The GOP has been vocal about investigating the FBI; “the entire FBI needs to be dismantled,” House Oversight chairman James Comer said on Hannity in December. “We need to start all over. We need to enact strict reforms. There needs to be checks and balances at the FBI.”
This was in the wake of the “Twitter Files” bombshell that showed collusion between the bureau and major social media companies like the blue bird.
Now, it’s no secret the Federal Bureau of Investigation has become weaponized and politicized —but we’re also learning that over the last five years, an alarming number of agents have been caught for flagrant illegal conduct, according to a new report from Just The News.
The charges range from more commonplace offenses like driving drunk to more extreme crimes like assaulting a child and losing service weapons. What a mess.
According to JTN, “One agent left a highly lethal M4 carbine unsecured in his government car during a Starbucks run and had the weapon stolen, but even he received only a two-week suspension despite violating the bureau’s protocols for weapons storage,” records show.
“Although there was a lockbox in the trunk for storage of weapons and sensitive items,” the agent left their rifle unsecured in the vehicle, one report states. “While Employee was in the Starbucks, the Bucar was burglarized. The rear passenger, rear driver, and tailgate windows were broken, and the rifle bag containing the M4 was stolen.”
Feeling good about the competency of our G-Men? No wonder so many whistleblowers have come forward! And speaking of whistleblowers…
“The FBI Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) reports provided to Just the News by a whistleblower afford an unprecedented look into the breadth of misconduct among the FBI’s workforce of 35,000, including agents, intel analysts, lab scientists and crime scene technicians.”
Behavior at the Bureau got so bad that the OPR memo was temporarily suspended in an attempt to protect “employees harmed by misconduct” —but, ultimately, the report resumed seven months later.
“In the seven months since, we’ve spoken extensively with affected employees and consulted with several divisions, including the Victim Services Division,” one email read. “After a great deal of deliberation, we have decided to resume the quarterly email. We made this decision as the vast majority of employees we spoke with indicated they wanted publication to resume.”
“There’s definitely a sense of entitlement that has seeped into the agency, and too many people are just content to have a gold badge and gun on their hip and not actually do the work that’s required,” ex-FBI special agent Steve Friend told JTN. “They’re sitting on the shoulders of giants, people that investigated Bonnie and Clyde, Al Capone, terrorist networks, organized crime, and they need to uphold that reputation as opposed to just living on the exhaust fumes.”
Comer may be right: the whole bureau needs to be dismantled.