What exactly is the FBI's jurisdiction?

Factual Questions
1

So, I know the FBI does a lot in racketeering and kiddy porn and counter-terrorism and such, which I assume are generally federal crimes because they cross state lines, right? (Or am I completely off-base even at the beginning?) And I know they partner with local law enforcement to catch serial killers and other particularly rare and spectacular criminals because they have all the sweet labs and have done all that work on psychological crimes - but that in those cases the locals actually “catch” the bad guys. Is that also correct? Is my assumption that the FBI is mostly limited to crimes that are actual federal crimes completely off-base?

I’ve been out sick for three days with an awful sinus infection, ear infections, etc. It is teh suxx0rs. (I’m finally back at work, where the re-roofing is not helping anything.) So I fired up the media PC my boyfriend built and started getting into Bones, which has got to be the most frustrating show in the world because they obviously KNOW what they’re doing wrong because they talk about it, and then they go and deliberately do it anyway.

Example:
FBI agent: “I might not be able to get you for murder, but I can get you for statutory rape.”
Suspect’s lawyer: “Well, YOU can’t, because statutory rape isn’t a federal crime.”

HeLLO? Neither is the murder! I know there’s such a thing as federal murder charges (I remember Timothy McVeigh would have been tried on them had Oklahoma not fried his ass, right?) but this was just a regular-crime kind of murder.

So what can an FBI agent acting as an FBI agent (as opposed to helping out with local law enforcement) arrest you for? Does the FBI even actually arrest mobsters who are up on RICO charges, or do local law enforcement officers do the honors? If the FBI does arrest you, I assume you’re held in federal prison? Am I just completely ignorant of what the FBI is and does? (Wikipedia wasn’t really very helpful on this, specifically.)

Also, I see that on Wikipedia the FBI is cited as working heavily on cybercrime. To what extent is the Secret Service involved in that? I know they do a lot with counterfeiting and used to be the guys who came and got all the hackers, right? Have they given that over to the FBI, or do they cooperate on that, or what?

In other words, to make a long medication-fueled question short - does the FBI just handle federal crimes, or do they come and horn in on completely not-federal crimes also? And to what extent? Do they just consult and cooperate, or can David Boreanaz cuff you and lock you up for killing your wife?

2

Most laws are state laws including most murder charges so the FBI has no jurisdiction for those unless they get creative. One common thing I can think of that they handle is kidnapping across state lines. They have power over that. Most other things they do are similar. They handle crimes that cross state lines and can’t be prosecuted easily in one state. They certainly aren’t the “boss” of the state police. The structure doesn’t work like that.

3

Right. The interstate commerce clause in the Constitution has been interpreted at giving Congress fairly broad power to legislate on matters that only vaguely affect interstate commerce. So anything bad you do that crosses state lines, uses the mail, uses interstate telecommunication systems, etc. may be a federal crime if Congress has gotten around to writing a statute on the subject.

The FBI’s jurisdiction is investigation of federal crimes, but as you note they often assist state police forces with investigations, and coordinate investigations for multi-state crime sprees. If the FBI were helping to catch a serial killer, the person would probably be taken into custody by the local police, with the FBI providing investigative help, forensic tools, and varying degrees of leadership and coordination. This type of cooperation is a voluntary arrangement between the local or state PD requesting help, and the FBI. (And contrary to the movies and TV, most of the time they work quite well with one another. The popular scene of the FBI agent barging into the police station and announcing “I’m taking over this case!” doesn’t really happen.)

I’ve never watched Bones, but yeah, that scene sounds extremely stoopid. “Regular” murder is not a federal crime, but it can be if you murder a federal employee, a federal law enforcement official, a federal judge or political appointee, the President or VP, commit a murder on federal lands or in a federal building, or within the military justice system. (But the military has its own investigative apparatus that would deal with it.)

Your recollection of the McVeigh case is actually backward. Timothy McVeigh was convicted on federal charges of murdering eight federal government employees who happened to be in the building. He was not charged in federal court with the other several dozen murders, but the State of Oklahoma could have done so had he not been executed. His accomplice, Terry Nichols, was convicted of 161 counts of murder in Oklahoma after his federal trial ended.

The RICO Act is a federal law, so the FBI would indeed arrest you for that. Keep in mind that a mobster may be arrested by local cops on more mundane charges, who then discover a RICO-worthy conspiracy while investigating. In that case, they can just turn the case over to the US Attorney for federal prosecution, and the FBI may or may not be involved at all.

If you’re convicted of a federal crime, you’ll definitely go to a federal prison, but if you’ve just been arrested and are awaiting arraignment or trial, you may be held at more convenient local facility. It depends.

The Secret Service having jurisdiction over counterfeiting (and certain cybercrime and financial crimes by extension) is a result of their origins in the Treasury Department. They still do conduct a great deal of investigations in their narrowly focused areas, and if they need the FBI’s help (a large case or one that also involves other crimes) they will work together. There are lots of other federal law enforcement agencies that have specific areas of interest, like the DEA, Customs Service, Park Police, Postal Inspectors, etc. They’ll all form task forces when necessary for big cases.

Yes.

4

My sister was an FBI agent and she doesn’t say much but she did tell me she almost never works alone on a case, most often there is some connection on some level to a local law office.

She said in a case like the above they’d simply do everything short of arrest and allow local agencies to make the arrest and use the data the FBI collects.

5

… oh. different kind of jurisdiction. I was kind of wondering the same sort of question on account of I saw Traitor this weekend, and one of several distracting thoughts was “… the hell is the FBI doing in Yemen?”

6

I haven’t seen the movie, but that does bring my mind to another question; who investigates stuff like the embassy bombings in Africa? Is it overly simplistic to think that the FBI does stuff inside our borders and the CIA operates outside of them? (And the NSA just listens to me talk on the phone all day?)

7

In the case of the African embassy bombings, it was indeed the FBI investigating, because they have jurisdiction within US embassy property. As for catching the bad guys, that was up to local law enforcement, who may or may not have been closely cooperating with the FBI agents on the scene.

The CIA is not a law enforcement agency; they don’t have experience in criminal investigation or forensics. Their job is intelligence, e.g. spying. This was one of the primary objections the FBI had when the Bush Administration set up the black prison program for holding terrorist suspects overseas. They helpfully pointed out that CIA people have no experience in conducting interrogations, but this fell on deaf ears.

Federal law also strictly limits the CIA’s operations within the country, but every decade or so a scandal erupts on that topic.

Counter-intelligence (catching foreign spies inside the US) is the job of the FBI. Because any foreign spies have to be tried in open court and convicted in order to send them to prison, the FBI has to build a proper criminal case, which means no underhanded tricks like the CIA would use to gather intelligence. One famous case was the spy Robert Hanssen (recently dramatized in the pretty-good film Breach). The CIA knew (from their Soviet moles) that he was a spy, and secretly gave that information to the FBI. But the FBI had to conduct a proper criminal investigation to catch and convict him. Adding to the complications was the fact that Hanssen himself was a high-ranking FBI counterintelligence official.

8

Ever try the horse’s mouth for more info? —> http://www.fbi.gov/

9

I am embarrassed to admit that it didn’t even occur to me. Went right to Wikipedia. :slight_smile:

I mean, I was home sick, so I wasn’t actively a librarian at the time.

10

From there:

National Security Priorities Criminal Priorities

  1. Counterterrorism
    • International Terrorism
    • Domestic Terrorism
    • Weapons of Mass Destruction

  2. Counterintelligence
    • Counterespionage
    • Counterproliferation
    • Economic Espionage

  3. Cyber Crime
    • Computer Intrusions
    • Online Predators
    • Piracy/Intellectual Property Theft
    • Internet Fraud

  4. Public Corruption
    • Government Fraud
    • Election Fraud
    • Foreign Corrupt Practices

  5. Civil Rights
    • Hate Crime
    • Human Trafficking
    • Color of Law
    • Freedom of Access to Clinics

  6. Organized Crime
    • Italian Mafia/LCN
    • Eurasian
    • Balkan
    • Middle Eastern
    • Asian
    • African
    • Sports Bribery

  7. White-Collar Crime
    • Antitrust
    • Bankruptcy Fraud
    • Corporate/Securities Fraud
    • Health Care Fraud
    • Identity Theft
    • Insurance Fraud
    • Money Laundering
    • Mortgage Fraud
    • Telemarketing Fraud
    • More White-Collar Frauds

  8. Major Thefts/Violent Crime
    • Art Theft
    • Cargo Theft
    • Crimes Against Children
    • Cruise Ship Crime
    • Indian Country Crime
    • Jewelry and Gems Theft
    • Retail Theft
    • Vehicle Theft
    • Violent Gangs

11

All of which tells you what the Wikipedia page tells you, which is nothing on this particular question - I mean, what does “violent crimes” mean?

On the other hand, the FAQ on the FBI site (at the top right) is quite comprehensive and worth reading.

12

Jurisdiction is probably the wrong concept to apply here. There are a few statutes that talk about what the FBI can investigate:

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode28/usc_sup_01_28_10_II_20_33.html

A different statute outlines the power of an FBI agent to arrest someone:

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/ts_search.pl?title=18&sec=3052

IIRC we had a thread a while back about whether a federal agent could stop a vehicle that violated a traffic law. I’ll hunt for it in a while.

But you’re talking about charging someone with a crime. That’s done by the United States Attorney in the federal system. But even if the federal government lacks jurisdiction to prosecute for murder, they can turn the guy over to state authorities for prosecution.

13

I’ll ask in CS if there aren’t any good suggestions here, but are there any good, realistic fictional (or even non-fictional, but it better be interesting) portrayals of FBI agents doing their agenty things? Are any of the great serial killer novels accurate? I’ve read Mindhunter, which was interesting and would have been a lot more interesting if whatshisname’s ego could have stepped out of frame for a minute. Anything like that but better written and less obnoxious?

14

Bones is set in Washington, DC. All crimes commited in the District of Columbia are technically federal crimes and are prosecuted by the local United States Attorney. However the FBI doesn’t deal with street crime in DC; that’s a matter for the DC Metropolitan Police (not to mention that Booth & Bones are often called in for bodies found in Virginia and Maryland).

15

Seriously? Like, if I pee on a fire hydrant on Pennsylvania Avenue I’m federally peeing on a fire hydrant? I had no idea. Does that have any real effect, like how that one year we had our high school prom at the Officer’s Club on base (I was a freshman and wasn’t asked) and they kept making announcements over the PA at school that underage drinking at Fort Jackson was a federal crime and it would fuck your life up but good? Or is it just one of those technicalities that nobody cares about?

16

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?navby=search&friend=public&court=US&case=/us/346/100.html

17

Beyond their arrest powers for federal crimes, many states grant federal agents arrest powers for state offenses. For example according to the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure:

18

A good point.

19

I thought embassy security was the responsibility of the DSS or whatever it is called today.

Rob