FBI Whistleblower Describes How Biden Administration Manipulates Law Enforcement
A former FBI agent who has turned into a federal whistleblower says that the divide between the agency’s rank-and-file officers and the politicized upper management is growing more expansive under the Biden administration. Steve Friend said in an interview with the Epoch Times last Tuesday that many agents share his sentiments about the problems at the FBI.
He said he “spent close to nine years in the FBI, spent a good chunk of my time just keeping my head down and working the cases in front of me.”
“There are a lot of agents that sort of share that sentiment and just want to drive the mission forward. Unfortunately, there’s a big disconnect between the rank-and-file and the management class, and as you climb that ladder, it’s tending to become more and more political,” Friend added.
He cited the case of pro-life activist Mark Houck, who had his home raided during his arrest over a disturbance outside of a Philadelphia Planned Parenthood abortion facility. Friend also described the disparate and deferential treatment given to protestors outside the homes of Supreme Court justices. One of the “protestors” admitted traveling across the country with the plan of murdering Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
Friend, who now serves as a senior fellow at the Center for Renewing America, said there is a legitimate argument that the agency has become a “weaponized apparatchik of the presidential administration.” That situation destroys the public’s trust in the agency and all of federal law enforcement.
Friend was suspended from his position at the FBI Jacksonville, Florida, office last September when he voiced concern about the lack of priority being given to serious criminal cases involving grave harm to children.
He also described being punished for objecting to the agency’s use of SWAT teams to arrest persons accused of misdemeanors related to the January 6 Capitol protest. Referring to Tucker Carlson’s recent reporting of surveillance footage from that day, Friend said, “I’m hoping that this slow drip of surveillance footage is just eventually abandoned, and we just get the whole amount of it.”
The Department of Justice (DOJ) Inspector General reportedly advised Friend that there would be no official internal investigation into Friend’s claims, despite giving them “careful consideration.”
Describing the circumstances under which he left the FBI, Friend said: “You swear an oath in the very beginning, and that has to mean something at the end of the day.”
He added, “I joined the FBI to do the work of the FBI, not to retire from the FBI.”
