OPINION: This article contains commentary which may reflect the author’s opinion
Claims against the integrity of the FBI have been rolling out, and accusations are piling up.
There have been multiple misconduct claims against the FBI following the Bureau’s raid on former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate.
The particular agents who participated in the raid on the Trump home in Florida have been accused of other misdeeds.
The raid itself seems to have been based on the documents at Mar-a-Lago being classified when former President Trump stated he declassified them himself as president, and that no raid was needed when Trump had willingly followed the current administration’s requests regarding the documents.
But prior to the FBI’s raid on Trump’s estate, a string of whistleblowers had come forward with accusations of political bias against senior FBI officials.
Multiple instances of questionable acts have caused a closer look at the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The accusations are nothing new.
Time reported in 2018:
A PBS News Hour survey in April [2018] showed a 10-point drop from 71% to 61%- in the prior two months among Americans who thought the FBI was “just trying to do its job” and an 8-point jump from 23% to 31%- among those who thought it was “biased against the Trump Administration.”
The Times report then listed multiple concerns with the agency and claims of “not knowing” among high-level agents and administrators.
But now it seems that some within the agency are more willing than ever to come forward and testify to unethical practices.
The Washington Field Office, which sent the agents to Florida to raid Trump’s estate, was included in facing its own set of allegations.
“The FBI is completely out of control and its culture and structure need to change.
Not only is the political bias completely out of control and disgustingly obvious, the FBI knows they will not be held accountable for their illegal behavior and misconduct,” said one Whistleblower in a letter to Rep. Louis Gohmert (R-Tx) of the House Judiciary Committee.
This whistleblower had alleged that FBI Director Christopher Wray ignored her allegations of sexual misconduct.
Former Assistant Director of the FBI Counterterrorism Division and Executive Assistant Director of the National Security Branch Jill Sanborn faced an accusation earlier this month that she had improperly classified cases as “domestic violent extremist” (DVEs) to support a Biden administration narrative that such cases were the superlative threat facing the nation.
One former insider who now works to uncover corruption in the FBI gave some insight.
Kurt Siuzdak, a former FBI agent and whistleblower who now legally represents others, told the Times that similar cases occur nationwide, especially around the holidays.
“Every Thanksgiving and Christmas, there’s a number of field offices, and the SAC picks somebody for everybody to follow because it helps them with their metrics,” Siuzdak told the outlet. “So they pick somebody to scrutinize, often without merit from wherever, and that’s the bad guy you need to follow and put your assets on.” The former agent dubbed the target a “Turkey Day Terrorist.”
Siuzdak went on to discuss claims by clients at the Salt Lake City office that the agents there faced pressure to sign false or misleading affidavits, Just the News reports.
“If your affidavit kind of mischaracterizes something … agents shouldn’t be pressured to sign,” he said. “They should be pressured to sign correct and truthful affidavits.”
“You have to have so many terrorism cases per year in your office, or else you fail,” he said. “So they would come to us and say things like ‘Open up a case. I don’t care if it’s got merit or not. Just open it up. We only have nine, and we need 10 for me to pass.’”
One legislator has had enough and called for those who know to come forward against corruption.
Following the raid, on Trump’s family home, Wisconsin GOP Sen. Ron Johnson put out a call for FBI whistleblowers to come forward with misconduct concerns.
Ohio GOP Rep. Jim Jordan said that 14 whistleblowers had contacted his office following the raid, Just The News reports.
FBI field offices in Miami, Salt Lake City, Buffalo, and Newark face accusations that their upper management coerced agents to sign false affidavits, inflated terrorism caseloads to improve their apparent performance, engaged in illicit sexual activities, or concealed those of others, according to the Washington Times.
One whistleblower said that the senior agents running the field offices face pressure to increase the number of caseloads each year due to the way the Bureau evaluates their performance and that this has led to illicit practices.
“It’s basically a report card for him, so at the end of his two-year term as a SAC [special agent in charge], he gets moved to a better position down in Washington. And everything focuses around his metrics,” a whistleblower at the Buffalo office said. “You have to have so many terrorism cases per year in your office, or else you fail.”
Source: The Republic Brief