Dive into a chilling exploration of the FBI's darkest moments. From civil rights violations to controversial operations, we uncover shocking incidents that reveal a troubling history of misconduct and abuse of power.
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00:00The FBI flooded the building with light
00:02and blasted them with sounds like dentist drills.
00:07Welcome to WatchMojo.
00:09Today we're discussing more heinous deeds committed by the FBI.
00:12For our criteria, we're only considering completely confirmed misdeeds.
00:16USA Gymnastics in concert with the FBI and the Olympic Committee
00:21were working together to conceal that Larry Nassar was a predator.
00:26Viola Liuzzo.
00:27In the 1960s, the FBI targeted various members of the civil rights movement,
00:31including activist Viola Liuzzo, who frequently gave rides to fellow activists.
00:36In March 1965, Liuzzo and 19-year-old African-American Leroy Moten
00:41were driving back from Selma towards Montgomery, Alabama.
00:44Local members of the Ku Klux Klan saw them together and shot and killed Liuzzo.
00:49Turns out, one of them was an FBI informant.
00:52This wasn't just covered up.
00:54FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover smeared her reputation,
00:57telling the press that she had a substance use disorder
01:00and implying that she had a sexual relationship to Moten.
01:03There was no evidence for any of this,
01:05and FBI involvement only became public knowledge in 1978.
01:12The Boston Marathon bombing of 2013 was a major tragedy,
01:15and if you've seen our previous FBI video,
01:18you'll know they don't have the best track record for handling tragedies.
01:21A month later, they interviewed Ibrahim Todeshev, a friend of the bombers.
01:29After being interviewed for eight hours in his apartment,
01:32Todeshev allegedly attacked them,
01:34and FBI agent Aaron McFarlane shot him dead.
01:37They subsequently delayed releasing the autopsy report,
01:41which eventually revealed that he was shot seven times,
01:43none from close range.
01:45He didn't do nothing. I know him.
01:47He just wanted everything to be over.
01:49The agent responsible had already been sued twice for police brutality,
01:53and many believe it was actually a murder.
02:03Involvement in McCarthyism, also known as the Red Scare,
02:06McCarthyism, named after Senator McCarthy,
02:09was an extreme repression of left-wing ideology in America and its sphere of influence.
02:14Historian Ellen Schrecker claims
02:16Hooverism would be a more fitting name after the FBI's director.
02:19If they put the word commie on someone,
02:21that meant that that person was an agent of the Soviets.
02:25In the early 50s, they embarked upon a communist witch hunt,
02:28which led to many people losing their jobs because of largely false evidence.
02:32They also broke countless laws pursuing them,
02:35such as robberies and wiretaps.
02:37We were using the same methods that Hoover accused the Communist Party of using.
02:43The FBI stole from the National Lawyers Guild 14 times in just four years.
02:48Additionally, they infiltrated numerous governments in and around South America,
02:52initially to monitor Nazi activity,
02:55but they quickly became focused on communism.
02:57Foreign counterintelligence is a top priority of the FBI.
03:01The death of Filiberto Ojeda Rijos.
03:04After being colonized by Spain in 1508,
03:07Puerto Rico passed into American hands in 1898.
03:10As such, Puerto Rican movements for independence have landed in the FBI's crosshairs.
03:14One militant revolutionary, Filiberto Ojeda Rijos,
03:18became an FBI target in 1990 after a heist.
03:21In 2005, they found his home and wandered up in broad daylight.
03:26According to the FBI, Ojeda began to shoot at the agents.
03:29Ojeda's wife and neighbor said the FBI opened fire first.
03:33An official report stated that an FBI agent had set off a flashbang grenade as a diversion,
03:38which could understandably have been interpreted as gunfire.
03:41Ojeda died of a bullet to the lung.
03:43Suppressing internal dissent.
03:45Since 1989, the Whistleblower Protection Act makes it illegal for any federal agency to retaliate against whistleblowers.
03:52However, that doesn't mean that whistleblowers are actually safe in practice.
03:56FBI agent Jane Turner reported the agency's mishandling of child abuse cases
04:01and theft of items from Ground Zero after 9-11.
04:04This got her fired, but thankfully she took it to court and heroically won after a years-long fight.
04:10So when I had to blow the whistle, it was very, very difficult.
04:14In 2008, veteran FBI agent Terry Albury, the only black field agent in the Minneapolis office,
04:21leaked information about racial bias and harassment.
04:24He ended up sentenced to four years in prison, and these are far from isolated cases.
04:30PUERTO RICAN INDEPENDENCE
04:31The FBI has a long history of interfering in Puerto Rican independence movements,
04:36particularly as part of COINTELPRO,
04:38a covert and illegal counterintelligence program that targeted political dissidents in the 1950s and 60s.
04:46Unsurprisingly, Hoover was the driving force behind these efforts.
04:49The CARPETAS program tracked 75,000 Puerto Ricans using FBI surveillance and informants.
04:55Pedro Albizu Campos, leader of the independence movement, had a 4,700-page file.
05:01He was jailed and allegedly subjected to radiation experiments.
05:05This wasn't law enforcement. It was about controlling Puerto Rico and crushing dissent.
05:09FAILING TO PROTECT MALCOLM X
05:12In 1965, civil rights activist Malcolm X was assassinated.
05:16Three members of the religious organization Nation of Islam were convicted of the killing,
05:20but in 2021, two were exonerated.
05:23So what really happened? Some have suspected FBI involvement.
05:26The FBI and the New York City police had Malcolm X under surveillance.
05:31What we do know is that they were surveilling Malcolm X and received a tip from an informant about the assassination.
05:38Meanwhile, the NYPD did a poor job of securing the crime scene.
05:42At the least, the FBI could declassify their related files.
05:46Indeed, the FBI probably had something to do with it.
05:50In 2024, Malcolm X's family filed a $100 million lawsuit against the FBI, CIA, and NYPD, alleging a cover-up.
05:59What was it that the city was trying to protect?
06:03Wounded Knee Operation
06:05In 1973, 200 Oglala Lakota and American Indian movement followers occupied Wounded Knee in South Dakota for 71 days,
06:13protesting the corruption of tribal president Richard Wilson.
06:17The protesters called for a federal investigation of corruption on reservations in South Dakota.
06:22The FBI had already been targeting the American Indian movement through COINTELPRO.
06:27Even so, given that this was also the site of the infamous Wounded Knee massacre in 1890,
06:32you might assume that the government would feel reluctant to exercise a heavy hand.
06:36They were shooting machine gun fire at us, tracers coming at us at nighttime, just like a war zone.
06:43Well, FBI agents and the United States Marshal Service laid siege to the town,
06:48and in the ensuing confrontation, two Native Americans were killed and over a dozen other people wounded.
06:53The White House will not negotiate while guns are pointed at federal officials in Wounded Knee.
06:59Murdering Black Panthers
07:01The Black Panther Party rose to prominence in the 1960s as part of the Black Power movement.
07:06The FBI is now watching the Panthers' every move.
07:09FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover called them, quote,
07:12the greatest threat to internal security of the country.
07:15In 1969, the FBI orchestrated a raid on the Chicago apartment of 21-year-old Fred Hampton,
07:22chairman of the Illinois Black Panthers.
07:31In the early hours of December 4th, Hampton, who had been drugged,
07:35was asleep with his fiancee when a police team entered his home.
07:38His fiancee, who was eight and a half months pregnant,
07:41was dragged out of the room as police shot and killed Hampton.
07:45Police fired over 100 shots, while only one bullet came from the Panthers,
07:50triggered by a death convulsion after Hampton's comrade was gunned down.
07:54Based on film, that all the bullets coming into that apartment came from one direction,
08:01and that was from the police side.
08:03Larry Nassar
08:05Between 1996 and 2014, many members of the U.S. women's national gymnastics team
08:11fell victim to Larry Nassar in the largest sexual abuse scandal in American sports history.
08:16This guy is despicable. This guy is disgusting.
08:20Nassar, the team doctor, exploited his position to assault more than 260 women, many of them gymnasts.
08:27Olympic gold medalist Michaela Maroney reported it to the FBI,
08:31but said the agents ignored her claims and falsified her statements.
08:35Not only did the FBI not report my abuse, but when they eventually documented my report,
08:4217 months later, they made entirely false claims about what I said.
08:47Nassar was convicted in 2017 and sentenced to 60 years in federal prison.
08:52If he survives, he will serve two additional sentences in Michigan, both with a minimum of 40 years.
08:58I just signed your death warrant.
09:01Richard Jewell
09:02In the summer of 1996, Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, Georgia, was the site of a terrorist attack.
09:08A pipe bomb exploded, but security guard Richard Jewell had spotted the suspicious bag early
09:14and helped evacuate the area, saving lives.
09:17Despite his heroism, the FBI, struggling to find a culprit, focused on Jewell as their prime suspect.
09:24Television cameras surrounded Jewell's apartment as federal agents searched for evidence.
09:29Though he was never charged, the media vilified him, destroying his reputation.
09:34Still tailed by FBI agents and unable to get a job, his only source of income is now a telephone hotline.
09:40Two years later, the real bomber Eric Rudolph was caught, but by then the damage was done.
09:45The agents responsible faced little consequences and remained employed by the FBI.
09:50For 88 days, I lived a nightmare.
09:53For 88 days, my mother lived a nightmare too.
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10:14The Waco Massacre
10:16The Branch Davidians were a Christian cult at the Mount Carmel compound near Waco, Texas.
10:21In 1993, the U.S. government launched a siege following a failed ATF raid,
10:26which had been compromised when the Davidians were alerted in advance.
10:29The ATF learned from an undercover agent that Koresh knew they were coming.
10:34They didn't turn back.
10:36The standoff lasted 51 days, culminating in an FBI-led assault with tear gas.
10:41This is not an assault. We are not entering the building.
10:45Shortly after, a fire consumed the compound, killing at least 76 people, including 20-28 children.
10:52The fire's cause remains disputed.
10:55Some believe it resulted from the tear gas' flammability and gunfire,
10:59while the government claims that the Davidians set it themselves.
11:03The FBI denies firing live rounds that day.
11:06The siege deeply influenced extremist Timothy McVeigh,
11:10who carried out the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing in retaliation.
11:14It was an act of cowardice, and it was evil.
11:19Were there any more egregious crimes we forgot to include?
11:22Leave them in the comments.
11:24We know that these FBI agents have committed an obvious crime.
11:44FIND OUT MORE AT ATF.GOV