The House Committee on the Judiciary produced a bombshell report last week about the devastating effect of the Biden administration’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policy on FBI recruitment, hiring practices, culture, and its inevitable impact on national security.
Six categories of currently employed FBI agents have spoken loudly. The report details its sources as: FBI Field Office Special Agent Applicant Coordinators, Assessors, new agent Training Unit Instructors, class counselors, FBI Field Office Supervisors, and FBI Headquarters Executive Management.
As I’ve stated often, the FBI still employs good men and women, who take their oaths seriously, and battle from within the organization to preserve civil liberties. On one hand, this report should be a tremendous encouragement to the American people. They can read for themselves how current and retired FBI agents are working to hold the line for the American people. Despite the braying of the “abolish the FBI” scrum, “golden handcuffs” aren’t really a thing — a brave and outspoken cadre of agents are proving that to be the embarrassingly discredited assertion of self-interested grousers.
What should be concerning to the American people are the findings of this report. In short, our national security is being systematically compromised by DEI policy, not only at the FBI (though that is the focus of this report), but throughout the federal workforce, and the military.
The House Judiciary report, presented by “an Alliance of retired and active-duty FBI Special Agents,” identifies ten key findings: One, intelligence capabilities are degrading — the FBI is no longer hiring “the best and the brightest.” Two, lower quality candidates are being hired to satisfy DEI requirements. Three, more qualified candidates are being rejected. Four, assessors are being selected based on their proclivity to prioritize DEI factors. Five, FBI headquarters has overruled the recommendations of Applicant Coordinators in favor of complying with DEI metrics. Six, special agent hiring numbers are down. Seven, physical fitness, drug use, financial irregularities, mental health, full-time work experience, and integrity requirements have all been relaxed to accommodate DEI hires. Eight, the suspension of agency-wide mandates to determine an applicant’s loyalty to the Constitution and willingness to set aside personal or political biases. Nine, field office reporting documents “unacceptably poor writing skills” characteristic of DEI hires. And, finally — FBI Director Christopher Wray’s assertion that hiring is “going extremely well” contradicts wide spread reporting from the field.
A fundamental presupposition of the report is a recognition of the critical importance of a sound, tip-of-the-spear FBI agent population. The FBI was once regarded as the world’s premier law enforcement agency. The House Judiciary report recognizes that restoring the FBI to its once peerless standards of professionalism, integrity, and capability is vital — not just to national security, but for the preservation of the civil liberties guaranteed by the Constitution.
Additionally, reform is the objective of the report, “Because of this dysfunction, the FBI is organizationally incapable of making the necessary course corrections on its own. The impetus for needed reform must, as a result, be forced on the FBI from outside the organization.”
FBI culture is driven top down. The indisputable evidence of this is former Director Robert Muller’s impact on FBI culture after 9/11, and the fact that DEI policy, the product of Joe Biden’s executive order, is radically transforming FBI culture. Despite the efforts of good agents, the tsunami of wokesters will inevitably overcome any effort to preserve the traditionally law enforcement culture of the FBI. Therefore, the obvious solution to culture rot is radical leadership and policy reformation.
The sophomoric reflex to simply tear down, throw away, and dismantle does nothing to address the fundamental problem — cultural marxism and liberal Democrat leadership. Just as the abolishment of the OSS resulted in the behemoth we know today as the CIA, deconstructing the FBI without addressing our fundamental social and political problems will merely result in another rotted facade erected at great public expense, and at the cost of national security. Fix what’s broken.
Fixing what’s broken doesn’t mean relocating dysfunction. Current proposals to create an Americanized MI5 ignore two big problems. First, it does nothing to address the current DEI policies which, absent a Republican in the White House, will instantly infest any “shiny new” domestic intelligence service. And second, it ignores the tremendous, counterintuitive benefits America has enjoyed by having a law enforcement agency tasked with counterintelligence (CI) responsibilities.
Former FBI Special Agent Thomas Baker told Townhall, “When explaining the FBI in the past, I and others would often stress how blessed the United States was to have as our domestic security service a law enforcement agency.” However, Baker expresses some reservations. “Doubts about this blessed situation have now surfaced.” Given the Russia collusion hoax and the FBI’s abuse of FISA, Mr. Baker and others have very real reasons to express concern. His book, The Fall of the FBI, is a must read for anyone who wishes to speak intelligently on these topics.
Despite these concerns, the fact remains…the inclusion of CI investigations within the structure of a law enforcement agency subjects those investigations to the rigors of criminal procedure, and the increased scrutiny of Constitutional due process requirements — at least in theory. For decades it was FBI practice. Former FBI Director Muller and DEI policy have unraveled much of that law enforcement policy and enculturated rigor. An MI5-like agency would look like the FBI in CI free fall — imagine analysts like the one who penned the infamous “Catholic memo” running things.
The House Judiciary Committee report is the opening salvo for current and retired FBI agents with real credibility, extensive experience, and records of achievement. This is a tremendous victory for those still embattled where it really matters — behind enemy lines. Another group of conscientious former FBI executives have decried the Biden administration’s purposeful dereliction at the Southern border. A campaign of sociological and demographic terraforming on a scale so vast as to transform American politics into a toxic biosphere habitable only by demagogues and totalitarians.