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.”
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