Since its founding in 1908 as the Bureau of Investigation, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has been the subject of a number of controversial cases, both at home in the United States and abroad.

Files on U.S. citizens

The FBI has maintained files on numerous people, including celebrities such as Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, John Denver, John Lennon, Jane Fonda, Groucho Marx, Charlie Chaplin, the band MC5, Lou Costello, Sonny Bono, Bob Dylan, Michael Jackson, and Mickey Mantle. The reason for the existence of the files varied. Some of the subjects were investigated for alleged ties to the Communist party (Charlie Chaplin and Groucho Marx), or in connection with antiwar activities during the Vietnam War (John Denver, John Lennon, and Jane Fonda). Numerous celebrity files concern threats or extortion attempts against them (Sonny Bono, John Denver, John Lennon, Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, Mickey Mantle, Groucho Marx, and Frank Sinatra).

Domestic surveillance A 1985 wiretapping and civil liberties report by the U.S. Congress found that the FBI had "installed over 7,000 national security surveillances," including many on American citizens, from 1940 to 1960.

Child pornography distribution and Operation Pacifier

The FBI has been called "the largest distributor of child pornography," at one point operating more than half of the child porn websites on the Dark web. Most prominently, following the arrest of the administrator of Playpen, a child pornography website, the FBI moved Playpen's server to an FBI warehouse in Virginia where it commenced Operation Pacifier. The stated objective of Operation Pacifier was to run the child pornography website to conduct sting operations on those who visited the website. For two weeks, 48,000 photos, 200 videos, and 13,000 child porn links were distributed by the FBI, available to be downloaded, viewed, and reproduced. During that timeframe, the website received 100,000 views. As a result of the FBI running the site, the site operated faster and was more accessible, increasing the traffic of the site to 50,000 visitors per week, up from 11,000 before the government takeover.

Regarding Operation Pacifier, one critic noted, "The government has criminalized an activity and acted to further the commission of just that crime" and other critics called for the FBI agents responsible to face prison time. The FBI has declined to comment on or justify Operation Pacifier. Playpen was not the only child pornography website the FBI operated. In 2016, the FBI ran 24 of the estimated 29 Tor-hidden child pornography websites. Several FBI agents have also been criminally charged with personal possession and production of child porn.

Covert operations on political groups

COINTELPRO tactics have been alleged to include discrediting targets through psychological warfare, smearing individuals and/or groups using forged documents and by planting false reports in the media, harassment, wrongful imprisonment, and illegal violence, including assassination.The FBI'S Covert Action Program to Destroy the Black Panther Party FBI Secrets: An Agent's Expose. M. Wesley Swearingen. Boston. South End Press. 1995. Special Agent Gregg York: "We expected about twenty Panthers to be in the apartment when the police raided the place. Only two of those black nigger fuckers were killed, Fred Hampton and Mark Clark." The FBI's stated motivation was "protecting national security, preventing violence, and maintaining the existing social and political order."

FBI records show that 85 percent of COINTELPRO resources targeted groups and individuals that the FBI deemed "subversive",Jeffreys-Jones, Rhodri. THE FBI, Yale University Press, 2008, p. 189 including communist and socialist organizations; organizations and individuals associated with the civil rights movement, including Martin Luther King Jr. and others associated with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and the Congress of Racial Equality and other civil rights organizations; black nationalist groups (e.g., Nation of Islam and the Black Panther Party); the American Indian Movement; a broad range of organizations labeled "New Left", including Students for a Democratic Society and the Weathermen; almost all groups protesting the Vietnam War, as well as individual student demonstrators with no group affiliation; the National Lawyers Guild; organizations and individuals associated with the women's rights movement; nationalist groups such as those seeking independence for Puerto Rico, United Ireland, and Cuban exile movements including Orlando Bosch's Cuban Power and the Cuban Nationalist Movement. The remaining 15% of COINTELPRO resources were expended to marginalize and subvert white hate groups, including the Ku Klux Klan and the National States' Rights Party.

Files on Puerto Rican independence advocates

The FBI also spied upon and collected information on Puerto Rican independence leader Pedro Albizu Campos and his Nationalist political party in the 1930s. Albizu Campos was convicted three times in connection with deadly attacks on US government officials: in 1937 (Conspiracy to overthrow the government of the United States), in 1950 (attempted murder), and in 1954 (after an armed assault on the US House of Representatives while in session; although not present, Albizu Campos was considered the mastermind).American National Biography, Pedro Albizu Campos , accessed April 19, 2015. The FBI operation was covert and did not become known until U.S. Congressman Luis Gutierrez had it made public via the Freedom of Information Act in the 1980s.FBI Files on Puerto Ricans. The New York Times. Retrieved December 13, 2013.

In the 2000s, researchers obtained files released by the FBI under the Freedom of Information Act revealing that the San Juan FBI office had coordinated with FBI offices in New York, Chicago and other cities, in a decades-long surveillance of Albizu Campos and Puerto Ricans who had contact or communication with him. The documents available are as recent as 1965.

Activities in Latin America

From the 1950s to the 1980s, the governments of many Latin American and Caribbean countries, including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Mexico and others were infiltrated by the FBI.Che Guevara and the FBI: U.S. Political Police Dossier on the Latin American Revolutionary. Michael Ratner. 1997. Retrieved December 13, 2103. These operations began in World War II as 700 agents were assigned to monitor Nazi activity, but soon expanded to monitoring communist activity in places like Ecuador.

Viola Liuzzo

In one particularly controversial 1965 incident, white civil rights worker Viola Liuzzo was murdered by Ku Klux Klansmen, who gave chase and fired shots into her car after noticing that her passenger was a young black man; one of the Klansmen was Gary Thomas Rowe, an acknowledged FBI informant.Gary May, The Informant: The FBI, the Ku Klux Klan, and the Murder of Viola Luzzo, Yale University Press, 2005. The FBI spread rumors that Liuzzo was a member of the Communist Party and a heroin addictJack Anderson (March 21, 1983). "Hoover smear tactics hurt civil rights case". The Evening News. and had abandoned her children to have sexual relationships with African Americans involved in the civil rights movement. FBI records show that J. Edgar Hoover personally communicated these insinuations to President Johnson.

Waco siege

The Waco siege in 1993 was a failed raid by the ATF that resulted in the deaths of four ATF agents and six Branch Davidians. The FBI and US military became involved with the 51-day siege that followed. The building housing the Davidians was burnt down, killing 76 of them, including 26 children. Timothy McVeigh was reportedly motivated by the outcome of this siege, along with Ruby Ridge incident, to carry out the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995.

Ruby Ridge

The Ruby Ridge siege in 1992 was a shootout between the FBI and Randy Weaver over his failure to appear in court on weapons charges. Weaver's wife and son were killed by FBI gunmen in the incident. A US Marshal was shot in what was ruled reasonable self-defense. The US Government paid over 3 million dollars in an out-of-court settlement and $380,000 court awarded settlement.

1996 campaign finance controversy

The U.S. Department of Justice investigation into the fund-raising activities had uncovered evidence that Chinese agents sought to direct contributions from foreign sources to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) before the 1996 presidential campaign. The Chinese embassy in Washington, D.C. was used for coordinating contributions to the DNC.Woodward, Bob and Duffy, Brian, "Chinese Embassy Role In Contributions Probed", Washington Post, February 13, 1997

In addition to partisan complaints from Republicans, a number of FBI agents suggested the investigations into the fund-raising controversies were willfully impeded.Krauthammer, Charles, "Reno's Humiliation" (Opinion), Washington Post, October 10, 1997Safire, William, "Those Chinese Agents" (Opinion), New York Times, October 7, 1999Kondracke, Morton, "GOP must launch new probe of Chinagate" (Opinion), Jewish World Review, August 9, 1999 FBI agent Ivian Smith wrote a letter to FBI Director Louis Freeh that expressed "a lack of confidence" in the Justice Department's attorneys regarding the fund-raising investigation. FBI agent Daniel Wehr told Congress that the first head U.S. attorney in the investigation, Laura Ingersoll, told the agents they should "not pursue any matter related to solicitation of funds for access to the president. The reason given was, 'That's the way the American political process works.' I was scandalized by that," Wehr said. The four FBI agents also said that Ingersoll prevented them from executing search warrants to stop destruction of evidence and micromanaged the case beyond all reason."FBI agents criticize Justice Department", Associated Press, September 22, 1999

FBI agents were also denied the opportunity to ask President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore questions during Justice Department interviews in 1997 and 1998 and were only allowed to take notes."Justice's Clinton, Gore inquiry criticized", Associated Press, December 16, 1999

Internal investigations of shootings

During the period from 1993 to 2011, FBI agents fired their weapons on 289 occasions; FBI internal reviews found the shots justified in all but 5 cases, in none of the 5 cases were people wounded. Samuel Walker, a professor of criminal justice at the University of Nebraska Omaha said the number of shots found to be unjustified was "suspiciously low." In the same time period, the FBI wounded 150 people, 70 of whom died; the FBI found all 150 shootings to be justified. Likewise, during the period from 2011 to the present, all shootings by FBI agents have been found to be justified by internal investigation. In a 2002 case in Maryland, an innocent man was shot, and later paid $1.3 million by the FBI after agents mistook him for a bank robber; the internal investigation found that the shooting was justified, based on the man's actions."The F.B.I. Deemed Agents Faultless in 150 Shootings," by Charlie Savage and Michael Schmidt, June 18, 2013, New York Times.

The Whitey Bulger case

The FBI has been criticized for its handling of Boston organized crime figure Whitey Bulger.The Feds Let 'Whitey' Get Away With Murder: FBI agents and other officials protected James "Whitey" Bulger as he roamed free for decades. Is there a statute of limitations on corrupting the system? Mike Barnicle. TIME. August 12, 2013. Retrieved December 13, 2013. Beginning in 1975, Bulger served as an informant for the FBI. As a result, the Bureau largely ignored his organization in exchange for information about the inner workings of the Italian American Patriarca crime family.