Last September, 30 former FBI agents, including a retired deputy assistant director, head of counterterrorism, and five SWAT team members, stood up to defend Stephen Friend, a suspended FBI agent who blew the whistle on the agency’s political game.
Now Friend has written his story to show how the FBI discriminates against Conservatives.
The former FBI agent said that what he saw in the agency during the January 6 investigations was “disturbing,” adding that he has “lived a few years over the last few months.”
“I never sought this path for myself. I had my dream job,” Friend said. “The decision I made was tied to the oath that I took. I took the oath to protect the constitution. I truly believe that raising the flag is consistent with my oath of office.”
However, according to Friend, working for the FBI was far from that reality.
Friend “soon uncovered efforts by the FBI and Department of Justice to manipulate statistics and exaggerate the nationwide threat of domestic terrorism. [He] spotlighted how the politicized FBI was cooking the books to support an ongoing narrative from the Joe Biden administration to label Donald Trump voters as violent extremists,” the former agent’s tell-all book reads.
He allegedly witnessed extreme practices to harass conservative Americans, realizing the FBI was turning its investigative process into a punishment.
Following Friend’s public concerns about how the agency handled the January 6 incident, the 12-year FBI veteran was suspended without pay.
Last year, Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) sent a scathing letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray to step in and intervene with Friend’s suspension, accusing the FBI of retaliating against a protected whistleblower.
However, Friend’s suspension was never lifted.
In response to Friend’s tell-all memoir, the FBI and Department of Justice sent a statement to the Washington Examiner.
“The FBI’s top priority is to detect and stop terrorist attacks against the American people. We focus on individuals who commit or intend to commit violence and criminal activity that constitutes a federal crime or poses a threat to national security. We do not investigate ideology, and we do not investigate cases based on a person’s political views,” the statement read. “The FBI’s authority to investigate a case as domestic terrorism requires the existence of a potential criminal federal violation, the unlawful use or threat of force or violence, and ideological motivation of any type. We follow the facts of each case and classify our investigations accordingly and appropriately. We are committed to upholding the constitutional rights of all Americans and will never open an investigation based solely on First Amendment activity,” the statement continued.