Republican senators are criticizing FBI leadership for alleged retaliation against an FBI whistleblower who has claimed the bureau is creating a misleading impression about rising domestic terrorism figures stemming from the Capitol riot.
Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Ron Johnson (R-WI) sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland on Monday, arguing that bureau leaders wrongly punished an FBI agent for raising concerns about how cases related to the events of Jan. 6, 2021, are being handled. The senators included a copy of the whistleblower declaration by FBI special agent Stephen Friend, who says he has been suspended by the FBI.
Friend argued in a letter dated Sept. 21 that the FBI had implemented a “manipulative casefile practice” related to the Capitol riot that “creates false and misleading crime statistics.” He claimed, “Instead of hundreds of investigations stemming from an isolated incident at the Capitol on January 6, 2021, FBI and DOJ officials point to significant increases in domestic violent extremism and terrorism around the United States.”
DOJ REVEALS WHAT IS BEHIND RISE IN DOMESTIC TERRORISM CASES
The suspended FBI agent said he told his superiors last month that “I would not participate in any of these operations” related to the Capitol riot.
“Ultimately, rather than reassigning Special Agent Friend other tasks as he requested, FBI leadership apparently made the choice to retaliate against and make an example of him,” Grassley and Johnson wrote on Monday. “FBI leadership suspended Special Agent Friend without pay, and suspended his security clearance without providing any evidence that he poses a legitimate security risk. They also confiscated his credentials, firearm, and badge, and escorted him out of the FBI field office.”
The senators added, “The alleged actions by FBI senior leadership are unacceptable and send exactly the wrong message. The FBI should never suspend security clearances as a form of punishment or to retaliate against patriotic whistleblowers for stepping forward to report potential wrongdoing.”
Friend, who joined the FBI in 2014, said he was transferred to the FBI’s Jacksonville field office in June 2021 and was tasked with investigating child exploitation and human trafficking but claimed he was reassigned in October 2021 as a member of the Joint Terrorism Task Force and directed to concentrate on domestic terrorism. He said it was communicated to him that the reassignment was necessary “due to the voluminous number of J6 investigations” and “rising threats” of domestic violent extremism. Friend wrote that “I was told that child sexual abuse material investigations were no longer an FBI priority and should be referred to local law enforcement agencies.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Friend also said there are active criminal investigations of Jan. 6 subjects for which he is listed as the “case agent” despite him not having done any investigative work on the cases.
Matt Olsen, the assistant attorney general leading the Justice Department’s National Security Division, told the House in July that “the number of FBI investigations of suspected domestic violent extremism has more than doubled since the spring of 2020.” He revealed that “at least a significant portion of that jump” is due to prosecutions of those involved in the events of Jan. 6.
