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FBI Whistleblower Resigns, Warns Congress About Dangers of the Bureau’s Case ‘Quota System’

On Thursday, a major whistleblower at the FBI announced his resignation from the bureau, with a final warning to Congress that the FBI has created a dangerous “quota” system for cases that incentivizes agents to artificially boost or decrease the number of cases they take on, purely for statistical purposes.

As reported by Just The News, special agent and former SWAT team member Steve Friend resigned from the FBI after giving an extensive interview before the House Judiciary Committee earlier this week. Friend had previously been a key whistleblower on the civil rights abuses that many of the peaceful protesters from the January 6th U.S. Capitol protest have faced at the hands of the FBI. Friend also provided details on the bureau’s overt politicizing of certain cases, as well as efforts to artificially increase the number of overall investigations in order to meet arbitrary quotas.

In retaliation for Friend’s disclosures, which were made under the official guidelines for the whistleblowing process, FBI leadership placed his security clearance under review, thus indefinitely withholding his pay. Despite never being formally accused of any wrongdoing or being officially disciplined, Friend was denied his paycheck for 150 consecutive days.

“The FBI had weaponized the security clearance revocation process in order to essentially try to wait me out financially,” said Friend in an interview. “You know, I was in a position where I had some personal savings and was able to survive. But at the end of the day, you know, I’m a married father of two small children. I have to support my family.”

Instead, Friend said he has taken up a job at a nonprofit that will continue investigating the FBI for misconduct. “I just had to take that opportunity and, you know, continue my efforts to reform the FBI from the outside,” he added.

On the controversial quota system, Friend said that the FBI’s case management system has been deliberately altered to not only demand an arbitrary number of cases from agents, but also to allow the bureau to focus on politically-charged cases that the leadership prefers to be investigated over actual, more serious crimes. The new system “essentially involves the FBI setting metrics for itself, setting a quota and pressuring its workforce to meet that quota,” Friend explained.

“Another aspect of this that I think is worth noting is even if crimes are righteous and worthy of being investigated, the quota system incentivizes you to change your tempo of your investigation,” he continued. “I had a personal experience where I was told to delay indictments of subjects, because we’d already met our quota for the year, we wanted those numbers to count to the next fiscal year.”

Under the Biden Administration, the FBI and other federal law enforcement agencies have openly targeted political opponents with excessive uses of force and fabricated charges on debunked or non-existent “crimes.” In addition to the hundreds of January 6th protesters, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has targeted a number of former senior advisers in the Trump Administration, including Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro, and has also targeted pro-life activists in the aftermath of the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

 

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About Eric Lendrum

Eric Lendrum graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he was the Secretary of the College Republicans and the founding chairman of the school’s Young Americans for Freedom chapter. He has interned for Young America’s Foundation, the Heritage Foundation, and the White House, and has worked for numerous campaigns including the 2018 re-election of Congressman Devin Nunes (CA-22). He is currently a co-host of The Right Take podcast.

Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images