Disrupt Discredit Divide

The FBI is suffering a crisis of credibility, making news headlines not for solving crimes but for agency shortfalls and mistakes. From Bureau officials lying to cover up leaks, to retaliation against internal whistle-blowers, to agents facing criminal charges on obstruction to leaking classified material, something is clearly wrong inside the nation’s top law enforcement agency. Several public failures have also made headlines. The FBI overlooked warnings in the Parkland, Florida school killings, delays in Olympic doctor Larry Nassar’s sexual misconduct probe and misconduct by agents after armed militia standoffs in Nevada and Oregon.

That’s why Mike German’s new book, Disrupt, Discredit, and Divide: How the New FBI Damages Democracy, feels so timely. German is a former FBI undercover special agent whose assignments included infiltrating white nationalist organizations.

Disrupt, Discredit and Divide focuses on how the Bureau transformed after the attacks of September 11, 2001. It went, he asserts, from a law enforcement agency into a cover domestic intelligence agency, unparalleled in U.S. history. He discusses how leaders took advantage of fears of terrorism to remove longstanding legal checks and balances on agents. By focusing on national security over law enforcement, the Bureau has in fact undermined public confidence in justice and the rule of law.

Mike German is a fellow with the Liberty and National Security program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law School. He has worked at the ACLU and served 16 years as an FBI special agent. He is also the author of Thinking Like a Terrorist.

Listen to Mike’s interview on Law and Disorder radio.