FBI agents violated agency rules at least 747 times in 18 months while conducting investigations involving politicians, candidates, religious groups, 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 sensitive investigative matter reviewed by FBI auditors. These errors included agents’ failure to obtain approval from senior FBI officials to start an investigation, failure to document a necessary legal review before opening an investigation and failure to tell prosecutors what they were doing.
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 portfolio. They studied 353 cases involving sensitive investigative matters — less than half of the total number of such cases — and found rules broken 747 times from Jan. 1, 2018, to June 30, 2019.
Sensitive investigative matters are actions that may impact constitutional rights because they involve people engaged in such things as politics, governance, religious expression and news reporting.
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