The agency that’s been a frequent target of barbs from President Trump and his allies won a much-needed victory last week with the quick apprehension of a man accused of sending packaged bombs to prominent Democrats.
The FBI arrested Cesar Sayoc Jr. just days after the explosive devices were first discovered, leading the head of the bureau to publicly credit his lab department for swiftly making the connection.
{mosads}The arrest is a win for a beleaguered agency that’s been mired in controversy the last several years and increasingly seen through a partisan lens because of its politically tinged investigations, first of Hillary Clinton and then of Trump, who has relentlessly criticized it.
The polarization over the FBI has led to concerns about whether it had suffered irreparable damage to its decades-old prestige as the nation’s premier law enforcement agency.
But fast action amid the bomb scare has given the FBI a reprieve after almost two years of intense scrutiny from the president and his strident supporters.
Trump lauded their quick efforts, a stark change of tune for a president who has repeatedly gone after the agency.
“I want to applaud the FBI, Secret Service, Department of Justice, the U.S. Attorneys’ Office for the Southern District of New York, the NYPD, and all Law Enforcement partners across the Country for their incredible work, skill and determination!” Trump tweeted on Friday after authorities took Sayoc into custody.
FBI Director Christopher Wray publicly praised the agency’s forensics team for promptly detecting a fingerprint left on a package addressed to Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), one of the targets of the attempted bomb attacks.
“I want to focus for a moment on the amazing work of our folks at the FBI lab,” Wray said during a Friday press conference, while emphasizing that these were “not hoax devices.”
“This is phenomenal work with the greatest pressure under an incredibly tight time frame,” he added. “We are so proud of our team at the lab for their work in keeping people safe and helping us to find the individual responsible.”
While Trump has promoted himself as a law enforcement president, he has repeatedly accused the FBI of having a political bias against him, pointing to decisions made by top bureau and Department of Justice (DOJ) officials that he says were concerted efforts to prevent him from reaching the Oval Office.
Earlier this year, a DOJ watchdog issued a scathing rebuke of those decisions made by officials such as former FBI Director James Comey and his then-deputy, Andrew McCabe. But the inspector general’s office said it found no evidence of political bias against Trump.
That criticism, from both Trump and the inspector general, sparked fears that the agency dedicated to investigating some of the biggest threats facing the U.S. might be weakened if it continues to get swept up in partisan politics.
Sayoc’s arrest, without any injuries or loss of life, offered a pause in that criticism.
GOP lawmakers who have blasted the FBI praised the bureau and law enforcement officials last week for successfully apprehending the suspect.
Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), a key member in the GOP-led investigation into FBI and DOJ conduct during the 2016 presidential election, gave credit to authorities for their timely accomplishments.
“Very grateful for our law enforcement professionals who quickly tracked down the perpetrator of this week’s heinous actions,” Meadows, a conservative House member, tweeted on Friday.
Sayoc, a registered Republican from Florida, sent a wave of terror across the country last week when at least a dozen explosive devices were intercepted before reaching their intended political targets. Packages were sent to former President Obama, former Vice President Joe Biden, former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and lawmakers such as Sens. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.), as well as CNN.
While none of the devices detonated, some observers called it one of the biggest mass assassination attempts in U.S. history.
But despite the absence of death or injury, national security experts say the president’s goodwill heaped on the FBI for a job well done will likely be short-lived.
“I don’t think there is any evidence based on past experience to indicate that the president will withdraw from his political criticism of the FBI,” Mark Zaid, a national security lawyer, told The Hill. “This is just a temporary lull in the storm.”
Ron Hosko, a former assistant director of the FBI, said he doesn’t expect this mood to last very long.
“These calls for civility are usually accompanied by finger-pointing at the other side,” said Ron Hosko, former assistant director of the FBI who’s now head of the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund. “I think what we tend to hear is what is loudest. In the last months, what is loudest is almost always the president. The president has been quite loud and quite critical [of the FBI].”
Experts said Sayoc’s arrest underscores the day-to-day work the FBI does, most of which the public never learns about because of the agency’s quiet nature. And this, they note, is the modus operandi that Wray promised when he became head of the FBI — excellent work done quietly behind the scenes.
“The bottom line is there is nothing unique or special about this case, how the FBI conducted this investigation,” Zaid said, adding that it’s the kind of outcome the public expects from the FBI.
Hosko, however, expressed hope that the quick resolution may change the perception of the FBI in the eyes of the public and among some of the agency’s critics.
“I think at least for the short term it may change the discussion a little bit,” he said. “It may soften people’s positions.”