Last Updated on October 24, 2022
FBI Special Agent Stephen Friend blew the whistle on January 6th and the Governor Whitmer kidnapping hoax when he revealed Sunday that he is currently suspended without pay after his refusal to participate in what he says are a “heavy-handed” raids of January 6 “suspects.”
“To me there were some violent actions by individuals that probably warranted criminal prosecution, but I also saw other cases where the individual was simply walking into the Capitol building with the permission of Capitol police officers.” FBI whistleblower Stephen Friend said. “It kind of seemed to me that it was a waste of our valuable resources to pursue even an interview with that individual if we had them on video not committing any crime and just walking into the Capitol Building, which is their right to do as an American citizen.”
Friend also brought up the Gretchen Whitmer kidnapping plot hoax.
“In the fallout [of the kidnapping hoax] it appeared that the undercovers and the case agents were driving this case and driving this narrative to entrap individuals who were not disposed to commit the crimes. I frankly felt like I had been used as an apparatchik of a politically-driven agency,” Friend said.
Friend revealed that local FBI office executives stood to benefit financially from the execution of the January 6th investigations and consequent raids.
“Is it accurate to say the local FBI offices that brought January 6th cases probably saw financial benefit, at least the individual executives with the FBI, in those offices?” interviewer Sharyl Attkisson asked.
“Yes,” Friend replied.
“Is it accurate to say, as far as you know, there were not bonuses being given for child exploitation cases?” Attkisson asked.
“As far as I know there weren’t,” Friend replied.
The FBI Special Agent saw similarities between the January 6 Capitol protests and the Whitmer kidnapping hoax.
“With the overlap of the way that those [Whitmer plot] individuals may have been entrapped, I saw that some of these individuals with January 6th were being allowed into the Capitol by police officers…[it] smelled a little bit like entrapment,” Friend asserted.
In August, Friend declined to participate in FBI raids in Florida on multiple J6 “suspects” in Florida.
“I felt that there was definitely a harder hand in the way that the arrests and the searches were going to be carried out, regardless of the individuals’ involvement in January 6th,” Friend contended.
The bureau official went on to voice his concerns with FBI Jacksonville Special Agent in Charge Sherri Onks.
“She said that it appeared to her that I’d lost faith in the agency and its leadership and that I represented a very fringe belief about the events of January 6th not needing the heavy-handedness that the FBI was treating them [with]. And my belief that there could be potential abuses of power, that it was incumbent on me to call out as a matter of my oath of office – she said that that was a ‘very fringe belief’ and that I needed to do some ‘soul-searching’ about whether or not I wanted to have a future in the FBI,” Friend said.
Friend was consequently suspended by FBI Special Agent in Charge, Onks, for his refusal to participate in the raids.
“I applied to the FBI because I believe in the mission. I look at my responsibility as I want to combat bullying, and that’s why I became a special agent. If the FBI becomes the bully, that doesn’t change my responsibility. I need to stand up and face that down, even if it means my career. And if the FBI is willing to become a bully, then it’s truly lost,” Friend said.
Friend is still employed at the FBI but is currently suspended without pay. He is working with the nonprofit, nonpartisan whistleblower group, Empower Oversight Whistleblowers & Research (EMPOWR), to help him submit formal complaints to the Inspector General (IG), the Office of Special Counsel (OSC), and Capitol Hill.
The FBI declined an interview request with media outlet Full Measure, but stated that the agency “investigates individuals who commit or intend to commit violence and other criminal activity that constitutes a federal crime or poses a threat to national security. We are committed to upholding the constitutional rights of all Americans and will never open an investigation based solely on First Amendment activity.”