Inside the FBI: Anger, worry, work — and fears of lasting damage

The following article by Devlin Barrett and Matt Zapotosky was posted on the Washington Post website February 3, 2018:

On Friday, FBI Director Wray sent a video message to those he leads, urging them to “keep calm and tackle hard.” (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)

In the 109 years of the FBI’s existence, it has repeatedly come under fire for abuses of power, privacy or civil rights. From Red Scares to recording and threatening to expose the private conduct of Martin Luther King Jr. to benefiting from bulk surveillance in the digital age, the FBI is accustomed to intense criticism.

What is so unusual about the current moment, say current and former law enforcement officials, is the source of the attacks.

The bureau is under fire not from those on the left but rather conservatives who have long been the agency’s biggest supporters, as well as the president who handpicked the FBI’s leader. Continue reading “Inside the FBI: Anger, worry, work — and fears of lasting damage”