Tom (Retired FBI Agent)
π€ SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
that, oh, the FBI is out to get this person or that person.
And those complaints, I should say, are made by people across the political spectrum.
You know, it's not as if it's only ever coming from one side of the street.
And again, I would go back to that the mission of the FBI, we don't get to
We don't get to choose what we investigate when something comes to the Bureau's attention and it falls within our investigative jurisdiction, which is determined by Congress.
And the FBI can only investigate those matters that are assigned to it by Congress.
Another thing I would say is that when FBI...
employees do make mistakes.
There is a culture of accountability.
There is an Office of Professional Responsibility, an inspection division.
And some of the claims that Michael would make, which may have an element of truth to them, at times, for instance, he was alleging that law enforcement will break the law to enforce the law.
There may be officers individually or even a group of officers who, for one reason or another, have taken on that view.
But that's not the culture that police agencies try to foster.
For example, just as an aside, one of the civil rights cases I worked on involved an LAPD officer who had...
embroidered the probable cause for traffic stops.
In fact, in a couple of cases, flat out lied about why he had stopped a vehicle that led to an arrest.
And the case came to light because a sergeant, one of his sergeants, became suspicious and reported it, turned out into an internal affairs investigation.
The district attorney was notified, the judge was notified, and the judge asked the FBI to join in the investigation.
And we worked that investigation hand in hand, and it resulted not only in discipline for the officer, but a prosecution.
So if an individual were to do the things that Michael alleges and an agency gets wind of it,