The fallout from Biden-era January 6th abuses hasn’t been limited to trespassing protestors. It’s also claiming executive talent at the FBI, and squandering operational expertise needed to move some of America’s most vexing cases forward. FBI patriots have been caught in a crossfire of blue-on-blue political skirmishes.
In a recent spate of dismissals, two FBI executives received perfunctory notifications regarding the end of their FBI careers. Two firings without explanation, and without cause. What is known is, the dismissals were directed by the White House, reportedly prompted by information from questionable social media sources.
For at least two of the dismissed employees, former Assistant Director In Charge (ADIC) of Washington Field Office Steven Jensen, and former Assistant Director (AD) of the Critical Incident Response Group (CIRG) Brian Driscoll, the firings were wholly unwarranted.
The decision to fire these highly respected and decorated agents is akin to Trump’s misstep when heeding the advice of then New Jersey Governor Chris Christie — leading to the nomination and appointment of FBI Director Christopher Wray, with catastrophic consequences both to the administration and to the American people.
More notably, Trump has been led astray by advice from close administration officials before. Allowing former FBI Director James Comey to remain in office and continue his campaign to undermine Trump was a decision largely influenced by White House Counsel Don McGhan, Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, and White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon. The decision allowed Comey an extra three and a half months to consolidate the CrossFire Hurricane “investigation.”
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Former FBI Agent Brian Driscoll is more widely known for his role as the Acting FBI Director during the interim period prior to Kash Patel’s confirmation. Driscoll served honorably, contrary to the criticisms of the chattering class, who allege Driscoll withheld the names of FBI agents who worked January 6th cases to thwart the administration. The truth is far less inflammatory. But, the truth doesn’t often generate engagement for the rage pornographers.
Driscoll, under enormous political pressure, refused to reveal the names of agents (the vast majority of which were acting in good faith) to the waiting media mob to be pilloried in public without the benefit of due process. He did provide the requested information in the form of employee identification numbers which would serve the interests of justice, but deprive the rabble of their dripping scalps.
For this, Driscoll has been maligned, slandered, libeled, and presumably summarily dismissed.
Former FBI Agent Steven Jensen most recently served as the ADIC of the Washington Field Office — a promotion that sparked a wave of social media hysteria, quickly seized on and monetized by the robber barons of hate and outrage. The allegations smearing Jensen as a January 6th warlord and unhinged grand inquisitor were debunked in a previous Townhall column. My opinion of Jensen as a man of faith and honor remains unchanged. Interestingly, FBI Director Patel and Deputy Director Bongino’s very public and sweeping endorsement of Jensen has yet to be rescinded — be assured, it never will.
Like former Agent Driscoll, Jensen has been dismissed without explanation by the Trump administration, lending a great deal of credence to the notion of assassination by whisper campaign.
There is a dark and nefarious aspect to all of this, and it’s not what social media agitators want you to believe. It shares disturbing similarities to information campaigns waged by foreign adversaries, and if not comparable on every point of execution, it certainly is having the same effect — undermining the credibility of Director Patel, striking at the morale of the FBI workforce, and weakening the effectiveness of the FBI to engage with its wide-ranging portfolio of national security responsibilities. Russia’s SVR and China’s MSS must be giddy with the strategic windfall of distraction, agitation, and opportunities for exploitation — all at the hands of a group of disaffected former FBI employees.
What is particularly puzzling is how a group of malcontents who regularly attack the Trump administration, who have most recently ridiculed the physical appearance of Trump’s Chief of Staff, Susie Wiles, have compromised a Trump administration official with their subversive propaganda. It would seem that whoever allowed themselves to be assessed and successfully tasked by agents of chaos should be debriefed by Trump’s Chief of Staff, and their suitability for a position of trust reevaluated.
For Trump to make good decisions, it’s essential for him to be presented with fully vetted information from sources committed to making America great again.
A resistance movement has taken hold, a movement designed ultimately to thwart Trump’s agenda, especially with regard to his FBI reform policy. Loud voices on the pseudo-MAGA right still militate for the abolition of the FBI, and have found common cause with Marxian leftists who plot for the destruction of the Trump agenda — and your civil rights. The administration must be on guard, and incoming information must be scrutinized in painful detail as to its veracity, completeness, and provenance.
With just over five months into Kash Patel’s directorship, the constant attacks on the FBI as an institution, and on Kash Patel and Dan Bongino as leaders, feels increasingly like subversion couched in the language of patriotism.
Patel has committed himself to rooting out the politicized and ensuring that the abuses of the Biden administration never recur. If the Trump administration is to succeed in making the FBI great again, it must allow it’s congressionally confirmed nominee to do the work in accordance with the notions of due process that we’ve come to expect from Republican leadership.
The uncomfortable truth is, malevolent operatives — aligned by the lust for grift, and the lure of social media stardom (as pathetic as that sounds) have exploited a chink in the administration’s armor, and have perpetrated an injustice to the hurt of not just two honorable FBI agents, but to national security. Ultimately, Jensen and Driscoll will almost assuredly find vindication in litigation, and my colleagues and I wish them every success.
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