Why are so many FBI whistleblowers coming forward now?
And even more importantly – where were they before, when we really needed them? The damage has been ongoing for at least seven years and almost certainly more. But it affected the 2020 election in particular, as well as the lives of many people on the right who faced and still face legal jeopardy and lengthy imprisonment for actions that would earn a wink if perpetrated by people on the left.
But suddenly, there are a great many FBI whistleblowers coming forward to Republican members of Congress. See this [emphasis mine]:
“These new allegations are appalling, and continue to demonstrate that the FBI‘s culture has gone off the rails,” Rep. Dan Bishop, North Carolina Republican, told The Washington Times. “New FBI whistleblowers are coming forward at a rapid pace, and my Republican colleagues and I on the Judiciary committee will leave no stone unturned.”…
These new whistleblowers from the bureau are in addition to the 14 FBI whistleblowers House Judiciary Committee ranking member Rep. Jim Jordan, Ohio Republican, says he has already talked to.
The new group of insiders accuses FBI management in different field offices of corruption, cover-ups and retaliation against rank-and-file agents who attempted to expose it, The Washington Times has learned…
Mr. Gaetz cited one whistleblower as telling him that he’s coming forward to save the agency from implosion.
“The guy told me that he loves the bureau, that he doesn’t want to see the bureau defunded or destroyed, but that he really feels a need to come forward so that there’s a focus on the things they ought to be doing, not trying to affect political outcomes,” he said.
Here are some ideas I have about the timing:
(1) Previously, would-be whistleblowers were so afraid of retaliation that they waited. While they waited, they communicated and networked with each other in some clandestine way until they felt emboldened by strength in numbers.
(2) The problems within the FBI simply became more and more egregious and more and more people in the FBI encountered them.
(3) In addition public sentiment has been strongly turning against the Bureau.
(4) In particular, the recent talk of defunding or disbanding the FBI has made the whistleblowers come forward in order to save the FBI and perhaps their own jobs.
(5) The idea that the GOP has a decent chance of taking control of Congress in 2022 has helped them to come forward in anticipation of that (then again, why didn’t more of them come forward during Russiagate, when the GOP had control and Trump was president?).
All these explanations seem a bit weak to me. You may have better ideas.
I also believe that the firing – or resignation – of agent Thibault represents a decision by the higher-ups that he will be blamed for the rot that is rampant in the agency. Interestingly, even before the MAL raid but when it was about to occur, Christopher Wray had testified before Congress that Thibault was a problem – and yet the raid went forward shortly afterwards.
There’s also this:
House Judiciary Committee Republicans are opening an investigation into Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz over reports suggesting his office’s involvement in examining a cellphone the FBI seized from Rep. Scott Perry’s (R-PA).
A letter sent Monday by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), the ranking member, said such a move by the agency’s independent watchdog “creates a serious conflict of interest for the OIG in reviewing the Department’s actions.” Among the demands made of Horowitz were those for relevant documents and communications, as well as explanations for a forensic examination of Perry’s phone and concerns raised about the seizure. Jordan asked the inspector general to produce this material no later than 5 p.m. on Sept. 12.
And although some people are encouraged by the idea that Judge Cannon may appoint a special master to oversee the documents seized in the MAL raid, I think it’s way too little way too late. The FBI had its fishing expedition and – “taint squad” notwithstanding – almost certainly has already combed through everything. So, they seized privileged documents? So sorry – oopsies!
NOTE: So far I don’t see any coverage of these whistleblowers in the MSM. If you can find any, let me know. When I do a search, I just get stories from sources on the right. When I go to the New York Times’ site and search for “whistle blowers,” I get recent stories about the Twitter whistleblowers.
The existence of such voices of conscience within such a corrupt organization is certainly good news (the reason for so many now coming forward not being entirely clear), but the old saying about fish rotting from the head ought to be heeded. Should Republicans, in less than three months, manage to take control of Congress (not as likely, perhaps, as one might think), one of their first orders of business should be the removal of the wretched Wray and the ghastly Garland, not to mention Mayorkas the Malignant and Maleficent, who is even worse than the others.
I have to say that 14 doesn’t seem an awfully large number to me.
It seems likely that pensions rather than jobs are a motivator, if this is about financial concerns. I don’t think any FBI employees take heed (nor should they) of “Republicans”. However, the success of … what? … 93% of Trump backed candidates in primary elections may have gotten the attention of those with a brain.
(then again, why didn’t more of them come forward during Russiagate, when the GOP had control and Trump was president?).
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Maybe they fear the new Republicans may be more hard core than the old? I don’t know that’s true, either the fear or the reality. But it is true that leftists often fear us in ways that seem ridiculous to us.
My guess is that there are too many actual crimes well documented by the Hunter Biden laptop, including pretty strong evidence of Joe Biden involvement, which are about to come out.
The MAL raid is not showing Trump crimes enough to cover the FBI crimes.
Some pressure from Durham, as well.
Certainly possible there’s a fear that Reps taking over Congress will result in a serious wind change; I hope for it, sometimes even daydream about it; I fear it’s far less likely than I hope for.
In an organization of 35,000 people there’s bound to be at least a tiny number of people who are capable of shame and have some sort of moral compass I suppose. Of course 14 whistleblowers out of 35,000 is about 0.04% though. And I wouldn’t hold my breath for any mass resignations. It’s a government job with superior pay and benfits to private sector equivalents after all.
My cynical app says it’s a Get-Out-Of-Jail card for when the stuff hits the fan in earnest. All will be forgiven.
A variation of 2) The problems became so obvious, it was “possible” the whistleblowers might be believed. (No-one wants to be the crank / Cassandra).
#4 and #5, skeptic that I am.
I doubt the bureaucratic state will ever admit or believe they are not serving their mission.
Why is President Trump a threat to the administrative state, while a Pence or Mittens is not? Because Trump doesn’t respect a level of status quo that any politician agrees to. I think it’s hidden in their oath when they go to Washington– where “constitution” is Washington codeword for “us”.
This is related, while not exactly the topic you’ve addressed. Why didn’t Trump earlier release the documents surrounding Russiagate? According to Sundance at CTH (I know, I know), Bill Barr hedged Trump in, getting the President to agree to delegate the authority to release classified information to Barr.
The President couldn’t release the information while the Mueller investigation was ongoing (the investigation ended in April 2019. Barr convinced the President that he shouldn’t release the information while a special council investigation was ongoing. In May 2019 Barr appointed Durham to investigate the investigation.
The President was played.
The Intelligence State won. It will always win, since as the legislative disfunction has turned over most of its responsibilities to the administrative state and judicial arm of the IS.
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2022/08/27/president-trump-tried-to-work-within-the-system/#more-237037
FWIW, there isn’t much info. out there about scapegoat Thibault. I was able to find out he’d been with the bureau for about 25 years and that as an associate special agent, he’s paid between $80,000 and $100,000 annually. There is a photo of him at this Newsweek link: https://www.newsweek.com/who-timothy-thibault-fbi-agent-behind-hunter-biden-probe-retires-1738143
Warning: there is also a photo of Hunter at the link– have your eye shield ready.
All these FBI agents doing favors for the anti-Trump politicians may just have wanted to be rewarded for helping the winning side. This makes them amoral rather than partisan.
Next let’s suppose the raid on Trump’s estate turned up nothing useful, and this information gets distributed around the FBI. Now a clever and amoral agent might decide that the smart career move would be to switch sides and become a whistleblower.
In this sort of situation, it helps to be the first or second to come forward. The later whistleblowers will have to produce more lurid stories to get any career benefits — and being allowed to retire with a pension instead of going to jail definitely counts as a career benefit…
Information is a perishable commodity. Like fish. The first to reach the market with fresh tasty product will command a premium. The guy who shows up late in the day with obsolete or questionable merchandise will do very badly.
The defection process is like a cascade: pressure to join the sell-outs will spike exponentially and then tail off quickly.
(then again, why didn’t more of them come forward during Russiagate, when the GOP had control and Trump was president?).
I like (5). This may be naive, but the explanation to the above could be that in the early days they hoped that the existing system of checks and balances would actually work. Now we and they know that the FISC (FISA Court) is a joke. Not only do they not have an army or police force, they don’t have any teeth or spine of any sort. Thanks Chief Justice Roberts.
I’m thinking it’s likely an accumulation of all five though things might have reached some sort of tipping point after Mar-A-Lago. I think Garland (less so Wray) truly was surprised at the blowback and may have been effectively out of the loop. He appears to have been letting the ongoing Trump investigations simmer to avoid antagonizing the mid-level guys who were running them, a variation on the reported problems of getting young Wokies to focus on the jobs they are paid for, but having to march out in front of the press and eat a pretty good helping of crow by at least the appearance of voluntarily disclosing the warrant and affidavit must have hurt. I’m wondering if he’d like to get a pound of flesh as much as a scapegoat right now, and I’m betting there are other agents who might not like Trump that much but feel the FBI is spinning its wheels with the various ‘get Trump’ efforts.
I do find it puzzling that suddenly the FBI seems to care about its public image when for so long they evidently didn’t. Perhaps they imagine that halfheartedly disposing of a scapegoat (Timothy Thibault) and Garland putting up some window dressing with regards to political activities of FBI employees will be enough to restore there reputation somewhat? Did all the talk of disbanding the FBI actually scare them? I find it hard to believe.
What does Sundance call stuff like this…chaff and countermeasures?
These “whistleblowers” are a distraction. Useful at some level, but a distraction nonetheless designed to clog up in committees investigations and feverish news channel chats what should be a straightforward whole-agency shut down.
The FBI is so compromised and corrupt that this.04% of “fine people” doesn’t even qualify as a drop in the bucket.
Perhaps the FBI agents canned due to the vax mandate wanted revenge?
Perhaps the deep state is starting to fear the damage the headpieces are causing ( MAL is a threat, the border crisis is a threat, J6 vs BLM is a threat, CDC is a threat). We may simply have crossed a threshold at MAL.
The critical mass matters. If you thought you were the only agent willing to come forward, you would have to consider:
1. The news media will destroy you including reporting lies and smears.
2. The FBI and CIA and NSA will be able to go back to spy illegally on every aspect of your life for the last two decades. Any dirt found or manufactured will be leaked to corrupt news media like the WaPost and NYTimes.
3. The GOP will not have the guts to stand up for you.
4. You probably are fully aware of how corrupt the system really is. You KNOW better than most how corrupt DOJ is. You know how corrupt the oversight committees are in Congress. You know how corrupt the judges are.
5. You MIGHT have better info on assisted suicide operations and realize that you might be another such victim.
I wouldn’t trust anyone in the government to protect me for coming forward.
I wondered the same thing neo and can’t come up with any activity so egregious now compared with the past. Some might think the raid on Mar-a-lago, and certainly that entered a new territory for political discourse and bureaucratic over-reach, but 1) I think this phenomenon of FBI whistleblowers coming forward started before the MAL raid and 2) the Steele Dossier and the Russian Collusion stuff seemed far worse (they wiretapped the offices of an opposition political campaign and made it “legal” to do so). Many of us can point to various other events in history.
My final straw (in terms of losing all trust in any FBI agent) was the US Women’s Gymnastics team assaults. At a time when US Women’s soccer is making headlines for demanding equality in pay and with an Olympics upcoming; not even NBC during the Olympics made much mention of the testimony by these women to Congress about the abuse ignored for years by the FBI. This was systemic abuse ignored because it interfered with an FBI agent’s personal career aspirations. This is Harvey Weinstein bad, yet it barely made news. People will still talk about #MeToo, but not about the FBI allowing it to happen to underage women who just wanted to represent our nation.
As for the Thibault story, I don’t know what to make of it yet, because at 25 years, he could have just retired and walked out with leadership. If what he did was worth firing him over (and I think it was), then simply walking him out of the office on a Friday isn’t a punishment that I consider sufficient. If he misled DOJ leadership, well General Flynn got punished much more harshly for such an offense to lower-level DOJ peons. Heck, Scooter Libby was punished more harshly.
Much too little, far too late. The corruption existed long before the past 7 years.
FBI Director Wray, who replaced the equally slimy Comey is a perfect example of a grim reality; get rid of the people at the top and the ones who take their place will be their understudies.
The rot extends far beyond the FBI. Cutting off one branch will not kill this poisonous plant. No basis exists to assume that any part is not corrupted. It would have to be exhumed in every root and branch, which is neither legally, poltically or culturally possible.
The U.S. Federal government has rendered itself illegitimate by revealing itself to have become an entrenched criminal enterprise.
Like all cancerous enterprises, it will die a violent death.
An fbi intel expert was arrested in salt lake city for child molestation charges
A, a preference cascade collapse?
WOW! Too many spot on comments to list quickly. Got a party to attend instead.
Neo-
I think there are two possibilities
Optimistic view- The raid on Trump was a last straw. Law enforcement rank and file still skews heavily center/right and they viewed this as a step too far. Especially with such paper thin and apparently ad-hoc justifications for it.
Pessimist view- This is nothing more than deck clearing. Even with skewed polling the Democrats are still coming from behind in most races in November. Realizing this they decided to get ahead of many of these scandals when it would hurt them the least. And it sets up the eventual dumping of Biden as a POTUS candidate in two years.
It is also possible there is a mix of these people in the group. Or I could be entirely off. But that is how I tend to see things stacking up at the moment
@ Neo > “(1) Previously, would-be whistleblowers were so afraid of retaliation that they waited. While they waited, they communicated and networked with each other in some clandestine way until they felt emboldened by strength in numbers.”
Now, why in the world would they fear retaliation, just for talking to Congress — which supposedly has over-sight of the Executive agencies.
https://redstate.com/nick-arama/2022/08/30/smells-like-cover-up-garland-tries-to-shut-down-doj-employees-talking-to-congress-n620378
The FBI (like the CIA, and the Pentagon is loaded with short sighted ‘careerists’). Nice to see some people in the FBI with good morals and honor but I cringe whenever Sean Hannity says that “99% of the FBI agents are good, decent people”. I think that the Bureau is so far gone it needs to be completely revamped. Peter Strzok and Lisa Page are just two examples.
If they have been coming forward it could be that they think that enough is enough and that Biden and Anti-Trump are more of a threat than Trump is. For every agent who comes forward, though, there a dozens or scores who are hunkering down and shredding documents in anticipation of Republicans taking back Congress.
Shredding documents must surely be a metaphor.
When was the last time anybody wrote a “document” with a Bic on a legal pad, or typed one on an old manual?
Nope. They’ve all had some acquaintance with a computer and, likely, its word-processing capabilities. They’re all electronic, whether they were supposed to be or they were that way for convenience.
And if you wrote a document, it was in order to send it to somebody. So if you have it, it’s a copy. The receiver has the original. One way or another. You’re shredding the copy. Might make you feel a bit better, I suppose.
Are you sure a tranche of your work comm didn’t get loose while trying to access pron on your work computer, or looking for oversize loafers at Zappos? What about that one time, that forward to “ALL” OH CRAP!
So even if you wipe your machine with a cloth or put in in a bonfire for Labor Day, are you sure….?