[1] In April 2000, then-New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani described Border Patrol BORTAC agents involved in the seizure of Elian Gonzalez as "storm troopers" at least six times.
Blackwater was amidst criticism of their actions in Iraq and Afghanistan at the time, including the 2004 Fallujah ambush and 2007 Nisour Square massacre.
When the report came out in 2015, Michele Leonhart, DEA's head since 2007, received a bipartisan no-confidence vote from 22 of 43 House Oversight Committee members.
FLEOA's Adler stated Leonhart "has our full and unwavering support", calling out House members for having "temper tantrums" at her committee hearing.
[17] Also in 2015, FLEOA strongly objected to a Bloomberg editorial by author Adam Minter, which noted the costs of the Air Marshal program, which had an estimated 3500 agents, $825 million annual budget, and no data to back its usefulness.
[18][19][20] In 2016, FLEOA endorsed the November 2016 announced nomination of Jeff Sessions as Trump's first Attorney General, highlighting their shared objection to "the mythology of sentencing reform".
[21] That same year, FLEOA denounced the Occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, rebuking White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest, who called it a "local law enforcement matter".
"[22] FLEOA backed the FBI in the FBI–Apple encryption dispute over Apple's refusal to unlock an iPhone used in the 2015 San Bernardino attack, joining other groups in an amicus brief, stating "public safety will suffer.
The phone was later found not contain relevant information, and an investigation highlighted the FBI's poor intra-agency communication on their digital forensic tools.
Vitiello said it was intended as a direct message to Marc Levin, was a joke, and was sorry it caused offense; Kamala Harris echoed Peters' reply, grilling him on why that was a poor comparison.
In response, Harris said Vitiello "owes the American people a clear explanation as to whether such inflammatory and divisive language reflects his beliefs.