Bad Guys: How the FBI Created the Enemy Within

In his new book Bad Guys: How the FBI Created the Enemy Within, Investigative Journalist and 2020 ASU Future Security Fellow at New America Trevor Aaronson explores how the FBI built the most powerful—and least accountable—domestic intelligence operation in American history to hunt enemies of the state. The post-9/11 era of surveillance and entrapment bred distrust, and that distrust fueled conspiracies that left the Bureau vulnerable to authoritarian forces. Moving between stories that spiral closer together, Aaronson follows a convert whose search for belonging ends on the battlefield in Syria; an informant paid to set up his friend, then left to live with the consequences; agents who once believed in the FBI’s mission now watching it curdle; and Kash Patel, the outsider who captured the Bureau by pushing conspiracy theories. Eventually, Aaronson lands on the list too, becoming one more enemy in the story he’s trying to expose. Bad Guys is a deeply reported, propulsive exploration of how Americans have drifted toward extremism and how federal agents tasked with stopping political violence can manufacture the very threats they’re hunting.

Join New America’s Future Security Program as they welcome Trevor Aaronson for a discussion of his new book Bad Guys: How the FBI Created the Enemy Within. Aaronson is a Peabody Award-winning investigative journalist and was previously a 2020 ASU Future Security Fellow at New America. He covers the FBI, extremism, and national security, and is, in addition to his latest book, the author of The Terror Factory and creator of the documentary podcast series “Alphabet Boys” and the Audible Original series “American ISIS,” “Into the Madness,” and “Pulse: The Untold Story.”

Join the conversation online using #BadGuys and following @NewAmericaISP.