STATEMENT
OF ASSISTANT DIRECTOR CASSANDRA M. CHANDLER REGARDING
NEW YORK TIMES STORY “F.B.I. GOES KNOCKING
FOR POLITICAL TROUBLEMAKERS”
Washington, D.C. – “An August 16th New
York Times story titled ‘F.B.I. Goes Knocking
For Political Troublemakers’ implied that
the FBI is conducting interviews without legal predication.
The implication that we are conducting interviews
without a legal basis is completely unfounded. The
FBI is not monitoring groups, or interviewing individuals,
unless we receive intelligence that such individuals
or groups may be planning violent and disruptive
criminal activity or have knowledge of such activity.
With regard to the Democratic National Convention,
the FBI did receive information that individuals
were planning to conduct violent criminal activity
to disrupt the convention held in Boston last month.
Similar information was received regarding the Republican
National Convention to be held later this month
in New York. Based on this threat information the
FBI conducted interviews, within the bounds of the
U.S. Constitution, in order to determine the validity
of the threat information. Violent acts are not
protected by the U.S. Constitution and the FBI has
a duty to prevent such acts and to identify and
bring to justice those who commit them.”
