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FBI
Executives
Brief Congressional Committees on Current FBI Priorities
This morning, Director James Comey met with members of the U.S. Senate
Judiciary Committee to discuss the FBI’s programs and priorities for
the coming year. He referenced the recent shootings in San Bernardino
and the attacks in Paris to demonstrate the diverse threats posed to
national security, the economy, and our communities and to underscore
the complexity and breadth of the FBI’s mission. In his statement,
Comey updated committee members on a variety of Bureau priorities,
starting with terrorism—its top investigative priority—and “Going
Dark,” the challenge faced by law enforcement when dealing with
terrorists and criminals who use encrypted technology.
He also discussed the latest counterintelligence threats, including the
growing scope of the insider threat; the proliferation of cyber-based
or cyber-facilitated activity across nearly every national security and
criminal area that falls under FBI jurisdiction; and the most egregious
criminal threats that the FBI investigates, including public
corruption, civil rights abuses, health care fraud, violent crime,
transnational organized crime, and crimes against children.
This afternoon, Criminal Investigative Division Assistant Director
Joseph Campbell testified before the U.S. House of Representatives
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform about online gambling and
the potential criminal activity that could accompany it. Campbell said
that the FBI and the Department of Justice take the issue of illegal
gambling—which includes online gambling—very seriously and have
carefully used their limited resources to focus their investigations
and prosecutions of Internet gambling on those groups engaged in the
most egregious criminal conduct.
Often times, this includes criminal conduct tied to organized crime
groups like La Cosa Nostra, activity that is part of a larger criminal
scheme, and/or activity that includes locating at least part of the
gambling operation within the U.S. According to Campbell, online
casinos—just like physical casinos—are potentially susceptible to
criminal schemes and money laundering because of the possibility of
criminals concealing their identity, location, and actual gambling
activity.
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