#FBI: Presidential history: Politics entwine the FBI and president
Presidential history: Politics entwine the FBI and president posted at 20:44:07 UTC via dailypress.com From its genesis 115 years ago to the present, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has been ensnared in presidential politics. While it has evolved into the nation’s principal security and law enforcement agency, “the high-profile nature of many of its investigations often place it in the middle of political controversies,” writes Willard M. Oliver in his book “The Birth of the FBI.” The bureau was created in the aftermath of a partisan tussle between Theodore Roosevelt and Congress. Because the U.S. Constitution has not empowered any government group to enforce federal laws, the Department of Justice in the late 19th century “relied on detectives from the Secret Service and the Pinkerton Agency” to perform criminal investigations, according to FBI historian John F. Fox Jr. When Charles Bonaparte, Napoleon Bonaparte’s grandnephew, became Roosevelt’s attorney genera...