Academy of Sciences]] conducted an 18-month independent review of [[comparative bullet-lead analysis]]. In 2003, its National Research Council published a report whose conclusions called into question 30 years of FBI testimony. It found the analytic model used by the FBI for interpreting results was deeply flawed, and the conclusion, that bullet fragments could be matched to a box of ammunition, was so overstated that it was misleading under the rules of evidence. One year later, the FBI decided to stop conducting bullet lead analyses.<ref>{{cite web |title=FBI Laboratory Announces Discontinuation of Bullet Lead Examinations |work=FBI |url=https://www.fbi.gov/news/pressrel/press-releases/fbi-laboratory-announces-discontinuation-of-bullet-lead-examinations |date= September 1, 2005 |publisher=FBI National Press Office |access-date=December 6, 2014 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141208182140/http://www.fbi.gov/news/pressrel/press-releases/fbi-laboratory-announces-discontinuation-of-bullet-lead-examinations |archive-date=December 8, 2014}}</ref>

After a ''[[60 Minutes]]''/''[[The Washington Post]]'' investigation in November 2007, two years later, the Bureau agreed to identify, review, and release all pertinent cases, and notify prosecutors about cases in which faulty testimony was given.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/evidence-of-injustice/ |title=Evidence Of Injustice |work=CBS News |date=November 18, 2007 |access-date=November 22, 2007 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071120202358/http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/16/60minutes/main3512453.shtml |archive-date=November 20, 2007}}</ref>

=== Technology ===
In 2012, the FBI formed the [[National Domestic Communications Assistance Center]] to develop technology for assisting law enforcement with technical knowledge regarding communication services, technologies, and electronic surveillance.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-57439734-83/fbi-quietly-forms-secretive-net-surveillance-unit/ |first1=Declan |last1=McCullagh |title=FBI quietly forms secretive Net-surveillance unit |publisher=[[CNet]] |date=2012-05-22 |access-date=2012-05-25 |archive-date=November 7, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131107165534/http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-57439734-83/fbi-quietly-forms-secretive-net-surveillance-unit/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

=== January 6 United States Capitol attack ===
An FBI informant who participated in the [[January 6 United States Capitol attack]] on democratic institutions in Washington D.C. later testified in support of the [[Proud boys]], who were part of the plot. Revelations about the informant raised fresh questions about intelligence failures by the FBI before the riot. According to the [[Brennan Center]], and [[Senate committees]], the FBI's response to white supremacist violence was "woefully inadequate". The FBI has long been suspected to have turned a blind eye towards right-wing extremists while disseminating "conspiracy theories" on the [[origin of SARS-CoV-2]].<ref>{{cite web |url-status=live |url=https://www.q13fox.com/news/capitol-riot-fbi-informant-testifies-for-proud-boys-defense |title=Capitol riot: FBI informant testifies for Proud Boys defense |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230405195238/https://www.q13fox.com/news/capitol-riot-fbi-informant-testifies-for-proud-boys-defense |archive-date=April 5, 2023 |publisher=[[KCPQ]] |access-date=5 April 2023 |first1=Michael |last1=Kunzelman |date=March 29, 2023 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url-status=live |url=https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/senate-committee-finds-fbi-response-white-supremacist-violence-woefully |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230405195238/https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/senate-committee-finds-fbi-response-white-supremacist-violence-woefully |archive-date=April 5, 2023 |access-date=5 April 2023 |title=Senate Committee Finds FBI Response to White Supremacist Violence Woefully Inadequate |publisher=Brennan Center for Justice |date=November 22, 2022 |first1=Michael |last1=German }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url-status=live |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64806903 |title=FBI chief Christopher Wray says China lab leak most likely |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230406173223/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64806903 |archive-date=April 6, 2023 |publisher=BBC News |access-date=5 April 2023 |date=1 March 2023 |first1=Max |last1=Matza |first2=Nicholas |last2=Yong }}</ref>