The United States faces growing threats from multiple directions at a time when law enforcement agencies are overwhelmed, FBI Director Christopher Wray said in an exclusive interview, adding that he has never in his career faced so many different threats escalating at once.
Wray spoke Wednesday with The Associated Press while visiting his Minneapolis field office to talk about partnerships between law enforcement agencies and with other entities. His remarks come as the FBI faces growing concerns about terrorism, both domestic and international, as well as Chinese espionage and intellectual property theft and foreign interference in elections.
“I worry that the combination of many of these threats is going to escalate at once,” Wray said in his office on the outskirts of Brooklyn Center. “And one thing that I think can help bridge those challenges is partnerships. That’s how we get through it. It’s by working together.”
Wray’s assessment of the growing threat landscape is consistent with warnings he has been making for months. Soon after Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel, Wray began warning that the rampage could inspire militants “the likes of which we haven’t seen since ISIS launched its caliphate a few years ago.”
The FBI is also working hard to address security concerns related to the United States' southern border, with officials revealing in June that eight people from Tajikistan with alleged ties to the Islamic State group had been arrested and detained for immigration violations.
Officials also face concerns about foreign interference in the election. The FBI and other federal agencies announced Monday that Iran was responsible for hacking the Trump campaign and the attempted breach of the Biden-Harris campaign. U.S. officials have described the meddling in American politics as brazen and aggressive.
Wray declined to speak about any specific investigations or threats, but said investigations into cyberattacks, including against election infrastructure, candidates or campaigns, require help from the private sector.
“One of the things that we’re getting better at every day is partnerships, because ultimately you’re talking about the ability to connect the dots, whether it’s a threat to influence an election or any other type of threat,” Wray said. “You need to have partners sharing information with each other to put those dots together to see the bigger picture.”
Law enforcement officers are being killed in the line of duty at a rate of about one every five days, Wray said, noting that four first responders have died in Minnesota alone in 2024. They include a Minneapolis police officer who was killed in May while trying to help someone, and two officers and a paramedic who were killed in Burnsville in February when a heavily armed man opened fire.
Such violence “breaks my heart every time,” the FBI director said.
The FBI has not been immune to such attacks: Days after agents searched Donald Trump’s Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, for classified documents, a gunman who called on social media for federal agents to be killed “on sight” was killed in a shootout after trying to break into an FBI office in Cincinnati.
Wray said the FBI has worked to strengthen traditional partnerships with state and local law enforcement, while also creating other partnerships with businesses and academia to help combat threats to cybersecurity or intellectual property. In Minneapolis and other offices, he said, authorities are working with school resource officers and mental health professionals to help at-risk youth in hopes of preventing future threats. (ab/lt)
