【2008 Archives】

FBI agents008 Archivesbusted some of the most dangerous crime mob families in America and tracked down infamous gangsters such as Bonnie and Clyde.

Now, today, at this hour, they are asking a question so often asked by hordes of American retirees with grandchildren: Twitter -- how does it work?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The FBI's inspection division has begun looking into @FBIRecordsVault, one of the agency's own Twitter accounts, according to an exclusive report from Judd Legum, editor-in-chief of ThinkProgress.

It's a moment sure to go down in the illustrious history of the FBI, something to be whispered about in hallways and hailed before potential recruits at college campuses across the United States.

The records vault account, you see, had been dormant for more than a year until it started spitting out some tweets late last month. One of those tweets, in particular, raised more than a few eyebrows.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

The tweet in question linked to recently uploaded FBI documents that detail part of a long-closed agency investigation into the Clinton Foundation that found no wrongdoing on the part of Hillary and Bill Clinton.

But the heavily redacted documents don't mention the investigation's conclusion. According to the FBI, as of two days ago anyway, this was all just the normal result of what happens when they upload new documents to the website that were requested via the Freedom of Information Act.

Even so, you may have heard there's a presidential election in a week, and it's against federal law for anyone at the FBI to use the bureau to try to sway an election. So that tweet left several observers basically saying, "What the hell is happening?"

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

Apparently it left some folks at the FBI a bit uneasy, too. But it's hard to imagine how this lasts longer than, like, an hour.

After a squad of agents at one of the most prominent investigative agencies in the the world figures out who runs this Twitter account, what will they have to ask? Why did you send that tweet? Do you like Donald Trump more than Hillary Clinton? Are you trying to hashtag make America great again?

OK then!

Maybe, though, the FBI felt the need to look into this because they're well aware that this is not the first ... puzzling thing the agency has done recently, and maybe it'd be good to appear serious.

FBI Director James Comey revealed late last month that agents were reviewing new emails that might (or might not) be relevant to their all-but-technically closed investigation into Clinton's use of a personal email server while she was secretary of state.

Those emails were discovered during a separate investigation into an unrelated matter, and we almost certainly won't know what's in them until after the election. Comey announced in July that neither Clinton nor any of her staff would be charged, though he said they had been "careless" with classified information.

Many found the timing of Comey's vague announcement a bit perplexing, given it came 11 days before the most contentious presidential election in at least half a century.

Which is all to say that there's a lot of confusing things happening in and around the FBI these days, but this whole Twitter account business seems to be something that can be settled after a few queries, right?

Here's hoping the top investigators in the land can sort it all out.

UPDATE, Nov. 7., 11:30 a.m.: An FBI spokesperson told Mashablethat while an official investigation into the records vault Twitter account was not launched, questions about the account were referred to someone within the department.

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