News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:FBI agent pleads guilty to wiping hard-drive containing e... by jvanderbot on Friday August 19, 2022 @11:32AM (#32522265)
I'll sure illegal activities would stop completely, and I'm sure the legitimate caseload the FBI handles would be resolved miraculously.

/s

Re:FBI agent pleads guilty to wiping hard-drive containing e... by mythrwy on Friday August 19, 2022 @11:34AM (#32522294)
Probably not, but "something" needs to be done obviously. Maybe they can be reformed in place, but sometimes burn it down and start over is the right answer.
Re:FBI agent pleads guilty to wiping hard-drive containing e... by superkuh on Friday August 19, 2022 @11:38AM (#32522361)
https://www.wsj.com/articles/two-countries-dismantled-their-...

It would be logistically and all around easier to replace the corrupt FBI and it's culture than these two attempts by entire nations at replacing their corrupt police forces.

It is needed. Not because of anything that's happened the last couple years, but because the FBI has been run and staffed by criminals for decades.

Re:FBI agent pleads guilty to wiping hard-drive containing e... by encryptluks2 on Friday August 19, 2022 @11:49AM (#32522536)
I know why Trump fans want to get rid of the FBI, because then they have a much easier time bribing local officials than a larger bureaucratic organization. I have no doubt that corruption exists within the FBI but if anything we've seen corruption exist much more in smaller groups within law enforcement.
Re:FBI agent pleads guilty to wiping hard-drive containing e... by superkuh on Friday August 19, 2022 @11:56AM (#32522612)
Can we please not bring irrelevant modern "politics" into this? I explicitly set up my comment to avoid this non-issue. I am very much against the person you brought up for no reason. I am also very against the FBI because of what they did during Occupy and against other grassroots movements over the years. Things I have direct personal experience with the FBI being corrupt over.
Re:FBI agent pleads guilty to wiping hard-drive containing e... by Bud on Friday August 19, 2022 @01:05PM (#32523569)
You don't seem to grasp what "relevant" means, or what "non-issue" means. Trump's situation is, obviously, directly relevant, and it's most certainly an issue.
Re:FBI agent pleads guilty to wiping hard-drive containing e... by encryptluks2 on Friday August 19, 2022 @12:05PM (#32522736)
It isn't irrelevant. There are active efforts by right-wing politicians and talking heads to discredit the FBI. I think legitimate discourse is good and am happy to have it, but cherry picking things to simply push an agenda doesn't help.
Re:FBI agent pleads guilty to wiping hard-drive containing e... by superkuh on Friday August 19, 2022 @12:11PM (#32522840)
Honestly? I'll take it in a "broken clock is right twice a day" sort of way. I'm glad there's support for reforming the FBI from idiots as well as reasonable people now. The only downsides are the people that automatically take the opposite position of the idiots even when what the idiots are arguing for is correct (by accident).
Re:FBI agent pleads guilty to wiping hard-drive containing e... by mythrwy on Friday August 19, 2022 @11:54AM (#32522590)
I don't necessarily want it "got rid of" but it does need massive reforming.

This was true from it's earliest days when it was pulling dirty tricks on civil rights and anti war protestors.

Thinking this kind of things is cool when it's used against your political opponents is incredibly short sighted.

Re:FBI agent pleads guilty to wiping hard-drive containing e... by encryptluks2 on Friday August 19, 2022 @12:00PM (#32522661)
Everything needs massive reforming. Laws need massive reforming. The position of President of the US needs massive reforming. Let's not pretend the FBI is unique. I don't think it is cool cause they go after whoever. I'm apolitical for the most part. I'm just pointing out the obvious here. If you go to any popular alt-right channel they'll all be promoting getting rid of the FBI.
Re:FBI agent pleads guilty to wiping hard-drive containing e... by acdha on Friday August 19, 2022 @11:59AM (#32522656)
Nobody is saying it’s cool - only that the timing is suspicious when all of the Trumpists abruptly pivoted to “defund the police” when their guys turned out not to be above the law. Most people who aren’t that partisan want the FBI to be fairer to everyone, not disbanded so they can’t prosecute corrupt Republicans.
Re:FBI agent pleads guilty to wiping hard-drive containing e... by krapp on Friday August 19, 2022 @12:05PM (#32522737)
Trump fans want to get rid of the FBI because they served a warrant against Trump for violations of the Espionage Act and raided Mar-A-Lago.

That's literally it. As long as the Feds were just cracking the heads of black protestors and snatching brown people up out of their beds, Trumpists were hard-core thin blue line. But the Feds dared disturb their oshi and now the same Trumpists have gone full #ACAB

It's basic fascist ideology - loyalty to the leader above all, and belief that the leader is above the system.

Re:FBI agent pleads guilty to wiping hard-drive containing e... by defen on Friday August 19, 2022 @12:38PM (#32523218)
> As long as the Feds were just cracking the heads of black protestors and snatching brown people up out of their beds, Trumpists were hard-core thin blue line.

The FBI are investigators, not traditional police; they aren't generally the ones people are talking about when they say "thin blue line". It wasn't the FBI cracking heads and "snatching brown people out of their beds." The phrase is a reaction to perceptions of widespread civic disorder and violent crime; it really has nothing to do with the FBI at all.

Re:FBI agent pleads guilty to wiping hard-drive containing e... by 2OEH8eoCRo0 on Friday August 19, 2022 @11:40AM (#32522380)
What needs to be done? The FBI agent is facing 20 years in prison over this. The fact you can charge, put on trial, and convict an FBI agent speaks volumes.
Re:FBI agent pleads guilty to wiping hard-drive containing e... by wrycoder on Friday August 19, 2022 @11:44AM (#32522459)
Well, let's see how much time he actually serves. I'm guessing zero.
Re:FBI agent pleads guilty to wiping hard-drive containing e... by 2OEH8eoCRo0 on Friday August 19, 2022 @01:05PM (#32523565)
> I'm guessing zero.

Of course you do. Let's be outraged over them serving zero time before they are even sentenced.

Re:FBI agent pleads guilty to wiping hard-drive containing e... by Bud on Friday August 19, 2022 @01:06PM (#32523576)
Care to put your own money on the line behind that completely unsubstantiated guess?
Re:FBI agent pleads guilty to wiping hard-drive containing e... by throwaway0a5e on Friday August 19, 2022 @11:38AM (#32522354)
It's not 1920 anymore. The bulk of the FBI's case load could be handled by a much smaller agency who's only job is to facilitate and coordinate state law enforcement.

All the "states misbehaving" issues that some people think they need the FBI for are traditionally handled by the US Marshall service.

Re:FBI agent pleads guilty to wiping hard-drive containing e... by jvanderbot on Friday August 19, 2022 @11:40AM (#32522388)
I think you're speaking from an agenda-driven opinion, with very little experience or data.
Re:FBI agent pleads guilty to wiping hard-drive containing e... by soared on Friday August 19, 2022 @11:41AM (#32522408)
Wait which one is it:

* It’s not the 1920s, there aren’t large criminal organizations anymore

* The FBI in 2022 is a large criminal organization

Re:FBI agent pleads guilty to wiping hard-drive containing e... by BizarroLand on Friday August 19, 2022 @11:49AM (#32522539)
Coming up at number 8 on our list:

"The enemy is both strong and weak. “By a continuous shifting of rhetorical focus, the enemies are at the same time too strong and too weak.”"

https://www.openculture.com/2016/11/umberto-eco-makes-a-list...

Re:FBI agent pleads guilty to wiping hard-drive containing e... by goodpoint on Friday August 19, 2022 @12:19PM (#32522948)
"It’s not the 1920s, there aren’t large criminal organizations anymore except the FBI"

Happy now?

Re:FBI agent pleads guilty to wiping hard-drive containing e... by JumpCrisscross on Friday August 19, 2022 @11:42AM (#32522412)
> bulk of the FBI's case load could be handled by a much smaller agency

What smaller agency would take on a corrupt state Senator in Missouri?

Re:FBI agent pleads guilty to wiping hard-drive containing e... by throwaway0a5e on Friday August 19, 2022 @11:48AM (#32522515)
In a functional state the state police does that job.

In a solidly one-party state only the minority party gets prosecuted because the majority party will still win even if they look like corrupt buffoons. <insert Chicago joke here>

Re:FBI agent pleads guilty to wiping hard-drive containing e... by danans on Friday August 19, 2022 @12:27PM (#32523063)
> In a functional state the state police does that job.

If the specific crimes are Federal as it was in this case, then the Federal law enforcement agency must get involved.

Otherwise your argument reduces to "there should be no Federal laws against wire fraud, honest services fraud, and money laundering"

Re:FBI agent pleads guilty to wiping hard-drive containing e... by throwaway0a5e on Friday August 19, 2022 @01:39PM (#32523953)
States enforce federal statutes all the time. They just frequently turn the prosecution over to the feds. There's no reason you local DA can't do that.
Re:FBI agent pleads guilty to wiping hard-drive containing e... by danans on Friday August 19, 2022 @02:15PM (#32524371)
> States enforce federal statutes all the time.

Only when the state statute coincidentally matches the federal statute, for crimes like bank robbery that are defined at the state and federal level.

If the state doesn't have a law against the crime (i.e. South Carolina has no laws regarding hate crimes [1], but the federal government does [2]), then federal prosecutors are responsible for prosecuting those. One can't escape prosecution for a federal crime because there is no state law against it. Prosecuting federal crimes at a local level is exactly why the regional US attorneys offices exist.

In the case in from the article, the crimes committed by the state Senator (wire fraud, money laundering, etc) are federal by definition, so a local DA isn't going to prosecute them anyways.

1. https://apnews.com/article/ahmaud-arbery-columbia-south-caro...

2. https://www.justice.gov/crt/hate-crime-laws

Re:FBI agent pleads guilty to wiping hard-drive containing e... by anticensor on Saturday August 20, 2022 @12:28AM (#32529082)
FBI is for federal law enforcement. Should federal law enforcement really left to state agencies?