The local headquarters of the Federal Bureau of Investigation sits at the intersection of a railroad crossing and busy Everett Avenue in Chelsea.
And in the view of many observers in Massachusetts, the agency also sits at a figurative crossroad: carrying out its stated mission to “protect the American people and uphold the Constitution” or to punish President Donald J. Trump’s perceived enemies.
Several attorneys and advocates tell GBH News they are concerned about reports that agents from the Boston officehave harassed climate change activists, pro-Palestinian protesters and assisted other federal agents in carrying out low-level deportation operations.
At the same time, the local office has lacked an official in-person leader. Jodi Cohen, the Boston office’s special agent in charge, is now based in Washington, D.C. Boston FBI spokeswoman Kristen M. Setera said last week that Cohen “has been promoted to an executive leadership position at FBI HQ.” Kimberly Milka has been listed in several FBI media posts and federal press releases as “acting special agent in charge” of the office that oversees agents in Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire and Rhode Island.
Neither Cohen or Milka could be reached for comment.
Jeff Feuer, a Cambridge-based attorney, represents several environmental activists who say they were questioned by the FBI this spring. He said the agency’s actions were meant to prompt fear among people speaking out in ways that have not been seen in decades.
“This is another level of escalation, of an attempt to intimidate and harass people the Trump administration does not agree with who are engaged in peaceful, nonviolent, First Amendment-protected protest,” said Feuer, who is chair of the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild Mass Defense Committee. “Showing up at peoples’ homes and workplaces and asking questions about them has a significant chilling effect on peoples’ ability to exercise their First Amendment rights.”
Boston immigration attorney Matt Cameron says he too is worried about FBI overreach in New England. He pointed to a widely circulatedvideo of ICE agents in April smashing the windows of a car in New Bedford to arrest an immigrant with no criminal record — an action aided by FBI agents.The FBI has been increasingly involved in immigration enforcement operations, prompting concerns they are diverting attention from other more pressing law enforcement issues.
“I’ve had quite a number of people who’ve been detained by FBI agents alongside ICE,’’ he said. “It’s really inappropriate. I mean, this is civil immigration enforcement. This is not what the FBI is supposed to be for. It’s not what they’re trained for.”
The FBI, like other federal agencies under Trump, is experiencing a huge shake-up. In March, President Donald Trump pledged to go after his enemies in a speech at the Department of Justice headquarters, addressing a crowd including new national FBI Director Kash Patel.
Patel is seen as a staunch Trump ally. Since his confirmation as FBI director in February, he has been in the process of dismantling the agency’s D.C. headquarters and transferring 1,500 agents to other parts of the country. He’s been forcing out “disloyal”agents and removing senior executives, in keeping with earlier pledges to dismantle the so-called “deep state.”
FBI officials declined to provide a formal interview for this story. About climate activists, Setera said in a written statement that, “in keeping with DOJ policy, the FBI doesn’t confirm or deny the existence of investigations.” The agency also told GBH News that it prioritizes “continuing to assist our partners” at DHS.
Newly appointed Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Leah Foley said that law-abiding residents of the commonwealth have nothing to fear from a reconstituted bureau.
“The FBI is necessary to keep the United States safe, period,’’ she said. “I don’t believe this president would compromise the safety of the people in the United States of America simply over political griefs. I just don’t think it’s going to happen.”
Local climate activists claim they were wrongfully targeted
Professor Nathan Phillips, a climate scientist who has protested non-violently over the years against pipelines and other environmental causes, was in his office at Boston University in March when he saw the text from his spouse: “We need to talk.” He said he immediately called her back.
“What I heard is that two individuals that claimed to be FBI agents were at my house in Newton and were seeking my whereabouts,” he recalled.
Alarmed, Phillips telephoned the FBI field office in Chelsea.
“I said, 'Well, today two people came to my house purporting to be FBI agents. I’d like to know if that actually is the case. Am I being sought?’ And they hung up on me,” he said.
Phillips later learned several other climate activists, including some who have also taken part in pro-Palestinian actions, were visited that same day at home or work by people who identified themselves as FBI agents, according to lawyers and social justice campaigners who spoke to GBH News. Most were in Massachusetts, although one was in New Hampshire.
While the activists are not all part of the same group, they say they all have been involved in nonviolent civil disobedience, such as sit-ins. Some have been involved in efforts to stop the expansion of private jet capacity at Hanscom Field, an airport in Bedford.
Among those who say they were approached by FBI agents is Donald “Monty” Neill, a member of the group Extinction Rebellion, a decentralized worldwide group of climate activists.
Neill said two people who identified themselves as FBI agents showed up at his door in March and did not specify why they were there. Neill declined to speak with them, believing they’d sought him out because of his political activism. He says he was arrested at a protest opposing the expansion of private jet capacity at Hanscom Airfield, but the charges were dropped.
“It’s very clear that Trump wants to unleash gas, oil, and coal to the maximum extent he can. And so anybody in his way would be part of the problem,” he said. “We will be obstacles in his path.”
Back to the future?
The Boston FBI has a long history in the 1960s and 1970s of infiltrating and monitoring leftist movements in Massachusetts, including Black liberation groups and student-led protests against the Vietnam War.
Feuer said he was aware of wide-ranging “counterintelligence” operations during that period known as COINTELPRO, which the FBI now acknowledges was “rightfully criticized” for “abridging” people’s First Amendment rights.
FBI policy on domestic investigations emphasizes that there are limitations on the actions that the agency can take against groups “based solely on First Amendment rights,” according to a declassified guideon domestic investigations released in 2024.
But these local probes and the FBI’s attempt to convince a court in New York to issue a warrant to investigate the Instagram posts of pro-Palestinian students at Columbia University raises doubts about the fidelity of the agency to its own policy. A federal court twice denied the FBI requests on First Amendment grounds.
Feuer says he has never seen this level of local FBI engagement on the local level since he began practicing law in the Boston area over 30 years ago.
Activists who spoke to GBH for this story said that they adhere to strict nonviolence.
“I’ve been doing this for 35 years, and we’ve never had federal involvement in protest actions here other than collecting information perhaps,” Feuer said. Not with “climate change or any other protest, Occupy, Justice for Janitors, Black Lives Matter.”
Frank Figliuzzi — a former FBI assistant director for counterintelligence and outspoken Trump critic — told GBH News he sees parallels between the current FBI and Hoover’s reign, which ended in 1972.
“[Hoover] viewed, based on his evidence, and let’s face it, some core of racism, the Civil Rights Movement and Martin Luther King as a potential security threat,’’ said Figliuzzi, who now is a contributor for NBC News and MSNBC. “And he moved aggressively against it.”
Feuer says he also sees similarities between the current administration and past abuses under Hoover, who famously used his power to try to“discredit, disrupt, and destroy” civil rights and other social movements. Among them, he mentioned Hoover’s often successful attempts to brand left-wing activists as communists.
“I think the next step will be to try and portray, as they’re doing now with immigrants, trying to portray them all in the same brush,” he said. “They’re all terrorists in some way.”
Boston FBI collaboration with ICE
Last week, officials from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced they had arrested nearly 1,500 undocumented immigrantsin Massachusetts focusing on criminal offenders, with the help of the FBI and other federal agencies.
It’s a constant drumbeat even some law enforcement worry about.
Following the New Bedford incident where a Guatemalan man named Francisco Méndez was arrested after being dragged from his car, Massachusetts Congressman Bill Keating senta letter to Patel and other federal leaders, condemning the arrest and questioning the role of their agents.
Among the questions, he asked: “Does the violent destruction of the Méndez’s car window, which resulted in shattered glass spreading throughout their occupied vehicle, comply with the FBI’s use of force policy?”
Nobody from Keating’s office responded to a request for comment.
U.S. Attorney Foley said FBI collaboration with ICE to carry out the president’s priorities should come as a surprise to no one.
“I know that the FBI, DEA and the marshals are all working together in order to execute ICE’s mission right now, which is to locate and remove people who are here illegally and have committed crimes,” Foley said.
Carmen Ortiz, the former U.S. attorney for Massachusetts, told GBH News she worries that the FBI’s role in immigration enforcement is a questionable use of federal resources. The arrest of Méndez, she said, is a good example of why she is concerned.
“And as we’ve seen played out more recently, there are individuals who have no criminal records, international students who have been arrested,“ she said. ”And so they’re using their resources to target the individuals that we didn’t initially think they were going to.“
Phillips, the BU climate scientist, said the FBI visit to his home won’t stop him from expressing dissent.
“I’m open,” said Phillips. “I’ve never committed an act of violence. So they’ve got nothing on me.”
The academic regularly quotes legendary Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, who is credited with saying “sunshine is the best disinfectant.”
“Protests are something that I just keep going back to,'' he said. ”It’s like I can’t not go back to them because they give me that jolt of, this is what democracy looks like. This is what democracy feels like.”
GBH News reporter Marilyn Schairer contributed to this report.
If you have a tip for the investigative news team, send an email to investigations@wgbh.org.
