Was FBI Rebuke of Trump Political?

After Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump suggested that Muslims in the United States do not sufficiently help law-enforcement efforts to identify terrorists, the FBI took the unusual step to rebuke him.

Andrew Ames, a spokesman for the bureau’s Washington field office, told Reuters on Wednesday that agents have a “robust” relationship with the Muslim-American community. FBI Director James Comey, at a news conference following a shooting that killed 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, also praised Muslims in America.

“It’s at the heart of the FBI’s effectiveness to have good relationships with these folks,” he said.

Kyle Shideler, director of threat information at the Center for Security Policy, said Comey’s comments indicate the extent to which the FBI is tied into a counter-terrorism program that critics regard as ineffective. The initiative, dubbed “Countering Violent Extremism,” focuses on building ties with Islamic organizations in the United States.

“There may be a sense that it’s a little bit politicized,” he said. “They somewhat are invested in protecting and defending that view … The CVE program has largely been a failure, in my view.”

Trump stirred controversy again this week when he told CNN that Muslims do not alert law-enforcement authorities when they see suspicious activities of fellow Muslims.

“For some reason, the Muslim community does not report people like this,” he said.

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Shideler said a blanket statement like that is an exaggeration. He said ordinary Muslims often do tip off law-enforcement investigators, serve as undercover informants, and have helped make major terrorism cases in court.

“On the other hand, the FBI’s reliance on some of the Muslim leadership has gone badly,” he said.

Shideler cited reports that some imams have tipped off people suspected of terrorist activities that the FBI was investigating. He said Islamic organizations with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood have told Muslim-Americans not to talk to the FBI.

“They have routinely been awful,” he said.

Even some people who generally believe that the administration has built strong ties with Muslims have acknowledged that cooperation is not uniform. George Selim, then the director of the Office of Community Partnerships at the Department of Homeland Security, told National Public Radio in December that lone-wolf terrorists usually leave clues that their friends and neighbors see.  

“The research and the statistics have all indicated that peers, people who are in close association with subjects that ultimately commit an act like this, see something that’s a little bit out of the norm — but they don’t necessarily report it,” he said.

A January study by Duke University’s Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security found that while law-enforcement agencies had made progress, some Muslims remained resistant. The study cited one imam who told researchers that he felt that his “trust is not being reciprocated” by government officials.

If the FBI’s response to Trump was politically motivated — either to knock the GOP candidate or to prop up the Countering Violent Extremism program — it would not be the first time that  federal agency has been accused of allowing politics to invade its operations in the Obama era.

Just this week, a House of Representatives committee voted to recommend the censure of IRS Commissioner John Koskinen for his role in the destruction of 24,000 emails sought by Congress during its investigation of allegations that the agency improperly scrutinized — for political reasons — the applications of conservative groups for nonprofit status. In addition to the censure bid, Koskinen faces calls for his impeachment.

The Environmental Protection Agency administrator, Lisa Jackson, resigned amid allegations that she assumed a phony email persona as part of a campaign to go after companies perceived as opposing the Obama administration’s agenda.

As attorney general, Eric Holder decided not to pursue criminal charges against armed members of the New Black Panther Party who allegedly intimidated white voters in Philadelphia. That sparked the ire of some career prosecutors at the Justice Department.