(Joshua Paladino, Headline USA) A former FBI leader whose team arrested the Unabomber said FBI Director Christopher Wray‘s decision to increase the “use of force” in the Jan. 6 investigation could lead to civilian and law enforcement casualties, Just the News reported.
“The more you escalate the use of force, the more you take a chance of having possible injuries in some catastrophic failure of agents and civilians alike,” said Terry Turchie, former deputy assistant director of the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division, whose team arrested Theodore Kaczynski without a SWAT unit.
Turchie said in the past the FBI has not used SWAT teams to raid houses of people suspected of misdemeanors and non-violent offenses. Yet, for the Jan. 6 investigation federal law-enforcement agents keep showing up in tactical gear to arrest people for trespassing and obstructing Congress while in session.
The FBI has standards to determine when a SWAT unit should be used, such as when the suspect has a violent history and possesses a firearm, Turchie explained.
Not only does the current practice put citizens and agents in danger, it violates the FBI’s Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide.
Turchie said the FBI sometimes operates without SWAT units even in potentially violent situations “to keep the temperature down,” as he did with Kaczynski.
“This was a very, very violent terrorist, and he was becoming more unstable,” he said. “Even there, we didn’t use the SWAT team for the arrest.”
Former FBI Supervisory Special Agent Jeff Danik said the high-profile SWAT raids against former President Donald Trump and his officials have decreased trust in the agency.
“The No. 1 thing an FBI agent has to be able to do is talk to people, gain their trust and get them to cooperate,” he said. “And that’s true of witnesses, targets, subjects, foreign intelligence officers, even prosecutors. … Any kind of aura, where a person you contact comes in contact with you with some suspicion about you, it definitely hinders your job performance.”
