FBI director guides the agency in confronting complex international threats, investigating federal crimes and running 55 field offices

FBI agents at a news conference announce the addition of Daniel Andreas San Diego, top right, to the FBI’s list of most-wanted terrorists in April 2009 at FBI Headquarters in Washington. AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari, File

Mention the FBI, and many older Americans will likely think of a time when the agency was run by J. Edgar Hoover, who spent much of his nearly half-century tenure at the agency harassing political dissidents and abusing his power. But as former FBI counterterrorism expert Javed Ali explains, the role of both the FBI and its leader have dramatically shifted over time. The Conversation’s politics editor Naomi Schalit asked Ali, who now teaches courses in national security and intelligence at the University of Michigan, to explain just what a modern FBI director does as President-elect Donald Trump aims to name his own director to replace current FBI head Christopher Wray, whom Trump appointed in 2017. Wray has said he will resign in January 2025.

Naomi Schalit: Let’s start with FBI 101. What does the agency do?

Javed Ali: The FBI began as the country’s lead federal criminal investigative agency in 1909, then named the Bureau of Investigation, or BOI. Previously, organizations like the Secret Service and the U.S. Marshall’s Service had responsibility for investigating federal crimes, but the introduction of the BOI began the tenure for what became the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1935 to now.

Over this 100-plus-year stretch, the FBI has focused on investigating federal crimes on matters like racketeering, fraud, public corruption, illegal financial schemes and organized crime, to name a few. But despite the general public perceptions of the FBI as the nation’s premier crime-fighting organization, as revealed in the iconic FBI badge, logo and early depictions of “G-men,” the FBI has always focused on national security threats to the nation. That focus was evident as early as the 1910s – before World War I – as the FBI investigated suspected saboteurs and spies.

J. Edgar Hoover, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, in Washington, D.C., on July 15, 1964.
AP Photo/Washington Star

During the 1930s and 1940s, the FBI focused on individuals linked to the Axis powers of Germany, Italy and Japan, and communists and Bolsheviks as the Soviet Union grew in power. During the Cold War, in the FBI’s zeal to root out and prevent Soviet influence in the United States, it began arguably the darkest chapter in the organization’s history.

Beginning in the mid-1950s and called COINTELPRO, these efforts through the 1960s included domestic surveillance, intelligence collection and disinformation campaigns without court-ordered approvals against Americans suspected of receiving money or other forms of support from the Soviet Union – even though the factual bases for these concerns were often flimsy, at best.

The FBI’s focus on terrorists and spies continued for decades after and intensified in the 1990s with the emergence of jihadist threats in the United States and abroad. Despite the warning signs of attacks in the run-up to 9/11, a number of gaps and challenges remained within the FBI, which contributed to those attacks and led to major reforms within the organization. While counterterrorism and counterintelligence have remained significant priorities since 9/11, the FBI also increased its efforts on cybersecurity, demonstrating the continuing evolution of the organization’s national security focus as new threats emerge and legacy threats recede.

Schalit: What is the role of the head of the FBI?

Ali: The FBI director is presidentially appointed and Senate-confirmed, but is not a member of the cabinet. The FBI is a subagency within the Department of Justice, whose head, the attorney general, is a cabinet member. The FBI director is appointed to serve a full 10-year term that theoretically insulates the director from political pressure.

There’s no one-size-fits-all background for the FBI director. Some have been chosen because of their familiarity and knowledge of federal law enforcement from the legal side or from the eyes of an agent.

After Hoover, some have been former judges like William Webster, or former prosecutors or Department of Justice attorneys like James Comey, Robert Mueller, Christopher Wray or President Trump’s current nominee-designate, Kash Patel. One – Louis Freeh – was a former FBI special agent.

President Donald Trump sits with FBI Director Christopher Wray during the FBI National Academy graduation ceremony on Dec. 15, 2017, in Quantico, Va.
AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File

Schalit: You were at the FBI working in the headquarters between 2007 and 2010. During this time, Robert Mueller was the director, and you worked closely enough that you were able to see how he ran the organization. What are the actual tasks that an FBI director undertakes?

Ali: Mueller was very much focused on pulling the FBI as an organization into a different mindset, but also organizationally and bureaucratically, to face the terrorist threat landscape that the country was confronting after 9/11.

Part of that entailed transforming the FBI into an intelligence-driven organization that used information to prevent national security threats from occurring, or disrupt them, rather than responding to and investigating crimes after they occurred.

At times he would stay at the 50,000-foot level and think big picture thoughts and try to make sure that the bureau was moving in the direction that he had set forth, or doing what Congress and the White House wanted him to do.

On the flip side, there were moments when Director Mueller would dive into the details of specific counterterrorism investigations and cases, and ask questions of his senior team in order to ensure he had a good understanding of what was happening in the field.

These were the kind of questions any FBI director would ask of his staff about such investigations, such as: how many FBI resources were involved in conducting a particular operation, the value of any intelligence being collected, the ability of an individual or group under investigation to carry out an attack, and what, if any, legal basis existed to conduct an arrest on a federal criminal charge to prevent an attack from occurring.

These kinds of high-stakes deliberations happened on a routine basis, underscoring the depth of the responsibilities an FBI director carries with the position.

And knowing what is happening in the field is important, since the FBI is not just a Washington, D.C.-based organization. There are 55 field offices throughout the United States and Puerto Rico, and the bulk of the FBI workforce is distributed across those – with Washington, D.C., New York City and Los Angeles the three biggest – in addition to FBI personnel posted overseas as part of the legal attache program or on temporary assignments around the world.

In a 2013 hearing, FBI Director Robert Mueller was questioned by U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin about the agency’s technological abilities.

Schalit: Who sets the agenda of the FBI?

Ali: The FBI director has to manage multiple relationships in order to carry out the duties of the position effectively. The director reports both to the attorney general and the president, is overseen by judiciary and intelligence committees in Congress, and likewise has to maintain the trust and confidence of the American people to investigate crimes and prevent national security threats.

In some administrations, the relationship between the president and the FBI director has been lukewarm. In those cases, the attorney general is the one setting the course for the FBI. That’s where the president or other senior White House staff, for the most part, either have confidence in the FBI director and the attorney general and what they’re doing or it’s just not as much of a priority for them.

And then there are other times where the president really wants to know what the FBI director is doing, making sure that they are moving on the priorities that the president sets. But again, that has to be confined to staying within the Constitution and staying within the FBI internal guidelines.

This story is part of a series of profiles of Cabinet and high-level administration positions.

Javed Ali does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.