What is the Federal Bureau of Investigation?

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, commonly called the FBI, is the principal federal law enforcement and domestic intelligence agency of the United States. It operates as part of the Department of Justice and reports to the Attorney General. The FBI was created in 1908 as a small Bureau of Investigation and renamed the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1935. J. Edgar Hoover led the FBI from 1924 to 1972 and shaped its modern structure, methods, and reputation.

The FBI is headquartered at the J. Edgar Hoover Building in downtown Washington, D.C., and operates 56 field offices across the United States plus more than 380 satellite offices and 60 international offices. The FBI employs roughly 35,000 people, including about 13,500 special agents and the rest in intelligence analysts, scientists, technology specialists, and support staff.

The FBI's mission has expanded significantly since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Today its top priorities include protecting the United States from terrorist attack, both foreign and domestic; protecting against foreign intelligence operations and espionage; protecting against cyber-based attacks and high-technology crimes; combating public corruption at all levels; protecting civil rights; combating transnational and national criminal organizations and enterprises; combating major white-collar crime; combating significant violent crime; and supporting federal, state, local, and international partners.

The FBI investigates more than 200 categories of federal crimes, including terrorism, cyber crime, public corruption, civil rights violations, organized crime, white-collar crime, kidnapping, bank robbery, and crimes against children. The bureau operates major specialized units including the Hostage Rescue Team for tactical response, the Behavioral Analysis Unit for criminal profiling, the Counterterrorism Division, the Cyber Division, and the National Crime Information Center, which maintains a national database of criminal records used by police across the country.

The FBI Director is appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate to a single 10-year term. The 10-year term, established by Congress in 1976, was meant to insulate the position from politics while preventing the kind of long, controlling tenure Hoover had. Recent FBI Directors include Robert Mueller, James Comey, Christopher Wray, and Kash Patel.

The FBI has been at the center of major political and historical events, from civil rights investigations in the 1960s to the Watergate scandal, the September 11 attacks, and high-profile recent investigations.