The reports come from FBI whistleblower Steve Friend.
QUICK FACTS:
- Thirteen reports between 2017 and 2022 list instances of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents’ apparent misconduct and their punishments.
- The purpose of the documents is to “educate employees about the Bureau’s standards of conduct and to aid employees in steering clear of ethical pitfalls and other violations.”
- One report from January 2017 describes an FBI employee who “viciously attacked [his] wife, including placing her in a choke hold, dropping her on the ground, and kicking her in the face.” The employee was dismissed.
- Another employee from the same report was dismissed after sexually assaulting an eight-year-old girl.
- Other reports describe numerous instances of employees being dismissed over weapons safety violations.
- One FBI employee resigned after it was learned they lied about stealing FBI property, connected a personal laptop to an FBI computer, and violated other security measures.
- Several employees were dismissed for theft and DUIs.
- One employee “stole approximately $160,000 in government forfeiture funds” while another was suspended for 45 days after being “arrested for DUI and Hit and Run.” The employee’s BAC was “more than twice the legal limit and posed a serious threat to others.”
- The quarterly reports also detail agents receiving punishment for driving a government vehicle for unofficial business. One agent received a 30-day suspension for driving a government vehicle to the grocery store, another for taking a vehicle to the movie theater, and another employee received a 35-day suspension for taking their “children in a Bureau vehicle on multiple occasions and deviated from the route home on the occasions when picking up the children.” The employee was “dealing with challenging child care issues.”
LATEST PROBE INTO THE FBI:
- U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, FBI Director Christopher Wray, and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona were given until March 1 to hand documents to the House Judiciary Committee regarding FBI investigations into parents attending school board meetings.
- Republican members of the committee sent over 100 letters to federal officials “requesting answers about how the Administration used federal counterterrorism resources against American parents.”
- “Whistleblowers have disclosed how, shortly after Attorney General Garland formally directed the FBI to take action, the FBI’s Counterterrorism and Criminal Divisions created a specific threat tag for school board-related threats and even opened investigations into parents simply for speaking out on behalf of their children,” said the House Judiciary Committee.
- Garland’s original memo implored law enforcement agents to monitor parents across the nation due to a “disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence against school administrators, board members, teachers, and staff.”
- “Since DOJ’s memo was released, a number of parents have confirmed that they were, indeed, contacted by the FBI after speaking up at school board meetings – confirming the American public’s worst fears about the memo’s repercussions,” according to the organization Parents Defending Education.
- One whistleblower came forward with evidence that the DOJ targeted parents, as the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division and Criminal Division created a “threat tag” called “EDUOFFICIALS” designed for “school board-related threats.”
BACKGROUND:
- American Faith reported that “dozens and dozens” of FBI whistleblowers have come forward to share how the agency has been politicized, according to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH).
- One former agent shared with the committee that coming forward was “putting a target” on herself, but she chose to speak on behalf of “numerous current and former bureau employees who feel similarly that they do not have a voice.”
