While the FBI ostensibly exists to sensitive investigations in the service of the American people and the U.S. Constitution, recent actions have led many skeptics to surmise that it has become a politicized entity focused on protecting the Democratic Party.
Steve Friend, a former federal agent who has been speaking out against the actions of his long-time employer since leaving the FBI, offered a scathing assessment during an interview last week.
I’ve become a single issue voter. The threshold for any presidential candidate to garner my vote consideration is a plan to end the @FBI. I hope there is a stable of candidates to assess https://t.co/cBrFA0dQZF
— Steve Friend (@RealStevefriend) March 20, 2023
During his tenure of nearly a decade in the bureau, Friend said that he was primarily focused on “just keeping [his] head down and working the cases in front of [him].”
While focusing on the facts might be the priority of most agents, he lamented that higher-ups in the agency have increasingly shifted toward ideological pursuits.
“There are a lot of agents that sort of share that sentiment and just want to drive the mission forward,” he added. “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 bolstered his point by contrasting the FBI raid of pro-life activist Mark Houck’s home with the seemingly lackluster pursuit of justice against the pro-abortion activists who targeted the residences of conservative U.S. Supreme Court justices.
“I think there’s an argument to be made that the FBI has now just become a weaponized apparatchik of the presidential administration,” he concluded.
Although he said he understood the motivation of some agents to ignore such evidence in order to retire with their full pensions, he said that the oath they took before entering the bureau should be enough to convince them to speak out.
“You swear an oath in the very beginning, and that has to mean something at the end of the day,” Friend asserted. “I stood up and I swore an oath before God, my family, and my colleagues that I was going to protect the Constitution and my fellow countrymen. And I joined the FBI to do the work of the FBI, not to retire from the FBI.”
He encouraged others to follow his lead and “look into the proper whistleblowing procedures and make sure your concerns are brought forward,” expressing hope that the newly formed House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government would provide a safe place for others to speak out without sacrificing their careers.
