The country is facing increased threats from many directions at a time when law enforcement agencies are struggling, FBI Director Christopher Wray said in an interview with the Associated Press news agency. Mr. Wray noted that “I have a hard time recalling a similar time in my career with so many different threats rising at the same time.”
FBI Director Christopher Wray spoke to The Associated Press on Wednesday while visiting the FBI's Minneapolis office to talk about partnerships between law enforcement agencies and other entities. His comments come as the FBI faces heightened concerns over terrorism, both domestic and international, as well as espionage from China, intellectual property theft and foreign interference in elections.
“I worry about the combination of the many threats that arise at once, with the challenges facing the men and women who work in law enforcement agencies in general,” Mr. Wray said. “And the only thing that I think helps to overcome these two challenges is partnerships. This can be overcome through a cooperation between all law enforcement agencies.”
Mr Wray's assessment of a growing threat environment is consistent with the alarm he has been sounding for months. Shortly after the October 7 attack by Hamas in Israel, Mr Wray began warning that the conflict could serve as an inspiration for militants, “which we have not seen since ISIS established the so-called caliphate years ago”.
The FBI has also been trying to deal with security concerns about the southern border of the United States, where officials in June discovered eight people from Tajikistan with suspected ties to the Islamic State group who were arrested for violating immigration laws. .
Officials are also dealing with the issue of foreign interference in the elections. The FBI and other federal agencies announced Monday that Iran was responsible for a cyberattack targeting former President Trump's campaign and an attempted hack into Vice President Harris' campaign, part of what officials described as an effort aggressively to interfere in American politics.
Mr. Wray declined to talk about any specific investigation or threat, but said investigations into cyberattacks, including those against election infrastructure, candidates or campaigns, require help from the private sector.
“One of the things we've doubled down on is creating partnerships, because at the end of the day we're dealing with the ability to gather information from different sources on the threat of election influence, or any other type of threat,” Mr. Wray said. “To create a clearer picture of threats, we need to have partners sharing information with each other.”
Law enforcement officers are being killed in the line of duty at a rate of about one every five days, Mr. Wray said, noting that three police officers and a medic were killed in Minnesota alone in 2024. One police officer was killed in Minneapolis. in May while trying to help someone, and two police officers and a paramedic were killed in Burnsville in February when a gunman opened fire.
Such violence “breaks my heart every time,” the FBI director said.
The FBI has not been spared such attacks. Days after agents searched former President Donald Trump's Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, to recover classified documents, a gunman who called on social media for federal agents to be killed “on sight” died in a exchange of fire, after trying to get inside the FBI office in Cincinnati.
Christopher Wray said the FBI has worked to strengthen traditional partnerships with state and local law enforcement agencies and to create partnerships with business and educational institutions to help address threats to cybersecurity or intellectual property. In Minneapolis and other offices, he said, authorities are working with school officials and mental health professionals to help at-risk teens in hopes of preventing future threats.
Working with the tech industry is important to protecting innovation and artificial intelligence from foreign threats, Mr Wray added.
“Artificial intelligence is in many ways the most effective tool against the use of artificial intelligence by bad guys,” he said. “So we must work closely with this industry to ensure that American AI is used to protect the American people from AI-enabled threats coming from the other side.”
