by Jerry Dunleavy and Steven Richards
"Assessments" were created in 2008 as a special investigative tool for the FBI that require no factual predicate to launch and permit agents to use a wide range of investigative techniques.
The FBI opened 1,200 probes related to politicians, journalists, religious leaders, academics and others tied to “sensitive investigative matters,” using a special investigative tool that requires no factual predicate to launch, according to a Government Accountability Office report.
The GAO report, which was obtained by Just the News, was published last month but not made public, and it was titled FBI Investigative Activities: Oversight Efforts of Opening and Conducting Assessments Should be Strengthened.
The report, which assists in congressional oversight of the executive branch, provided details on the roughly 127,000 FBI "assessments" in all opened from 2018 to 2024, the vast majority of which were eventually closed without accusations of wrongdoing or criminal charges against those targets being scrutinized.
The 57-page report did not include any names of those targeted for assessment.
Among the total assessments, 1,200 were related to "sensitive investigative matters" that target public officials, news organizations, houses of worship or members of academia, which the bureau views as more sensitive in nature.
So-called "assessments" were established by Justice Department guidelines in 2008, providing the FBI with an investigative tool short of opening a full-fledged investigation requiring a factual predicate.
The probes are used by the bureau to "address a potential threat to national security or potential violation of federal criminal law," the congressional watchdog said. They allow FBI agents to open probes on authorized matters but without a factual basis and allow them to employ investigative such techniques as physical surveillance on subjects.
If sufficient basis is found, assessments can turn into preliminary investigations, full investigations or enterprise investigations. But most assessments are closed without meeting the standards for a full inquiry by the bureau, the GAO said.
The revelations were detailed in the GAO's January 2026 report, which was designated "For Official Use Only" because of the sensitive information it contains. GAO noted that the report should be "safeguarded when not being used and destroyed when no longer needed."
Copies were sent only to the appropriate congressional committees, the U.S. attorney general and the FBI director on a need-to-know basis. The report was first reported on by Racket News and is being made public by Just the News.
You can read the report below:
Politicians, journalists, religious leaders and academics scrutinized
Though over 100,000 special probes were produced during the timeframe of GAO's review, a special subset of assessments was designated as dealing with "Sensitive Investigative Matters" – or SIMs – which involve special categories of targets that could present additional challenges. These special assessments made up roughly 1,200 of the total number of assessments conducted from 2018 to 2024.
The categories include “domestic public officials or domestic political candidates (involving corruption or a threat to national security), religious or domestic political organizations or an individual prominent in such organizations, the news media, an investigative matter with an academic nexus, or any other matter which, in the judgment of the official authorizing the assessment, should be brought to the attention of FBI headquarters and other DOJ officials.”
Assessments designated as a SIM have additional review and approval requirements before they can be opened or continued, the GAO said.
Over 500 SIM assessments in that roughly seven-year period were aimed at “public officials,” over 150 targeted religious organizations or prominent members thereof, over 100 targeted political organizations or members thereof, and over 50 targeted news media organizations or journalists, the data compiled by the GAO shows.
The watchdog review focused on two main categories of FBI assessments, titled “Type I/II” assessments and “Type III” assessments. Type I/II assessments typically “seek information, proactively or in response to investigative leads, relating to activities – or the involvement or role of individuals, groups or organizations relating to those activities – constituting violations of federal criminal law or threats to the national security.”
The duration of those types of assessments is allegedly expected to be “relatively short.”
The special Type I/II probes targeting potentially politically and constitutionally sensitive targets were also unique. The watchdog found that assessments targeting these categories of individuals or groups were converted into actual, predicated investigation at a higher rate than the average assessment. About half, 48%, were converted to an investigation.
The congressional watchdog said that Type III assessments generally “identify, obtain, and utilize information about actual or potential national security threats or federal criminal activities, or the vulnerability to such threats or activities.” This assessment type is allowed to last “as long as necessary to achieve its authorized purpose and clearly defined objective(s).”
Type III assessments were unique in a different way. For these, the FBI only converted 4% of the roughly 100 Type III SIM assessments into full investigations.
Each type of probe could last on average 60 to 180 days, the files show.
Yet the vast majority of the roughly 127,000 assessments did not lead to a follow-on investigation by the bureau, the GAO said, noting that “of the approximate 124,000 Type I/II and 3,000 Type III assessments the FBI opened and subsequently closed, the agency closed roughly 86 percent of Type I/II and 94 percent of Type III assessments without referring them for further investigations.”
FBI officials told the GAO that “many investigative leads that prompt assessments are determined to not be credible, resulting in staff often closing assessments without opening a subsequent investigation.”
GAO assessment triggered by bipartisan concern about FBI trampling on rights
In March 2022, then-Chairman of the House Oversight Committee Jamie Raskin, D-Md., along with Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., requested GAO review the FBI’s “practice of surveilling subjects” through “assessments” – raising concerns such probes were not predicated on facts or evidence as in a traditional investigation and alleging the program resulted in improper monitoring of "protected First Amendment" activities.
“We are concerned that FBI assessments operate as de facto investigations that can be launched without a factual predicate of criminal wrongdoing,” Raskin and Mace wrote in the letter, which triggered the review. “We ask that GAO examine whether assessments result in the improper monitoring of protected First Amendment activity—including by political, racial, or religious organizations—and whether the FBI has sufficient controls in place to ensure that they do not run afoul of constitutional protections.”
You can read the congressional letter below:
They pointed specifically to the Guidelines for Domestic FBI Operations, which were revised by the Justice Department in 2008 to include the new category of assessments. According to those guidelines, such assessments “require an authorized purpose but not any particular factual predication.”
The guidelines provide that the FBI can employ “intrusive investigative techniques,” including the use of informants and physical surveillance on targets not accused of criminal activity or who are not national security threats, the House members wrote. Between 2008 and 2011, the FBI had opened 82,235 with fewer than 4,000 yielding any information to form a basis to open an official investigation, Raskin and Mace wrote in the letter.
Those revised guidelines stem from the Justice Department’s motivation to “[prevent] crimes from occurring in the first place.” This is “preferable to allowing criminal plots and activities to come to fruition,” the guidelines read.
The guidelines provided expansive potential justifications for an assessment against an individual or group. They “may be undertaken proactively with such objectives as detecting criminal activities” or gathering information on “individuals, groups, or organizations of possible investigative interest either because they may be involved in criminal or national security-threatening activities or because they may be targeted for attack or victimization by such activities.”
Assessments could also be used to assess whether individuals would be valuable to the bureau as human sources, the guidelines show.
'Self-reporting' shortcomings and other compliance problems with FBI assessments
The GAO found that not only had the bureau opened a significant number of assessments on sensitive individuals such as journalists and elected officials that never became predicated investigation, but that there were issues with the FBI's compliance with the assessment policy's guidelines.
“The FBI relies on staff to self-report noncompliance with assessment policy requirements” and that “the FBI noted that self-reporting likely undercounts actual noncompliance, but has not assessed if other tools could identify it," the GAO reported to Congress.
The watchdog said that “each FBI field office receives a National Security Review” roughly every four years, during which the Justice Department audits “a sample of national security assessments and recommends corrective actions as necessary.”
GAO said there were reviews of 988 Type I/II assessments and “information only” incidents which found that approximately 5 percent of those “included instances of insufficient authorized purposes” while roughly 7% of them “included instances of unauthorized investigative methods.”
The watchdog said that “these types of findings occurred at multiple field offices.”
The GAO said that during a review period from 2021 to 2024, 24 of the 56 FBI field offices – or 43% — “had at least one instance of using unauthorized investigative methods for an information only incident.”
One review even identified the FBI opened two assessments that lacked an authorized purpose and, in both instances, conducted investigative activities based solely on the exercise of First Amendment-protected activities," seeming to confirm the fears of Congress that the assessment authority had been used to infringe on constitutionally protected rights.
The watchdog stressed that, despite unearthing wrongdoing, “the FBI does not summarize findings or recommendations from these reports or share such information with other field offices.”
In response to inquiries by the watchdog group, the FBI stated in March 2025 that “it planned to launch a new process to address recommendations from the National Security Reviews.”
The congressional watchdog confirmed that the FBI “began a new process to address recommendations from National Security Reviews” in June 2025 “but has not identified who permanently will be responsible for the process to ensure recommendations are addressed.”
Jerry Dunleavy and Steven Richards
Source: https://justthenews.com/government/federal-agencies/fbi-opened-1200-assessments-politicians-journalists-religious-leaders
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