FBI Deputy Director Raia on 60-Plus Bureau Changes, Falling Violent Crime, AI and Foreign Influence
September 6, 2026 · FBI – Federal Bureau of Investigation · 0:21:13
Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube
What happened
FBI Deputy Director Christopher Raia told a retired-agent interviewer that the bureau’s giant carrier has changed course more in the past 18 months than in his prior 23 years, as a result of more than 60 transformational, historic changes made under Director Kash Patel’s leadership, according to Raia (the transcript for this video is rendered in Arabic auto-captions and is paraphrased here in English).
Raia linked those changes directly to figures he said were published weeks earlier in the Uniform Crime Report: the largest annual drop in violent crime, at just under 10% nationwide; a roughly 20% drop in murders; FBI terrorism arrests up about 40%; counterespionage arrests up about 40%; cybercrime indictments up 50%; and nine of the FBI’s ten most wanted fugitives captured, according to Raia. He also pointed to roughly 400 disruptions so far in the bureau’s violent-crime focus, as discussed at a recent Albany press gathering, according to the interview.
On artificial intelligence and foreign influence, Raia said the bureau is making sure it stays ahead of the threat on AI, and agreed that foreign political influence is real, comes from all foreign adversaries, and accelerates as elections approach — while clarifying that adversaries are not, in fact, hacking vote tallies, which he called a broader misconception, according to Raia.
Raia closed by telling retired agents that, beneath the outside noise, he sees agents, analysts, and support staff refocused on the bureau’s core purpose of protecting U.S. citizens, and said he is very optimistic as the fiscal year closes, according to the interview.
Why it matters
The interview is the deputy director’s fullest stated account of the Patel-era bureau: a numbered change program, a set of crime and arrest figures attributed to it, and a distinction between foreign influence operations and vote hacking.
Scoreboard watch
Raia’s figures — violent crime down just under 10%, murders down roughly 20%, terrorism and counterespionage arrests up about 40%, cyber indictments up 50%, and nine of ten most-wanted fugitives captured — are checkable against the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report and bureau releases.
Sources: FBI – Federal Bureau of Investigation, “Deputy Director Raia on AI, Foreign Influence, and a Changing Bureau”, 2026-09-06 (official upload, embedded above; published 2026-09-06). Transcript via Supadata (private research store, paraphrased and attributed, not republished). All figures and characterizations as stated by the speakers.
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