Last Friday the House Judiciary Democrats released a staff report assessing testimony provided by three FBI whistleblowers to Republican members of the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. Overall, as expected, the Democrat report is a partisan hit job.
The report is the political equivalent of a gangland drive-by. But, just like the marauding criminals that infest Democrat-controlled major metropolitan centers, a ricochet or two drew blood.
In the pertinent part, the partisan report makes three claims. First, retired supervisory intelligence analyst George Hill, former special agent Garret O’Boyle, and former special agent Steve Friend do not meet the statutory definition of “whistleblower.” Second, no evidence of wrongdoing has been presented. And third, the three whistleblowers have expressed “extremist” views on the January 6th protests, about the FBI in general, and with regard to Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee to include its chair, Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH).
Legacy media outlets were quick to pounce on all the most sensational claims made by the Democrat staff report, and the last few days have produced a torrent of debate. But, the debate is a good thing so long as it results in the maintenance of liberty.
It’s entirely appropriate for the House Judiciary Committee to investigate the claims of whistleblowers, despite the conclusions drawn by the Office of Inspector General and the Office of Special Counsel. Furthermore, it’s not incumbent on the whistleblowers to provide incontrovertible evidence of their claims. The function of a whistleblower is to bring attention to abuses of power, so that the appropriate mechanism of redress and reform may be brought to bear.
No serious person can dismiss what they see right in front of them. The Trump presidency was marred by unending smear campaigns directed by Democrats, and pretexts were constructed out of pure fantasy by a rogue DOJ, FBI, and CIA. A complicit legacy media and big tech activists broadcast the lies and suppressed the truth. The Mar-a-Lago raid was patently partisan — compare the DOJ’s treatment of the Mannequin-In-Chief, who squirreled away classified documents in his garage. No pillaging and plundering of Biden’s Delaware beach pad.
What you suspect is true. The DOJ and FBI are acting as Democrat surrogates. Just ask Peter Stzrok, Andrew McCabe, and Lisa Page. The three whistleblowers named in the Democrat staff report have raised serious allegations worthy of congressional attention.
Democrats were critical of George Hill’s claim that Ashely Babbitt was murdered by U.S. Capitol Police officer Lt. Michael Byrd. They labeled this view as “extreme.” But, as a 26-year veteran of local and federal law enforcement, I can assure you under normal circumstances —not the hyper-politicized environment democrats have created — Lt. Byrd would have answered to a jury of twelve for his actions that day.
Former FBI agent Garret O’Boyle was painted as a COVID conspiracy theorist for holding the opinion that injecting an experimental serum into his body was a decision to be made by the individual, without the interposition of Orwellian overlords and pharmaceutical corporatists. He claims the FBI retaliated in response to his refusal to submit to “vaccine” mandates and testing.
Steve Friend, a former FBI Special Agent and member of SWAT was portrayed as a Republican shill, a puppet of Trump operatives, and MAGA outlier. One of the most ridiculous arguments made in the staff report, suggests that a five thousand dollar payment to Friend from former Trump official Kash Patel is indicative of some nefarious activity.
Hill, O’Boyle, and Friend may be in possession of credible evidence of FBI malfeasance. In any case, it’s perfectly legitimate for members of Congress to take their allegations seriously, and conduct all logical and appropriate investigations into the veracity of their claims.
But, the Democrats are exploiting a critical weakness. The report details social media statements that are not flattering to the current crop of whistleblowers. In particular, a quote from Steve Friend is highly disappointing. In a Truth Social post dated November 7, 2022 Friend stated:
“The PC answer is that there are lots of good people doing good work. I’m done with it. The fact that 14k aren’t standing next to @kyleseraphin and me means we need to Ctrl+Alt+Del the whole thing. Too many overpaid, underworked people resting on the laurels of those who came before and did real police work”
When evaluating evidence, the character or motive of the whistleblower is largely immaterial. They may be rotten, but that has no bearing on the relevance of evidence. However, when the questions turn to matters of policy or opinion, character, and motive are paramount concerns.
Early on, I was supportive of Friend and dedicated an October 2022 column to highlighting his efforts to expose FBI corruption. Unfortunately, Friend has abandoned his original instincts and fallen under the influence of an odious few. He’s adopted the tone, methods, and philosophy of some who are frantically constructing a media presence — monetizing the whistleblower moniker while it’s trending.
He’s allied himself with former FBI agent Kyle Seraphin, who has a penchant for littering his Tweets with a lexicon derived from the pornography industry. Seraphin gleefully bandies “fluffer” at anyone who doesn’t conform to his whim. And, regularly casts aspersions at Fox News hosts like Bret Baier.
I do not support those who besmirch the character or good work of frontline FBI agents. Lampooning fourteen thousand individuals simply because they haven’t chosen the whistleblower path is despicable. However, Friend and his cohorts are all too happy to publicize information culled from those same “overpaid, underworked people resting on the laurels of those who came before.”
Conservatives love to say liberals eventually eat their own because, for those radicals, no one is ever pure enough. For Steve Friend and his close associates, anyone who dares to question their highly suspect motives is anathema. There is a whistleblower cult of personality, and it’s already being used by Democrats to distract from the real issues of FBI culture rot and corruption.