Tag Archives: FBI whistleblower

Words From A Whistleblower

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On Monday, The Epoch Times posted an article about former FBI Special Agent Stephen Friend.

The article reports:

Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures, Stephen Friend was told.

Why would he—an FBI special agent—not want to hunt down and jail rioters who killed police officers at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021?

The question, its justification, and its accuracy were equally troubling when they were presented to Friend by an FBI superior on Aug. 23, 2022.

“I responded back that no police officers were killed by any of the individuals who were charged with the violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6,” Friend recalled.

At the time a fairly recent transfer from Iowa to the FBI in Florida, Friend had just lodged a complaint against what he saw as heavy-handed tactics being planned against Jan. 6 suspects in Florida. Sitting with an FBI assistant special agent in charge, he had to correct some of the misinformation that was being used to justify those tactics.

The article notes:

Friend said he is equally disturbed by how the “process” of Jan. 6 cases ends up punishing every suspect before they ever get a day in court.

“For many people who are being interviewed by the FBI, there’s no case to be built against them for January 6,” he said. “It might be stemming from an anonymous tip, where there’s no cell phone GPS information, no facial recognition software. The FBI is still knocking on that person’s door. That’s an undue stress for anybody.”

Friend interviewed one suspect who attended former President Donald Trump’s speech at the Ellipse on Jan. 6, then walked to the Capitol. He asked Capitol Police if he could enter and was told it was OK.

“He doesn’t even walk beyond the red velvet rope,” Friend said. “He walked to the Capitol for a few minutes and exited. We asked him, ‘Did you take anything?’ He told us apologetically that he had taken a free brochure that was available for people who were touring the Capitol. He’d taken it as a keepsake.

“Now that man told me this story inside a law office, which I’m sure was not free for him. He also told us that was the biggest mistake of his life because he’d already lost his career. He might never face jail time, and if he does, it will probably be minimal.

“But even if he never sits inside a jail; even if he’s never charged with a crime, he has been punished. That to me is wrong.”

The most important part of the article to me:

One Democrat attorney showed Friend a photograph of a Jan. 6 suspect wearing a helmet and body armor and asked, “Does that look like somebody who went there that day to do something good?” Friend recalled.

“‘He looks bad,’” Friend said he told the committee. “‘He probably did some really bad things that day. He probably should get arrested for them, get charged with them. It would really be a shame if we lost a trial because we violated his civil rights.’”

Friend said that was his “mic-drop moment” before Congress. “I wish that had been in front of an open hearing,” Friend said. “You know, I was really proud of that.”

Friend hopes to return for public testimony before the Weaponization subcommittee, along with fellow FBI whistleblowers Kyle Seraphin, Garret O’Boyle and George Hill.

Please follow the link to read the entire article. It is amazing.

Is This Now A Hostile Work Environment?

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On Sunday, Just the News posted an article about FBI Special Agent Stephen M. Friend, who serves as a SWAT team member, who has been suspended in recent days because of his status as a whistleblower.

The article reports:

An FBI whistleblower has reported to the Office of Special Counsel that he believes the bureau and Justice Department are violating the constitutional rights of Jan. 6 defendants, falsifying statistics on domestic extremism and misusing SWAT teams to make misdemeanor arrests, according to a copy of the complaint reviewed by Just the News.

Special Agent Stephen M. Friend, who works for the FBI in Florida and serves as a SWAT team member, told the main federal whistleblower office in Washington he had an “exemplary” work record since he joined the bureau in 2014 and even won awards but was suspended in recent days after he began raising concerns about the FBI’s and DOJ’s conduct in the Jan. 6 investigation

“I believed the investigations were inconsistent with FBI procedure and resulted in the violation of citizens’ Sixth and Eighth Amendment rights,” Friend wrote. “I added that many of my colleagues expressed similar concerns to me but had not vocalized their objections to FBI Executive Management.”

The FBI national press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent on Friday.

Although I have very little doubt that what Agent Friend is saying is true, I am not optimistic that the problems he points out will be dealt with. Although there are Congressional committees charged with overseeing various aspects of the FBI, the Director, Christoper Wray, is accountable to the Attorney General, Merrick Garland. Both the Director and the Attorney General are known for the politicization of their organizations. Since the prosecutions relating to January 6th are purely political, I suspect the civil rights of those accused will continue to be violated. As for the SWAT teams, there have be a number of incidents when SWAT teams and other tactics were used to intimidate political enemies of the Democrat party.

I don’t mean to be negative, but I am beginning to wonder if anyone can put right our totally corrupt FBI and Department of Justice.