Many more FBI employees making political contributions and listing their employer in the 2016 and 2018 election cycles give to liberal Democrats and causes than to conservative Republicans and groups, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) data.
Controversy engulfed the FBI during the 2016 presidential race, prompting public worries that the bureau’s top leadership played partisan favorites in the election’s outcome. The FEC data suggest the partisan influences aren’t only among the top executives leading the more than 35,000 FBI employees.
The gross totals aren’t big, but the lack of ideological balance stands out. Seventy-six employees together gave $20,303 in the 2016 campaign, $13,902 of which went to left-wing candidates and groups, compared to $6,401 to the right-wing side.
The 2018 figures were 39 employees giving $11,627, with $6,058 to the left wing and $5,569 to the right wing. Oddly, $5,000 of the right-wing donations came from one employee, to a rental industry political action committee.
The left-wing candidates and groups supported by FBI employees, according to the FEC data for the current election cycle, included DNC Services Corp and Emily’s List, while 2016 donors boosted Hillary for America, Bernie 2016, the Hillary Victory Fund, and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC).
Right-wing recipients included the Make America Great Again Committee and the Republican National Committee (RNC) in the midterm cycle, and, for the 2016 race, Donald J. Trump for President and Cruz for President.
Related: Every Day of the 2016 Campaign, Somebody in DOJ/FBI Gave to Clinton
Most prominent among recipients of FBI employee donations for both cycles was ActBlue, a liberal nonprofit that raises money online. Bernie Sanders was especially successful using ActBlue. Federal workers are barred by the Hatch Act from partisan activities on government property, but they can give money and volunteer on their own time.
Former FBI Special Agent James Gagliano told LifeZette such contributions aren’t illegal, but there is still debate on whether any political engagement is appropriate for a law enforcement agency employee, especially now given the tense political climate.
“I can’t say this with any empirical data behind it, but anecdotally speaking when I entered in 1991, the FBI was a far more conservative organization,” Gagliano told LifeZette. “Most of the people who were in the FBI — if not registered Republicans — they were probably far more conservative than they are now. But listen, diversity is a good thing. We welcome it in our country. We know that it strengthens us as a nation.”
Gagliano said that when he started at the bureau, there were still veterans of former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover’s era. The bureau tended to be more conservative, but successive generations of entering agents have been more liberal.
“We worked consciously to try and make sure people who were in the FBI represented and reflected the entire country. They didn’t just represent the Hoover era, 6 foot 4 white guys with a law degree and accounting degree that wore dark suits and white, button-down shirts and repp ties and capped-toe shoes,” Gagliano said.
Before retiring in 2015, Gagliano held numerous FBI leadership positions, including stints as a supervisory special agent, squad supervisor, supervisory senior resident agent, and a crisis management coordinator for the New York office. He now works as a law enforcement analyst for CNN.
“So long as you don’t do anything to infect or pollute an investigation, you’re allowed to have political adherence, and you’re allowed to support the candidates that you want,” Gagliano said. “It’s just that while I was an FBI agent for 25 years, half of my life because I left at the age of 50, I made certain not to make any political donations no matter where my alliances were.”
“They [today’s FBI agents] are far more politically involved or engaged.”
Gagliano said he and many of his colleagues believed it was vital to show taxpayers they were scrupulously unbiased. He rarely even talked politics at work, but that started to change in his final years at the agency.
“I don’t think agents think that way anymore,” Gagliano said. “They are far more — not politically motivated, they are far more politically involved or engaged. It’s not that I didn’t have political leanings and feelings, but I never wanted someone to confuse my work with my personal associations, so I made sure not to do that. I voted in every election, but I never donated to campaigns. I think that’s where the American public is troubled right now because you look at the Mueller team.”
Related: Trump Targets ’13 Angry Dems’ Pushing ‘Russian Witch Hunt’
Special counsel Robert Mueller — who preceded James Comey as FBI director — is at the center of controversy over his investigation of allegations of collusion between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russian interests. He was celebrated as an unbiased professional before being appointed as special counsel, but that quickly faded when it was learned 13 of the 17 attorneys he hired were registered Democrats, nine of whom contributed to Democratic candidates.
“I don’t think that means they can’t be impartial and unbiased,” Gagliano said. “I just think it sends the wrong message. And I think, unfortunately, we’re in a bifurcated and divisive time right now, where people in government have to be super-careful about that, and I don’t think that is what we’re seeing. People are trying to have their cake and eat it, too.”
Connor Wolf covers Congress and national politics and can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter.
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