Well, this is a first… a report about whistleblowers on what was allegedly being done to whistleblowers.
When Kash Patel was named as FBI director, it was interesting to see how some former agents reacted to the threat of ridding rogue elements from the agency.
Patel has done that, but he has also exposed a lot of the problems that exist in the agency, as well as the perceived weaponization of the agency during the Biden administration.
When Patel first came on the scene, there was widespread panic among some past and present FBI agents, as well as Democrats, about how he would clean up the FBI.
I have close to a dozen past and present contacts in the agency, and not a single one of them was worried about Patel; quite the opposite, actually.
I read the panic reported by some outlets, including in a huge expose in Rolling Stone, but what I found rather amusing was how people were just blatantly ignoring the abuse of the agency over the last decade.
This would include the FISA warrant abuses and the use of the Steele dossier during the Trump Russian collusion probe, not to mention the openly anti-Trump sentiment that existed in some of those doing the investigating.
To my point above, recently, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) exposed a Biden “enemies list” that reportedly came from the Arctic Frost investigation led by Jack Smith.
Grassley stated, "Arctic Frost was the vehicle by which partisan FBI agents and DOJ prosecutors could improperly investigate the entire Republican political apparatus.”
He continued, "Contrary to what Smith has said publicly, this was clearly a fishing expedition."
Smith has since agreed to come to the Hill to talk to congressional committees with the caveat that he receives immunity for what he tells them. That request alone got my ears up.
Emily Fertitta, who served in the bureau under the Biden administration, recently discussed the issue of revenge tactics used by FBI officials against those who had come forward to expose something they saw within the agency.
She stated, "A very simple equal employment opportunity case has grown into this huge whistleblower case that has implications for everybody. National security retaliation is huge for so many whistleblowers."
She has firsthand experience with this, as her husband, Valentine, also an FBI agent, had been deployed overseas and returned with serious injuries, only to find out he was being removed from consideration for a promotion due to reduced productivity stemming from those injuries, which she believed was a violation of government protections for injured veterans.
When her husband appealed his case, he soon found out that his security clearance was up for review, which, if revoked, is more or less a death sentence for an FBI agent. No clearance, no job. This is clearly a problem within the department, and it is something else that Patel will have to clean up. Keep in mind, this is but one tale, as there are plenty more from people like Valentine Fertitta who have just stayed quiet for fear of retribution.
