Reading Room Document

FBI Investigative Jurisdiction Over Threats or Acts Against Federal Officers Not Covered by 18 U.S.C. §§ 111 and 114

The document is a memorandum opinion for the Attorney General regarding the investigative jurisdiction of the FBI over threats or acts against Federal officers not covered by specific statutes. The conclusions reached in the document are that conspiring to impede or injure a Federal officer is encompassed by the FBI's investigative jurisdiction, and the term "officer" in the relevant statute includes both permanent and temporary, full- and part-time officers and employees of the United States. The questions presented for review include whether 18 U.S.C. § 372 can be considered as an independent source of the FBI's investigative jurisdiction, who is to be deemed to come within the statutory language "officer of the United States" in § 372, and whether authority exists to investigate individual acts not committed pursuant to a conspiracy of the sort made criminal by this provision.

December 14, 1977