Government agents interviewing your co-workers and friends, examining your phone data, rummaging through your trash, email history and transaction records — if the Federal Bureau of Investigation deems you a threat to national security, its agents don't need a judge or a warrant to launch an intrusive investigation. Now these powers, abused by the FBI in the past, are in the hands of new bureau chief who has promised to "go after" the perceived enemies of President Donald Trump.
Indeed, FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino's loyalty to Trump — and the technology at the modern FBI's disposal — could make the bureau's surveillance regime even more of a threat to political dissidents and others deemed threats by this administration, experts and former agents told Salon.
