Jul
16
A Plan for Fixing the FBI
“One way or another, the time is now for Congress to do what’s needed to fix the FBI and end its trampling of Americans’ most precious civil liberties.” — Steven G. Bradbury, Distinguished Fellow in the Executive Vice President’s Office at The Heritage Foundation
For a while now, there have been calls to revamp or even fully replace the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Those calls have mostly been from conservatives and libertarians, because they/we are the ones who most often find ourselves threatened by or at the mercy of an out-of-control — or, perhaps more accurately, controlled-by-Leftists — FBI. Steven Bradbury summarizes the issue(s) nicely in his recent report for The Heritage Foundation:
“The FBI’s chilling record of politicized abuses and the executive branch’s continuing misuse of federal intelligence authorities to target the exercise of free speech and other constitutional rights of Americans gives Congress clear and compelling grounds for enacting forceful reforms, starting with the FBI. In fact, the time is ripe for Congress to consider a complete reconstruction of the FBI, defining the scope of its jurisdiction, refocusing its mission on traditional law enforcement, and putting it under effective control. Short of that comprehensive reform, Congress must, at the very least, put in place the minimum set of proposed reforms outlined in this paper, and reauthorization of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act’s Section 702 offers a perfect vehicle for doing so.”
In a related article, Bradbury points out (among other things),
“The FBI’s record is nothing less than chilling. Since 9/11, the bureau has expanded its use of broad intelligence-gathering powers, increasingly directing them at political movements that the Left perceives threaten the Washington establishment and directing its surveillance at ordinary Americans’ exercise of free speech, religious liberties, and other constitutionally protected rights.
This dangerous trend led to the partisan abuses of the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane operation to link Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign to Russian interference in the election, as confirmed in damning detail in special counsel John Durham’s report.”
Bradbury’s report has many recommendations, but I will give just the major line-items here without further explanation or comment. To begin with, “The following outline describes in general terms the major elements we believe ought to be considered in putting together a plan for a complete makeover of the FBI.”
1) Consider restricting the new Bureau’s jurisdiction and eliminating redundancies with other federal law enforcement agencies.
2) Consider moving the intelligence function elsewhere and establishing by law distinct components within the Bureau, each focused on clear federal law enforcement priorities.
3) Consider limiting the tools of investigation used by the Bureau and prohibit efforts to suppress free speech, religious liberty, and other constitutional rights.
4) Consider enhancing the Bureau’s support for and partnership with state and local law enforcement.
5) Consider eliminating from the Bureau unnecessary administrative support functions.
6) Consider moving the Bureau’s director into the DOJ chain of command for more effective management and control and repealing the 10-year term of office.
7) Consider revamping the Bureau’s personnel standards and practices.
8) Consider shifting headcount and resources from Washington to the field offices and consider moving the Bureau’s headquarters out of the national capital area (e.g., the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, AL).
9) Consider creating a new Inspector General (IG) for the Bureau.
10) Consider requiring a comprehensive IG review and report cataloging and exposing all prior abuses.
11) Consider requiring the Attorney General to isolate and purge all information improperly collected on Americans by the FBI or other components of DOJ.
Bonus) “Any truly effective plan… should include measures to achieve true border security and vigorous interior immigration enforcement. One important way to mitigate the rising threats to our liberties and to the social fabric of our nation is to forestall the introduction of new malign influences from foreign sources by preventing and controlling illegal immigration.”
With regard to FISA reform, Congress must:
1) Prohibit the FBI from participating directly in Section 702 surveillance and from querying the 702 collection on its own authority.
2) Require the FISA court to appoint an amicus in all politically sensitive cases involving U.S. persons.
3) Require that extensions of traditional FISA surveillance must be heard by the same FISA court judge.
4) Reform the prong of traditional FISA that was abused in 2016 and 2017 to target Carter Page.
Whether or not Congress reforms the structure and functions of the FBI, there remains the urgent need for Congress to:
1) Prohibit all federal agencies from taking any action to support the censoring of so-called domestic disinformation or the targeting, harassment, or suppression of religious beliefs or the lawful exercise of parental rights.
2) Codify DOJ directives to improve oversight of politically sensitive FBI investigations.
3) Ensure rigorous oversight of compliance and stiff penalties for violations.
4) Require DOJ to investigate intelligence leaks that could be construed as being directed at political opponents.
5) Consider reforming the Hatch Act so that it applies to senior Intelligence Community officials after they leave government service for as long as those officials continue to possess a security clearance.
With or without a comprehensive rebuilding of the FBI, Congress should enact several of the structural reforms we have described above. At minimum, they should:
1) Reorganize the FBI’s reporting structure.
2) Streamline the FBI’s headquarters functions.
3) Repeal the 10-year term of office for the FBI Director.
For much more detail both on the FBI’s (and the Biden admin’s) abuses and on Bradbury’s recommendations for reconstructing the FBI, check out the full report here. For a briefer article, go here.
