The Attorney General may be the top dog at the DOJ, but he doesn’t give orders to the FBI. They’re separate entities, for a reason, and one person(the AG) doesn’t control the other(FBI Director) or the agency.
Think of them as the District Attorney in your county and the county Sheriff or Police Chief. The DA doesn’t control the law enforcement entity. They can ask for help or assistance, but they aren’t barking orders to anyone.
On Sunday, January 3, the heads of a half-dozen elite government special operations teams met in Quantico, Virginia, to go over potential threats, contingencies, and plans for the upcoming Joint Session of Congress. The meeting, and the subsequent deployment of these shadowy commandos on January 6, has never before been revealed.Right after the New Year, Jeffrey A. Rosen, the acting Attorney General on January 6, approved implementation of long-standing contingency plans dealing with the most extreme possibilities: an attack on President Donald Trump or Vice President Mike Pence, a terrorist attack involving a weapon of mass destruction, and a declaration of measures to implement continuity of government, requiring protection and movement of presidential successors.
Rosen made a unilateral decision to take the preparatory steps to deploy Justice Department and so-called "national" forces. There was no formal request from the U.S. Capitol Police, the Secret Service, or the Metropolitan Police Department--in fact, no external request from any agency. The leadership in Justice and the FBI anticipated the worst and decided to act independently, the special operations forces lurking behind the scenes.
Yeah, the AG directly controls the DOJ and it’s minor subordinate bureau, the FBI. There is no “independent” FBI. Exactly who do you think the FBI director responds to?
And for extra fun, the President directly controls both. He can order an investigation started, stopped, or even conduct it himself. He can fire an AG or FBI Director at will.
It’s like Bureau of land management is not independent of the Department of the interior.
Despite FBI propaganda and power grabs, that’sa fact and you cannot point to a single law that says the FBI can operate against the orders of the AG or President.
The FBI cannot even file a criminal charge or get a search warrant without DOJ approval.