US Shutdown Makes FBI Investigations Stagnate

Capitol Washington DC Building / ILLUSTRATION UNSPLASH / Justin Taylor

JAKARTA - The closure of the US government has had a negative impact on the FBI's investigations that are now slowing down or even stopping.

This leaves the bureau underfunded to pay informants or make purchases of drugs or weapons in secret. This condition, according to an FBI spokesman, jeopardizes national security.

The FBI did not provide detailed public information about how the budget was spent for $10.7 billion and it is unclear how much of the total budget was withheld due to the shutdown, according to five current FBI employees and three former FBI employees.

The government's shutdown, which is now entering its 30th day, has frozen the FBI funds used for operational travel, for example when an informant needs to travel to meet drug suppliers, bosses, or other investigative subjects, the source said.

FBI employees also do not have funds to travel outside their home areas.

"In the government's closure, the FBI's eyes and ears went dark," said FBI agent retired Tom Simon, who handled cases of counterterrorism and crime, and had served in the recruitment and payment team of informants.

"Without funds to pay informants, the Bureau lost its most important real-time intelligence source," said Simon, who retired in 2021 after 26 years at the FBI and is now working as a private detective in Florida.

Responding to Reuters' question about the impact of the government's closure of the investigation, the FBI acknowledged its operations had been affected.

"President Trump has repeatedly called for the federal government to reopen and the FBI fully agrees with the position," an FBI spokesman told Reuters.

"As previously stated by the Director (Kash) Patel, this closure puts the FBI in a very difficult position to re-allocate already limited resources in various crucial law enforcement efforts, there is no doubt that those who choose to politics with government funds endanger national security," he continued.

The government's closure has laid off hundreds of thousands of workers, disrupted the collection and distribution of economic data, and threatened to stop food and education aid programs.

President Donald Trump's administration has been trying to find ways to keep paying a number of law enforcement agents and active military members, but FBI employees say the bureau's operations are still not fully funded.