An FBI agent in Florida says he chose to blow the whistle on his agency because it has not been following its own rules while investigating the Jan. 6 riot, designing cases to exaggerate the threat of domestic terrorism in America and using excessive tactics to ensure "the process is the punishment" even if a suspect is innocent.
"We took an oath, before our family and our friends and the Lord Almighty, and we are supposed to be people of integrity," suspended FBI Special Agent Steve Friend told Just the News in a wide-ranging interview. "And that's not a leisure pursuit. And if you are indeed a person of fidelity, bravery, integrity — the FBI motto — and you have to be willing to do things that aren't easy, especially when they're as simple as stepping up and pointing out when we are not meeting the standards that we have set out for ourselves."
Friend's security clearance has been suspended, leaving him sidelined on the job without pay after he filed a whistleblower complaint with Congress, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel and the Justice Department inspector general. The complaint obtained by Just the News alleges the FBI is violating the 6th and 8th Amendment rights of Jan. 6 defendants and inflating the statistics for domestic extremism in the country by sending Jan. 6 Capitol riot cases to field offices instead of keeping them in Washington.