Michael Feinberg: ‘It Requires an Immense Amount of Situational Judgment and Emotional Maturity’ for FBI Agents

RUSH EXCERPT:

FEINBERG: "Yeah. So the most basic level is you don’t want hypocrites enforcing the law. You don’t want people who think they are holier than thou and can get away with things that they’re going to arrest others for. The second reason in a lot of cases is they don’t want you to have vulnerabilities that could render you susceptible to blackmail in the future by hostile foreign powers or other criminal organizations. And the last one, particularly of note in the FBI and intelligence community, because their checks go so much farther back than other agencies, is you’re empowered to take away somebody’s liberty or in extreme circumstances, somebody’s life. You need to demonstrate that you’ve had good judgment, not just for the past three years, but for your entire adulthood and even before. There is an immense amount of power given to FBI agents. And that comes with an immense amount of responsibility. And so it requires an immense amount of situational judgment and emotional maturity.”