Federal Bureau of Investigation

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is the principal investigative arm of the U.S. Department of Justice, with jurisdiction over more than 200 categories of federal law. Its stated mission is to protect the American people and uphold the Constitution of the United States. Areas of work it lists publicly include preventing terrorist attacks, countering foreign intelligence and cyber operations, and pursuing public corruption, civil rights violations, criminal enterprises, white-collar offenses and violent crime. The Bureau traces its origin to July 26, 1908, when Attorney General Charles J. Bonaparte appointed a small force of special agents to investigate on behalf of the Justice Department. Today it works from headquarters in Washington, D.C., through 55 field offices in major metropolitan areas, about 350 resident agencies in smaller cities and towns, and more than 60 legal attaché offices abroad. Roughly 38,000 employees, among them special agents, intelligence analysts, language specialists and scientists, carry out that work. Evidence developed in an FBI case goes to a U.S. Attorney or Justice Department official, who decides whether to prosecute.