FBI whistleblowers Garret O'Boyle and Steve Friend have made multiple press appearances over the last two weeks, asserting that corrupt incentives in the agency run so deep it may be beyond saving.

The Sentinel recently reported on FBI retaliation against several agents whistleblowing on political “rot” in the agency. As more information comes to light, insiders are beginning to question whether it’s time to completely defund the FBI.

“The amount of reforms that are gonna be necessary to make the FBI function properly, and federal law enforcement, are gonna be so enormous that maybe starting all over might just be the task at this point,” Friend told Russell Brand in an interview.

But are these bold statements overblown, and what are lawmakers saying?

Congressman Jim Jordan: There are dozens of FBI whistleblowers

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), who leads the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, contends that there are many whistleblowers coming forward with allegations against a corrupt FBI.

He has also argued for the necessity of the committee, listing several instances of the government being used against Americans, such as:

• The Justice Department labeling parents as terrorist threats for protesting local school boards

• The FBI allegedly paying Twitter more than $3 million to censor tweets

• The Department of Homeland Security trying to set up a “Disinformation Governance Board”

Democrats, on the other hand, criticize both House Republicans and the whistleblowers themselves. Virgin Islands Delegate Stacey Plaskett (D) said in an FBI whistleblower hearing on May 18 that Republicans “don’t really want us to work together.”

“They give us the bare minimum notice for hearings, no subject indicated, we learn who the hearing witnesses is [sic] from British tabloids,” she added. “That’s not normal.”

Plaskett also called the subject of the hearing a “conspiracy theory” and claimed that “MAGA republicans are a threat to the rule of law in America.”

Friend and O'Boyle, however, say they’ve received retaliation. Friend stated that he was not paid for 150 days and denied the ability to seek other work. He also says his wife was fired under “suspicious circumstances” soon after he came forward.

Some argue that, because the issue at hand seeks to reveal politicized weaponization of the government, possible offensive actions by Democrats are what cause Republicans and whistleblowers to be cautious, rather than resistance to “working together.”

House Republicans are going after Christopher Wray and the FBI

Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) said on Monday that he planned to hold FBI Director Christopher Wray in contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over records to the House Oversight Committee.

Comer said the FBI refuses to supply a form that describes an alleged criminal bribery scheme between then-Vice President Joe Biden and a foreign nation. Comer said on Hannity:

We’re setting an example. When we subpoena information, there’s a reason why and we expect to get that information. The House Oversight Committee was created to have oversight over the federal government. And what Ted Cruz mentioned earlier and what Jim Jordan talks about all the time is that we have these federal bureaucracies that think they’re immune to oversight.

Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) also voiced displeasure with Wray. On his podcast The Verdict, he stated, 

Chris Wray is a company man. He views his role as, ‘I've got to protect the institution of the FBI.’ I’ve been on the phone yelling at Chris Wray, explaining to him that you’re not in fact protecting the FBI. When you protect the hardcore partisans who’ve corrupted the FBI, you’re hurting the institution.

Cruz added that Wray views the FBI as “above reproach” and that he’d clean house if he cared about the agency’s integrity.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) also said on Fox News that it’s time to “clean house” at the DOJ. She tweeted:

It’s simple: Christopher Wray needs to do his job & answer to Congress, or else he will be held in contempt. What we’re seeing with the Biden family’s bribery schemes is clearly grounds for impeachment.

 

It’s time to impeach @JoeBiden & begin a house cleaning of the DOJ now.

She also tweeted that the informant who helped the FBI by providing information to create the bribery scheme form was in danger. 

Just left meeting for House Oversight. The @FBI is afraid their informant will be killed if unmasked, based on the info he has brought forward about the Biden family.

Jordan weighed in as well, stressing the need for lawmakers to review the document, “They had a credible source, one of their good sources, who they paid hundreds of thousands of dollars, bring this information to them, and then they create this document,” he noted. “We want to see it.”

Who is really in danger: Sources or the American people?

There’s still a lot of unknown and unconfirmed information regarding both FBI and Biden family politicization and corruption. But whether or not the FBI informant is truly in physical danger, one could interpret these reports as negative for average Americans.

It’s possible to conclude that if an informant with information about bribery schemes involving President Biden is truly in danger, that points to deep corruption in the White House. If, as some assert, the FBI is claiming its informant is in danger only to protect its information, that may point to corruption in federal law enforcement agencies.

“We’re all led to believe that this agency is above reproach and it’s not. It’s as simple as that.” O’Boyle said in another interview. “There’s a mountain of evidence where there’s a lot of wrongdoing going on.”

O’Boyle and Friend both allege that the FBI has consistently broken rules, inflated domestic terrorism threat statistics, and retaliated against anyone who speaks up.

They also allege that compensation bonuses for FBI senior staff and executives incentivize unnecessary and potentially harmful investigation tactics. They say this has allowed the FBI to target everyday Americans.

“The Patriot Act opened the floodgates for the FBI to gather intelligence on everyone,” O’Boyle continued. “I think the number one threat to the American public is a government weaponized against its people.”