Stay Free - Russel Brand - Steve Friend and Garrett O’Boyle (FBI Whistleblowers)

00:00:00.000 Hello you Awakening Wonders!

00:00:01.000 Thanks for joining us on this voyage to truth and freedom.

00:00:05.000 We're not going to... Not trees.

00:00:06.000 Could be.

00:00:07.000 On the way.

00:00:08.000 There's one out there.

00:00:09.000 We had Zelensky out there once.

00:00:11.000 I miss that guy.

00:00:12.000 Where's he gone?

00:00:13.000 You don't hear about him anymore!

00:00:15.000 Surprise appearances, he's doing some of those.

00:00:16.000 Surprise appearance from Zelensky.

00:00:17.000 Hey, we've got a great week this week.

00:00:19.000 We've got Richard Dawkins coming on the show later in the week.

00:00:22.000 I've already done it.

00:00:23.000 Members of our locals community, if you want to join that, you can press the red button.

00:00:27.000 They've already seen it.

00:00:28.000 I was just with Richard Dawkins just now, and the good news is I've convinced him there definitely is a Jesus.

00:00:34.000 Oh, well done!

00:00:35.000 Well done, because he was pretty convinced there wasn't.

00:00:38.000 No, he said that was wrong.

00:00:39.000 He's quite firm about that.

00:00:40.000 Not now.

00:00:41.000 He says that was all a mistake.

00:00:42.000 I've seen the light, he says.

00:00:44.000 He wandered out of here.

00:00:44.000 He regrets it, does he?

00:00:45.000 He asked if he could borrow one of my dressing gowns.

00:00:48.000 I said, get your own, mate.

00:00:49.000 Get your own!

00:00:51.000 Materialism, I said.

00:00:52.000 This material don't come for free, baby.

00:00:54.000 That's mine.

00:00:56.000 Georgia Gal goes, what a fab jacket. 1.00

00:00:56.000 Thanks. 1.00

00:00:58.000 Someone in here was talking about their dream.

00:01:00.000 Oh, it's not a jacket.

00:01:01.000 No, no, no.

00:01:02.000 You may think that because he's wearing it outside of the bedroom.

00:01:06.000 But no, it's a dressing gown.

00:01:08.000 It's a gown.

00:01:08.000 That's what I'm wearing.

00:01:10.000 I like it.

00:01:11.000 Oh, there he goes, Dan.

00:01:12.000 You can show it, mate.

00:01:12.000 Go on, Dan.

00:01:13.000 Can you hear me?

00:01:14.000 Yeah, there I am.

00:01:14.000 There's me.

00:01:15.000 There's my jacket.

00:01:16.000 There's my dog.

00:01:17.000 You've got everything you need.

00:01:18.000 That's the way I live.

00:01:19.000 Hey, guess who we've got coming on the show?

00:01:21.000 Today?

00:01:22.000 Yeah.

00:01:22.000 FBI whistleblowers.

00:01:24.000 That is it.

00:01:24.000 Well done.

00:01:25.000 It's Steve Friend and Gareth O'Boyle.

00:01:28.000 Gareth, on-screen assistant there, has just revealed FBI whistleblowers.

00:01:32.000 They've had enough of the FBI.

00:01:35.000 That'll do.

00:01:35.000 You've never been able to pull that off.

00:01:38.000 I can do this.

00:01:39.000 That was all right, wasn't it?

00:01:40.000 Why don't you just do that with the pretend whistle next to your mouth?

00:01:44.000 Much better!

00:01:46.000 That's enough of that, FBI!

00:01:48.000 Garrett O'Boyle, he'll be here, and Steve Friend.

00:01:52.000 They're sick of the FBI, they've been working there, they've had enough of it.

00:01:54.000 They're going to be telling us all about it.

00:01:55.000 We've got a brilliant presentation on Rachel Maddow doing that Military-Industrial Complex conference funded by Lockheed Martin, and we asked some questions about the mainstream media and their relationship with the Military-Industrial Complex.

00:02:08.000 And whether or not it means that wars get reported on favorably, peculiarly, especially by the left, who used to be all double, let's not have a war, as I recall.

00:02:19.000 Let me know in the chat, in the comments, if you think that the way that the media is funded, particularly through companies like Raytheon, Lockheed, Martin, and of course General Electric, who own MSNBC?

00:02:29.000 Comcast and MSNBC, yeah.

00:02:31.000 They actually sell weapons on the side.

00:02:33.000 It's a side hustle for them.

00:02:34.000 They're the 14th biggest in the world, actually.

00:02:37.000 We've got loads of things to tell you, so we'll be only on Rumble when we do the... Sorry, my dog was panting.

00:02:43.000 It was really off-putting to hear like a... It's not a noise you want in your ear when you're trying to talk about free speech.

00:02:50.000 You don't get that from me.

00:02:51.000 Sometimes.

00:02:52.000 Sometimes I do.

00:02:53.000 Uh, we're, like, we're gonna be talking about, like, yeah, we're gonna talk to them FBI whistleblowers, and we're gonna be analyzing the news and stuff, right?

00:03:01.000 Let's start with that.

00:03:02.000 This is an ABC News report about a near-miss for these warships, and it's really good how they report this, because they're like, uh, this Chinese warship got in the way of an American warship!

00:03:14.000 Where did this all take place?

00:03:16.000 China? 0.73

00:03:18.000 They all took place like really near China, didn't they?

00:03:20.000 Yeah, the Taiwan Strait.

00:03:21.000 That's between China and Taiwan. 0.65

00:03:23.000 It's next, or you could say, next to China. 0.79

00:03:23.000 That's right. 0.79

00:03:26.000 Like that thing, those windows, that drone collision.

00:03:28.000 They shot down a drone in the air.

00:03:31.000 Where was that air?

00:03:32.000 Above the Black Sea.

00:03:33.000 And what does the Black Sea touch?

00:03:35.000 Russia.

00:03:36.000 Right, so you're sending drones up above Russia.

00:03:38.000 Yeah, we've been trying to annoy them.

00:03:40.000 And all this is, of course, because of the changing economic tides that China is set to become the most economically powerful nation in the world in the next... By 2035.

00:03:49.000 2035, or as we say in England, 25 to 9.

00:03:50.000 2035 or as we say in England 25 to 9 so first of all sorry so but

00:03:56.000 Well, I'm gonna do stuff like that sometimes I mean, come to work in a dressing gown, what do you expect?

00:04:02.000 Let's have a look at this warship thing. 1.00

00:04:03.000 Firstly, from a perspective that makes it look really bad.

00:04:06.000 And then from another perspective that makes it not that bad at all.

00:04:08.000 Let's have a look first at the bad one.

00:04:10.000 Tonight, tensions flaring after that Chinese warship nearly collided with a US military destroyer.

00:04:17.000 Did you say, like, that Chinese warship?

00:04:19.000 That Chinese warship! 0.87

00:04:21.000 Look at it over there! 1.00

00:04:23.000 It stinks! 1.00

00:04:24.000 Oh God, it's not washed its ass! 0.99

00:04:27.000 If you're watching us on YouTube, we'll be exclusively on Rumble in a minute, talking to a couple of whistleblowers, Garrett O'Boyle and Stevie Friend. 0.99

00:04:36.000 We'll be talking to them about, they're going to talk about January the 6th.

00:04:39.000 They're going to reveal stuff that you're going to love, so you're going to want to join us over on Rumble for that.

00:04:42.000 I suppose you'd freak out if you were on it.

00:04:50.000 Right.

00:04:52.000 Like, oh my god, this is not good, a collision.

00:04:57.000 Well, that makes it look like literally they were about to crash.

00:05:00.000 It would be mental.

00:05:01.000 Yeah.

00:05:02.000 Also, do you know that people always use that analogy, don't they?

00:05:05.000 Like, you know, if you set off on a thousand mile journey on a battleship and you're just one degree off, By the time you reach your destination, you'll be thousands of miles off or whatever.

00:05:15.000 That's good.

00:05:15.000 Was that verbatim?

00:05:17.000 That's exactly what it says.

00:05:18.000 Actually from the Bible.

00:05:20.000 Within 150 yards of the US destroyer.

00:05:24.000 Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin issuing a stark rebuke to...

00:05:28.000 He used to work in the military industrial complex didn't he?

00:05:30.000 That's right.

00:05:31.000 Ray Fien, who was that?

00:05:33.000 Do the right things to rein in that kind of conduct because I think accidents can happen that could cause things to spiral out of control.

00:05:42.000 It certainly is.

00:05:42.000 Isn't it?

00:05:43.000 Accidents could happen that could cause things to spiral out of control.

00:05:46.000 Joe Biden, we were talking about this a bit later as well, Joe Biden banging on about semiconductors, making their own bombing factories, all sorts of sort of ludicrous semi threats.

00:05:55.000 Why are you saying that like that?

00:05:56.000 No, no.

00:05:57.000 I mean, we'll see in a minute.

00:05:58.000 Seth Moulton, the Democrat congressman who makes the threat about bombing a factory.

00:06:03.000 He says it outright.

00:06:04.000 Yeah, I mean, we'll see a clip.

00:06:05.000 People are saying crazy stuff, man.

00:06:06.000 People are well up for war, you know.

00:06:07.000 They're well up for it.

00:06:08.000 It's necessary for the economy.

00:06:09.000 It doesn't matter if people die and if it seems like an odd way to solve a dispute.

00:06:14.000 People have got a real appetite for it.

00:06:15.000 At a security summit in Singapore, China's defense minister defended its warship.

00:06:21.000 Telling the United States to quote, "Mind your own business."

00:06:25.000 That's such a colloquial way.

00:06:27.000 Because he looked like he was saying something like that as well.

00:06:32.000 Mind your own business!

00:06:33.000 because he looked like he was saying something like that.

00:06:34.000 It does exactly, the action went with it.

00:06:36.000 Mind your own business!

00:06:37.000 (laughing)

00:06:38.000 He said, "Yeah, get out of here!"

00:06:42.000 Like, it's really like, this is international diplomacy.

00:06:45.000 Yeah.

00:06:46.000 A provocation.

00:06:47.000 The near collision, the latest episode straining an already tense US-China relationship.

00:06:53.000 We're showing you this because it's the amplification of tensions between China and the US and you simply wouldn't be seeing things like this on the news unless there was an appetite for there to be some kind of conflict.

00:07:03.000 If they didn't want a conflict, they wouldn't put this on the news.

00:07:06.000 So it's another example of how the media supports favourable narratives That support outcomes of the military-industrial complex will benefit from.

00:07:15.000 And the mainstream media still somehow presents itself as the sort of arbiters of peace and morality.

00:07:20.000 And a figure like Rachel Maddow, who I've told you before I like, like she's on MSNBC sort of like, in 2011 she said like that Congress are in the pockets of the military-industrial complex.

00:07:31.000 Well now she seems to have joined them in that pocket because she appeared at an event for Lockheed Martin.

00:07:36.000 We're looking at that in more depth.

00:07:37.000 Stay free with Russell Brand.

00:07:39.000 See it first on Rumble.

00:07:41.000 Joining us now are Steve Friend and Garrett O'Boyle.

00:07:45.000 Thanks for joining us, fellas.

00:07:47.000 Yeah, thanks for having us.

00:07:48.000 Thank you very much.

00:07:49.000 So we've got both of you on, so we're going to have to deal with the double zoom phenomena.

00:07:49.000 Oh right, I see.

00:07:53.000 First of all, Garrett, let's talk about the January 6th revelations.

00:07:58.000 What in particular do you feel has caused you to get so much blowback?

00:08:02.000 What is it that you have said that's caused so much consternation?

00:08:06.000 What in particular did you observe about January the 6th and the FBI handling of it and FBI instigation and involvement in those protests that's caused you to find yourself in such a lot of bother?

00:08:19.000 So my January 6th example that I whistle blew about was I received a lead from the Washington field office.

00:08:28.000 And it was based on an anonymous tip.

00:08:30.000 So in the U.S., in law enforcement, anonymous tips don't hold a whole lot of weight, especially when there's limited information.

00:08:37.000 You can't recontact the person who made the claim, things of that nature.

00:08:41.000 And there's Supreme Court case law that helps dictate that.

00:08:44.000 And so in mine, it was very limited info.

00:08:48.000 And so I thought, OK, I'll do my best, my due diligence to run this down.

00:08:52.000 And as I'm working on that for a day or two, I get some additional information from the same special agent in Washington who sent me the original lead, and they were asking me to

00:09:07.000 Request a federal grand jury subpoena on the person that the original lead was on as well as a separate website where they made an illogical leap linking a username that we had no information about and with the person that I was supposed to be investigating.

00:09:25.000 So as I'm trying to figure all that out, I then get a facial recognition match and By this point I had already had the most current driver's license photo of my subject and the quote-unquote facial recognition match was someone who was about 150 pounds lighter and had a full head of hair whereas the person I was investigating was bald.

00:09:47.000 So I was really confused at this point and As I dug deeper, it turned out that someone in my field office had submitted a driver's license photo that was approximately 25 years old to the people in the lab who do the facial recognition stuff.

00:10:05.000 And so at that point, I was like, okay, this is really out of bounds.

00:10:09.000 there's no due process being had here for the person that they want me to investigate.

00:10:15.000 And eventually I was able to make contact with that person and they told me they didn't wanna talk to me

00:10:21.000 without a lawyer.

00:10:22.000 And they told me that they weren't breaking any law no matter where they were on January 6th.

00:10:27.000 So at that point, it was clear to me that there was no further information

00:10:33.000 to keep going with this investigation.

00:10:36.000 And then I contacted the person who made that facial recognition submission.

00:10:41.000 And they were adamant that regardless of the age of the driver's license photo, that I had a match.

00:10:48.000 and uh...

00:10:49.000 I was just completely flabbergasted at that point because it's completely outside any constitutional norms that I had ever dealt with inside law enforcement, which I had been working in it for eight years total.

00:11:00.000 So that's my January 6th example.

00:11:03.000 And I know I'm not the only one, but because Marcus Allen and Steve, they also had January 6th issues, which they whistle blew about.

00:11:12.000 You guys, the next question is for you, Steve, because this is a fair and just system.

00:11:19.000 Unlike the FBI, it seems.

00:11:21.000 And Garrett, you can stop touching your nose because you are still on the television and we are still watching you.

00:11:27.000 Now, have you become friends?

00:11:28.000 I notice that you've both got the American flag behind you.

00:11:31.000 Are you mates?

00:11:32.000 Do you love each other?

00:11:34.000 Are you going to carry on doing this stuff, whistleblowing against the FBI?

00:11:37.000 And what other nefarious activities are you aware of?

00:11:41.000 But do answer those first questions about the flag and being mates first.

00:11:44.000 And that's you, Steve, please, mate.

00:11:46.000 Yep, yep.

00:11:47.000 Garrett and I have been acquainted basically since we both became whistleblowers last September.

00:11:52.000 And it's a small network we call ourselves the Suspendables, which we kind of did on a lark just to think of future Employment opportunities, maybe we could be mercenaries somewhere and rip off Sylvester Stallone.

00:12:03.000 But apparently the New York Times found it very nefarious sounding and put it in the newspaper record.

00:12:10.000 So we have taken that mantle and you can see Garrett wearing some Suspendables gear right now.

00:12:14.000 It's the FBI badge.

00:12:18.000 It's cool that you're having fun with it.

00:12:18.000 Yeah, I like it.

00:12:21.000 Absolutely.

00:12:22.000 I mean, you have to laugh or you'd cry.

00:12:25.000 It's been sort of an out-of-control bureau in the way that they've gone after Garrett and myself and many others who, you know, we came forward with the best of intentions.

00:12:34.000 We didn't want to be talking to you, Russell.

00:12:37.000 We just wanted to, you know, alert the people that were in a position of authority to make corrections and thought things were kind of out of whack.

00:12:45.000 We wanted to go back to just doing the Joe Friday, just the facts.

00:12:49.000 Let's put bad guys in jail.

00:12:50.000 But unfortunately, the FBI has just become out of control at this point.

00:12:55.000 I suppose your detractors will say that you have a particular political persuasion and that you are agitators on behalf of the same movement that they would say are behind January the 6th but actually some of your revelations indicate that there were a considerable number of FBI operatives in that crowd who were perhaps doing more than monitoring and observing Allegedly!

00:13:23.000 but in fact possibly instigating and exacerbating the conditions and there is some precedent for

00:13:28.000 that allegedly within the FBI. Numerous cases where their investigations have gone beyond

00:13:37.000 investigation and have become instigation. Furthermore as I heard you in your testimony say

00:13:43.000 Steve, the surveillance has gone beyond the observance of certain criminal acts to an

00:13:49.000 ongoing cycle of surveillance that is unending and limitless.

00:13:57.000 So back to you now, Garrett, because it is your turn and I'm determined to do this fairly and justly even though it has to be said your flag is not as big as Steve's and that makes you seem a A bit unpatriotic, I'd have to say.

00:14:10.000 So, tell me, mate, have you got any more information on FBI instigation on January the 6th and elsewhere?

00:14:20.000 Regarding January the 6th, there was another whistleblower whose testimony was played at our hearing.

00:14:25.000 His name's George Hill, and he had some information regarding Washington field office not wanting to release a video to the Boston field office where he was working because they were concerned about revealing identities of FBI informants and or undercover employees.

00:14:42.000 So I think once that revelation came to light, it became clear to everyone who already wasn't paying attention that there was Most likely a heavy law enforcement presence involved with the events of that day, but it certainly is something that the FBI takes under consideration in many, many different types of cases.

00:15:02.000 So in the FBI, a confidential informant is known as a confidential human source or CHS, and it's FBI policy that FBI agents have at least one CHS on the books.

00:15:17.000 Many have more than one, and It's the purview of the agency to push agents to implement CHS use as often as they can.

00:15:26.000 So they will never release the amount of CHS's that the agency has as a whole, but it is a considerable number and they try to put those CHS's and undercover employees into a wide range of different type of investigations.

00:15:41.000 There's a recent story about Biden and bribery, as well as a new report, or poll at least, that suggests that the majority of Americans want the FBI to be reformed or shut down.

00:15:55.000 Steve, given your recent experience, do you think reform is possible, or do you think that the entire organisation needs to be disbanded and started again?

00:16:04.000 I think it's a six on one half dozen of the other situation.

00:16:06.000 I think the amount of reforms that are going to be necessary to make the FBI function properly in federal law enforcement are going to be so enormous that maybe starting all over again might just be the simple task at this point.

00:16:19.000 But I think that the elected officials are very scared of being labeled as Uh, defund the police candidate for office.

00:16:27.000 So there's, there's all this reticence that surrounds that, but those guys just need to talk to the people that are boots on the ground, the Garrett O'Boyles, the Steve friends who actually worked in the FBI and can tell you that it's, it's really all about empowering local law enforcement.

00:16:44.000 That should be what the FBI prioritizes above anything else.

00:16:49.000 It's this whole thought where you have a central hub in Washington, D.C., and they send out cases around the country to be worked is just farcical.

00:16:58.000 All the good cases that the FBI works, They come from the police forces and the sheriff's offices where we have our small offices around the country.

00:17:06.000 And we just really have to be there to support those guys because they don't have the finances and the cool gadgets that the FBI has.

00:17:13.000 And maybe thinking about it in that way might make it more palatable to the reforms that are necessary.

00:17:19.000 Gareth, do you have a question for Steve or Gareth?

00:17:19.000 Thank you.

00:17:24.000 I do.

00:17:25.000 Excuse me.

00:17:26.000 [Music]

00:17:30.000 And remember, when you do your question, you're going to have to direct it to one, because otherwise it would be

00:17:36.000 Oh, you think not to both?

00:17:36.000 chaos.

00:17:37.000 Well, how are they going to know how to answer it?

00:17:39.000 What if they step all over each other?

00:17:41.000 Okay, I'll try to do that, Russell.

00:17:42.000 It's difficult for me.

00:17:43.000 I'll whistle blow on you so hard! 1.00

00:17:45.000 Sure, sure.

00:17:46.000 Gentlemen, I just wanted to talk briefly about the Congressional hearing and the Democrats and The way in which you've been treated by I guess both the FBI and the Democrats.

00:17:58.000 Obviously we know recently about the Durham report and the findings there.

00:18:03.000 And also about the 278,000 legal searches that were done by the FBI that's been reported on as well.

00:18:09.000 And a sentence written by Michael Schellenberger and I just wondered your opinions on it.

00:18:13.000 He said, so why did the FBI and Democrats attack the FBI whistleblowers?

00:18:17.000 Perhaps because they are revealing at a minimum the FBI's failure to stop the riot And more maximally, its role in instigating it.

00:18:25.000 And I wondered if it was going too far to suggest the FBI had a role in instigating Jan 6th, and what your thoughts were on that.

00:18:34.000 And who's that to?

00:18:35.000 Oh, that's initially to Steve.

00:18:37.000 Oh, gentlemen, gentlemen.

00:18:39.000 Who is it?

00:18:39.000 Steve, yeah.

00:18:41.000 Yeah, I think that the demand for domestic terrorism in this country by our elected officials and by leaders in the FBI vastly outstrips the supply of it.

00:18:49.000 And unfortunately, the FBI essentially has a quota system that bosses get bonuses for if they open a certain number of cases.

00:18:57.000 So domestic terrorism is popular and they want to open up a lot of cases.

00:19:01.000 So they've contrived ways to work smarter and not harder.

00:19:05.000 As a result of that, the FBI has evolved into this intelligence-driven agency, and it deploys its informants, its confidential human sources, and its undercovers, and oftentimes infiltrates these groups that they label as possibly domestic terrorists or could become domestic terrorists.

00:19:23.000 And as a result of that, you have an incident that happens on January 6th, or even on a smaller scale, like the plot to kidnap Gretchen Whitmer, where it was sort of revealed in the trial for those individuals that they were essentially entrapped, that they were not predisposed to commit that.

00:19:39.000 That offense, but because of the infiltration on behalf of the government, not that the government set up the group, but they infiltrated so heavily that they encouraged these guys to do things that they were not predisposed to do.

00:19:51.000 And I think that you saw that on its worst example on January 6th, where there are a lot of organizations that were there just to support Donald Trump or to protest and redress their grievances in front of the Congress, which is their First Amendment protected activity.

00:20:03.000 But because there were infiltrators afoot, they encouraged them to do something that was illegal.

00:20:08.000 You are getting a lot of love here in the chat, as well as some inquiries.

00:20:12.000 Georgie Gal says, presumably AI will replace the FBI.

00:20:16.000 If you want to join us on Locals, just press the red button on your screen now, and I can see your questions.

00:20:21.000 Jim Earth C137.

00:20:23.000 They both seem like good men who are just trying to do the right thing, and yet they've been demonized.

00:20:27.000 Sums up the state of the world nowadays.

00:20:29.000 Wishing you both the best.

00:20:31.000 Truth will prevail.

00:20:33.000 Oh, Zonaxation says, it looks staged.

00:20:37.000 All those unmarked grey buses that were bought in during that day contained what I believe were paid disruptors.

00:20:43.000 Some people are talking about the bribe of Biden.

00:20:47.000 And then True Chimera.

00:20:48.000 Who likes Mexican food?

00:20:50.000 Not the Tex-Mex stuff, the real stuff.

00:20:53.000 You've gone off topic, Drew Chimera!

00:20:56.000 Guys, can I ask you this?

00:20:57.000 Like, well, you know, some people say, oh, you just, like, don't like the Democrat Party or something.

00:21:02.000 Do you like the Democrat Party?

00:21:04.000 Are you impartial?

00:21:06.000 Are you MAGA folk?

00:21:07.000 Are you allowed them type of affiliations in the Trump Party?

00:21:11.000 Do you think that your testimony will be utilized in a partisan way?

00:21:16.000 And does that concern you?

00:21:17.000 What are your own political affiliations, if I may ask you, and have they led you to do this whistleblowing and stuff?

00:21:25.000 I'll take that one first.

00:21:27.000 I would say I align more as a libertarian than anything else.

00:21:31.000 In 2016, I voted libertarian across the ballot.

00:21:37.000 But especially as an FBI employee, and furthermore as an investigator, Your job is to be as unpartisan as possible, or nonpartisan as possible.

00:21:48.000 And that's something any police academy, the FBI academy, any constitutional law course you might take, they try to teach you that and drill that into your head.

00:21:58.000 But as we've seen with something like the Durham Report and the Crossfire Hurricane investigation, Things of that nature.

00:22:05.000 It's the top echelon, especially, of the FBI that are the ones that are partisan and are seemingly having an agenda to skew the law enforcement activities one way or the other in this nation.

00:22:19.000 And You know, it's incumbent on every investigator to have it at the forefront of their mind that they come from a certain background and certain experiences that have helped shape and mold them, so they have to always remember that they have their own biases.

00:22:34.000 I do, Steve does, they're probably different in some ways, and that's why it's on us to always remember.

00:22:39.000 Okay, am I looking at this investigation or the facts that I'm discovering in this investigation as impartially as possible and following the rule of law as best as I can without my own agenda?

00:22:51.000 And I think for both of us, the answer was that the FBI as a whole was the institution that was not partisan, or that was partisan rather, and that in part is what led us to come forward.

00:23:05.000 When I was deposed in February, I told both Democrat lawyers and Republican lawyers that these issues are not partisan in nature, or they shouldn't be.

00:23:15.000 And then, lo and behold, a few weeks later, it was the Democrat side who leaked small snippets of that testimony and tried to paint me as some deep mega-operative, and that couldn't be further from the truth.

00:23:27.000 And when something like that happens, it was clear to me that they are the ones with an agenda.

00:23:31.000 They don't really care about the facts or substance of our Protected disclosures.

00:23:36.000 They care only about protecting the party, only about protecting the FBI, and that couldn't be more clear to me at this point.

00:23:43.000 Yeah, that makes sense, Garrett.

00:23:45.000 The state should only be partisan in response to a democratic mandate.

00:23:50.000 They should represent the will of the people.

00:23:53.000 I think what you're saying is that these institutions have metastasized into their own sort of centers of authoritarianism.

00:23:59.000 Throughout the pandemic, we saw the FBI's attempt to control social media spaces.

00:24:05.000 That's been Demonstrated now.

00:24:07.000 It's pretty plain they've been acting in a partisan way across a number of issues.

00:24:12.000 Steve, would you like to add anything to Garrett's previous comments?

00:24:16.000 And also then, could we take it to how it's been emotionally for you since you've gone public?

00:24:21.000 Has it been frightening?

00:24:22.000 Have you faced any consequences? 1.00

00:24:23.000 But first, are you a raving maggot? 0.96

00:24:28.000 No, I think my default setting is similar to Garrett where I'm a libertarian by nature. 0.96

00:24:33.000 I like to look at each individual candidate for a particular office.

00:24:36.000 I kind of view politicians as being plumbers.

00:24:38.000 I just want them to solve the problem and then, you know, not really get personally attached to any one of them.

00:24:43.000 I think the one thing that gets lost in the attacks that came after me on the Democrat side during the hearing, where they tried to attribute some sort of sympathy towards the political side.

00:24:55.000 I brought my whistleblower concerns forward, not because I had sympathy for the subject, but because I thought we might be putting our cases in jeopardy.

00:25:05.000 If it was a righteous prosecution, and we were not buttoned up in what we were doing, and the FBI is not following the rules, I thought we could lose a trial.

00:25:13.000 And then I was also concerned that there was a public safety risk in using a SWAT team to arrest somebody who had already pledged to be cooperative with law enforcement.

00:25:21.000 A simple phone call to an attorney and ask to surrender is more than adequate in that situation.

00:25:28.000 It was not because I was trying to, you know, get my fellow MAGA guy out of jail for free.

00:25:31.000 I just wanted, I would think of myself more as a system idealist.

00:25:35.000 And, you know, I think of criminals as system disruptors that we have to push back on.

00:25:40.000 And now at this point, the FBI is really the system disruptor.

00:25:43.000 They're not following our rule book.

00:25:45.000 They're not following our constitution.

00:25:47.000 As far as emotionally, and just the fallout after this, it was pretty rough.

00:25:52.000 I was unpaid for 150 days.

00:25:54.000 The FBI denied me the ability to seek outside employment, which I requested, and they denied in one calendar day.

00:26:01.000 My wife lost her job under very suspicious circumstances very shortly after I was put in unpaid indefinite suspension.

00:26:09.000 The FBI leaked my private medical information to the New York Times and told them that I was accused of shooting a firearm in my backyard.

00:26:16.000 And then the inspection division within the FBI also said that they tried to put a gag order on me to prevent me from speaking to an attorney or even my family about the situation.

00:26:25.000 So it was a long train of abuses and eventually ended with my resignation in order to... I had a job offer on the table and had been unpaid for long enough that I had to provide for my family.

00:26:38.000 Again and again in the chat here on Locals, press the red button if you want to join.

00:26:43.000 The word that is being used is brave.

00:26:45.000 A lot of people are in awe of the personal sacrifices you have made as a result of your belief in liberty and justice and it's very very

00:26:56.000 impressive that you have taken this risk and you've put yourself in a position where you can evoke so much ire and

00:27:02.000 receive so much negative attention and of course

00:27:05.000 I suppose the way that you're treated will Indicate what kind of biases are present because all of us

00:27:10.000 regardless of our political affiliations Or be interested in justice and telling the truth and the

00:27:16.000 transparency and reliability of an organization like the FBI

00:27:20.000 Steve I like your remark that politicians should just be like plumbers

00:27:24.000 Solving problems and a lot of people picked up on that in the chat as well. I'd like to thank both of you very much

00:27:30.000 Joining us today on stay free and also to thank you once again for putting yourself in such a vulnerable position

00:27:37.000 Where you've been the subject of persecution because of your values and your personal sacrifices

00:27:44.000 Thank you very much both of you.

00:27:46.000 Thank you for having me.

00:27:47.000 Thanks for having us.

00:27:48.000 You lovely, and aren't they lovely?

00:27:49.000 How big is that bloody flag that Steve's got?

00:27:52.000 It's the whole wall of his house!

00:27:54.000 For God's sake, the size of it!

00:27:56.000 Lots of love, guys.

00:27:57.000 Thanks very much for joining us.

00:27:58.000 That's fantastic.

00:27:59.000 To find out more about Steve and Gareth's work, go to centerforrenewingamerica.org.

00:28:05.000 Calm.

00:28:06.000 Uh, join us tomorrow, uh, but if you're on Locals, get over there, press the red button on your screen, join us on Locals, we're gonna have a right laugh, we'll carry on.

00:28:12.000 But this is vodka in here, I'm gonna be, like, dancing like Boris Yeltsin in a minute.

00:28:15.000 Join us tomorrow, not for more of the same, but for more of the different.

Stay Free - Russel Brand - June 06, 2023

Steve Friend and Garrett O’Boyle (FBI Whistleblowers)

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