FBI Whistleblower Comes Forward, Says Bureau Violating Policies in Jan. 6 Investigation
An FBI whistleblower has come forward to say the bureau is violating policies in its investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol breach.
The whistleblower raising concerns about how the bureau is handling the Jan. 6 investigation has identified himself as special agent Steve Friend.
Friend, based out of Florida since June 2021, said in a declaration made public on Sept. 26 that he was told that child sexual abuse material investigations were “no longer an FBI priority” and should be referred to local officials. He says he was also told that he would be focusing on domestic terrorism investigations.
Friend says he observed that FBI policies on case assignments were being violated because the Washington Field Office was enabling field offices around the country to lead investigations on crimes that allegedly took place in Washington on or around Jan. 6, but officials in Washington are actually directing the probes.
The situation resulted in active criminal investigations in which Friend is listed as the case agent, but has done no investigative work, according to the declaration.
Friend brought concerns to supervisors, including telling special agent Greg Federico that it was inappropriate to use FBI SWAT teams to arrest suspects who were only facing misdemeanor charges. Federico allegedly said the search warrants being served by the teams were lawful and advised Friend to speak to the FBI employee assistance program to deal with stress.
Federico forwarded the issue to supervisors, with whom Friend reiterated concerns about policy violations. He brought up the kidnapping case involving Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, which ended with several defendants being acquitted because of the heavy involvement of FBI agents and confidential sources. One of the supervisors falsely said that police officers were killed on Jan. 6, and said that Friend was being “a bad teammate,” according to the declaration.
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