The Great America Show - FBI： COOKING BOOKS & BOOSTING BONUSES

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00:01:15.040 Hello, everybody. I'm Lou Dobbs and welcome to The Great America Show.

00:01:26.660 Great to have you with us.

00:01:28.400 These are difficult times.

00:01:30.100 The government is now just days from what could be a shutdown.

00:01:34.300 And the conservatives in the House are standing strong, insisting Biden secure our southern border.

00:01:40.360 Congressman Matt Gaetz and members of the Freedom Caucus say they're all for shutting down the government

00:01:46.320 if Speaker McCarthy doesn't offer a clean bill on funding border security.

00:01:51.640 And it seems McCarthy has gotten the message.

00:01:54.460 Here's McCarthy letting Biden know his days of a wide open border are numbered.

00:01:59.540 No longer will we sit back and allow him to ignore the problems that he has created.

00:02:07.000 This is too important.

00:02:08.760 The American lives that are at stake, it is the number one killer of Americans between the ages of 18 and 45. 0.74

00:02:17.140 This is a bipartisan issue.

00:02:20.080 This is the leaders of the Democratic Party accept what's in this House.

00:02:23.580 So we will give them an opportunity.

00:02:26.140 Do they want to stand with the leaders of the Democrats across the nation who are elected?

00:02:30.100 Do they want to stand with the American people?

00:02:32.240 Do they want to stand with the families that are crying out?

00:02:35.740 It's not a big ask.

00:02:37.760 It's not a big ask at all.

00:02:40.320 We have passed H.R. 2.

00:02:42.200 It's sitting in the Senate.

00:02:43.540 They have chosen.

00:02:44.980 Schumer has chosen to ignore his governor, to ignore his mayor, to not act on this.

00:02:51.240 Well, you know what?

00:02:51.820 We will give the president and the Democrats an opportunity to do something about this border.

00:02:57.700 And you know what?

00:02:58.780 In doing so, we will keep government open and solve these problems.

00:03:03.620 The border security and illegal immigration crisis has hit cities all over America.

00:03:08.920 One sanctuary city in particular that is taking a beating by illegal immigrants is none other than New York City, America's largest city. 0.53

00:03:17.460 And as of today, New York is caring for more than 60,000 asylum seekers, so-called, who were sent to the Big Apple from Texas.

00:03:26.920 The city has contracted more than 100 hotels for the illegals, and the city is spending more than a billion dollars. 1.00

00:03:34.360 This astronomical price tag doesn't take into account other government and private facilities New York has taken over all across the city to house and shelter the illegals. 0.95

00:03:45.960 One borough in New York City, Staten Island, is fighting back against the Marxist Dems and their inept mayor, Eric Adams.

00:03:55.020 A Staten Island Supreme Court judge ruled that a former high school that Adams had turned into an illegal immigrant facility has to shut down and immediately.

00:04:04.840 One of the lawmakers who have been fighting to have it closed down is Staten Island City Councilman Joe Borelli.

00:04:12.440 He joins us now with an update.

00:04:14.520 Joe, give us the latest on Staten Island and its stand against illegal immigration.

00:04:19.320 Well, thankfully, hopefully we don't have to go to an appeal.

00:04:22.960 I'm hoping the mayor stands down and decides that it's not worth the appeal in this case,

00:04:28.100 because as a lot of people aren't aware, the mayor himself, the city's law department, is in court trying to undermine the right to shelter himself so that he could give people 30-day evictions and 60-day evictions.

00:04:40.480 This settlement today, this decision today, gives him that as it stands right now.

00:04:46.600 So he doesn't have to appeal that.

00:04:48.580 He could take this decision and use this to implement whatever policy he wants to, to basically alleviate some of the long-term residents of these shelters.

00:04:57.340 And by the way, Lou, one point that's not getting mentioned, this judge today was a Democrat.

00:05:02.300 He's a Democratic elected judge from Staten Island, and this is a lawsuit that was bipartisan in nature.

00:05:08.020 So it's a good thing for the whole city.

00:05:09.820 Well, tempers are flaring.

00:05:12.980 The tensions are high.

00:05:14.420 The mayor has been authoritarian in his actions, in my opinion.

00:05:20.320 Something's got to be done, because these illegals are going to keep coming as long as Adams permits it. 1.00

00:05:28.680 So what is next for him?

00:05:31.720 Right.

00:05:32.280 I mean, the president granted these temporary work authorizations, which is unfortunate.

00:05:37.960 That's not going to help alleviate the problem.

00:05:40.280 If you give 50,000 Venezuelans work authorization tomorrow, that doesn't solve anything if 50,000 more Venezuelans and whoever else can just cross the border in the next week or two and take all the places in the migrant shelters as is.

00:05:55.980 That's what we're afraid of, that Democrats are just really offering nothing but half-cocked solutions that aren't going to actually result in the decrease or the basically decommissioning of all these migrant shelters around the city.

00:06:10.900 And that looks like what may follow, because if Adams takes the out that your successful lawsuit has given him, he won't need any further judicial approval.

00:06:24.280 He can just simply start moving on it, correct?

00:06:27.520 Correct.

00:06:27.940 He can start giving people 30-day evictions or 60-day evictions, maybe if they have kids or something, and then can go from basically 208 shelters and 10 cities down to almost nothing over time, which should be his goal.

00:06:40.900 We're spending more in the next fiscal year than the entire budget of Phoenix, Arizona.

00:06:46.180 So think about that.

00:06:46.880 The largest city in America is going to pay for the biggest city budget in America, ours, and we can also pay for the fifth largest city in the country's budget as well.

00:06:56.120 We can basically pay to run every service the city of Phoenix does for the same cost we're actually sheltering these migrants for. 0.99

00:07:03.420 It's actually even bigger than the whole budget of Mississippi, a whole state.

00:07:06.720 It's incredible.

00:07:07.580 It is incredible, and he's done it not just in New York.

00:07:10.900 But across major cities all across this country, chaos is reigning.

00:07:17.420 There is, without any question, a backlash that is building, and I mean building strongly in this country.

00:07:24.740 What in the world must the Democrats have been thinking to simply throw open a border and have this approach to millions of illegal immigrants that are in the country?

00:07:36.160 We don't even know how many they are.

00:07:38.400 Estimates range from additionally in the three years of the Biden administration almost three to up to 12 million illegals in the country as a result.

00:07:48.020 Yeah, and I mean, this is entirely their doing.

00:07:51.700 I mean, back in 2020, Joe Biden ran on undoing the Trump border policies by anyone, unfortunately.

00:07:59.280 Well, you know, maybe he did, maybe he didn't, but he's the president.

00:08:02.240 And in January of 2021, they changed 89 customs and border administration policies, as well as ending MPP.

00:08:11.160 And now we have this problem, like you said, not just in New York City, but in so many of our large cities across the country, not to mention the problem that has existed in these border states.

00:08:21.900 So this is more people than we can ever have imagined.

00:08:25.220 By the way, this didn't happen in the Trump administration, honestly, but we've never seen it this bad in the Obama administration.

00:08:30.440 We didn't see it this bad in the Bush administration.

00:08:32.480 You can go back to Clinton.

00:08:33.600 You can go back as far as you want.

00:08:35.460 You have never seen this bad in this country until Joe Biden decided in January of 2021 to change these policies.

00:08:43.360 Well, Joe Biden and whoever is is the puppet master for all of this, because Joe Biden's incapable of bringing together even these destructive policies that have been been orchestrated over the course of his administration.

00:09:00.740 I mean, it's this has been an effort to destroy America, plain and simple.

00:09:06.120 What are the people of Staten Island going to do here?

00:09:08.580 This this this high school, as I understand it, is right next to another school, a grammar school.

00:09:17.660 I mean, it's outrageous that they would even think to do that, to put in all of those illegal immigrants next to school children. 1.00

00:09:25.420 It was the wrong place entirely.

00:09:28.460 I mean, we had another shelter that was in an old hotel in the middle of nowhere that people didn't really get as agitated about.

00:09:35.280 This was, as you pointed out, a school.

00:09:37.640 My wife is an alumnus.

00:09:38.960 It's closed.

00:09:39.940 It was supposed to be a public school down the road.

00:09:42.640 And all of a sudden it became this migrant shelter.

00:09:44.940 And it's across the street from a disabled children's school, a K through 12 elementary school and another high school.

00:09:52.940 So it's just appalling that this was the location they chose.

00:09:56.220 This location doesn't even have showers.

00:09:58.140 So the temporary showers they brought in are basically on the back of a trailer and in the next door neighbor's backyard.

00:10:05.060 Imagine you wake up one day and you just hear people singing in the shower in essentially your backyard.

00:10:10.100 And that's what we were just supposed to shut up and take as Staten Islanders.

00:10:13.960 As you saw from all the videos, I'm sure you've seen them.

00:10:17.340 Staten Islanders didn't take too kindly to it.

00:10:19.580 And we've been out in the streets almost every night since they moved in, just protesting, exercising our rights.

00:10:26.000 And, of course, we went to the courts.

00:10:27.480 And finally we got the decision.

00:10:29.020 We're also in courts, by the way, on the parkland that the mayor wants to use to house these migrants. 1.00

00:10:34.000 Because you can't just alienate parkland.

00:10:36.660 I mean, there's severe federal laws and state laws against that.

00:10:40.260 So I think we'll be successful in that one, too. 0.92

00:10:41.860 Well, I have to tell you, Councilman, I'm not surprised at Staten Island that's standing up and telling the mayor to go to hell.

00:10:50.560 It's also refreshing to see a community defend itself rather than sort of suck air through their teeth and watch as they're overrun by this disaster nationwide.

00:11:02.900 You're here, to be complimented, I have to say, for your leadership and the way that you and the community have moved ahead to protect yourself and to stand up against a presidential administration and a mayoral administration that, frankly, I think are out of their ever-loving minds.

00:11:24.080 You get the last word on this show.

00:11:26.620 Mr. Morelli, your thoughts?

00:11:28.560 Well, thank you, Lou.

00:11:30.240 And you can't leave out the governor who just decided to basically bring on another 150 National Guards men and women to basically be social workers in camouflage so we can bash the mayor, we can bash the president.

00:11:43.660 We can't leave out our dear governor, Kathy Holcomb.

00:11:46.200 Amen, brother.

00:11:47.580 Councilman Joe Borelli, thanks for being with us and all the best to all of the great people of Staten Island.

00:11:53.100 Thank you.

00:11:54.160 Councilman Joe Borelli, thanks for being with us.

00:11:56.520 Well, the world's richest man, Elon Musk, says that the open border has created a severe crisis for the nation.

00:12:03.440 Musk is going to the border this weekend to see firsthand just how bad it is.

00:12:08.600 Musk says he'll head to the Eagles Pass sector of the border to see what has happened to a small town of 28,000 people who've had 7,500 illegal immigrants flood into the town in just the past 48 hours.

00:12:23.300 Good for Elon Musk.

00:12:25.360 Every business leader in this country should be following his example.

00:12:29.340 We're going to take a quick break here.

00:12:31.320 The Great America Show continues in just moments.

00:12:34.360 Please stay with us.

00:12:35.280 We're back, and thanks for staying with us.

00:12:43.360 The Marxist Dems have taken over the federal government, as we've documented here, and nearly every quarter of our society and economy.

00:12:51.520 They are ruining this nation and will ultimately be responsible for its demise.

00:12:56.360 It's up to the Republican Party to save the republic, and it's far from a sure thing.

00:13:02.180 But at least the American people have awakened to what the Marxist Dems are doing to this great country.

00:13:08.540 A new poll from Morning Consult supports just that conclusion.

00:13:13.340 Americans say Democrats are more extreme than Republicans and are losing faith in the Marxist Dems to govern it all and keep this country safe.

00:13:21.560 In that poll, most say by 47 to 44 percent, Republicans are more capable, and by 47 to 41 percent, voters say Republicans are more likely to keep the country safe.

00:13:34.520 More awakening, less woke, a very good thing.

00:13:38.840 The House Oversight Committee holds their first impeachment inquiry hearing this Thursday, and just yesterday they released their list of witnesses who will be testifying.

00:13:47.780 Among them are Bruce Dobczynski, a forensic accountant with more than four decades of financial investigations and expert witness experience, who's testified in more than 80 trials.

00:14:00.440 Eileen O'Connor, former Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Justice Tax Division.

00:14:05.660 George Washington Law Professor Jonathan Turley.

00:14:08.520 And House Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith has also reportedly scheduled a vote for today to release further relevant information on the Hunter Biden investigation.

00:14:19.400 Our guest today is an FBI whistleblower, former FBI agent Steve Friend.

00:14:25.120 He was suspended from the Bureau when he decided to blow the whistle on the FBI's abuses of innocent Americans involved in the January 6th protest.

00:14:34.460 Steve, it's great to have you here on The Great America Show.

00:14:37.160 Your thoughts today on the FBI's so obviously corrupted, politically corrupt.

00:14:43.540 Yeah, it's been exactly one year.

00:14:45.880 Last September 19th was the day that I walked in the office and was unceremoniously escorted out for making my protected whistleblower disclosures.

00:14:54.360 That's not their actual official reason.

00:14:56.680 The FBI found its way around the Whistleblower Protection Act by suspending my security clearance for looking at the employee handbook improperly.

00:15:04.600 And I think just as a retrospective, looking at the last year and how the FBI's reputation has just been so sullied by an innumerable number of weaponization examples we've seen around the country.

00:15:17.640 I think that I got out while again was good, because now at this point, I think there's just a reputational problem that's going to hound so many people that have stayed behind.

00:15:25.540 How long were you in the FBI?

00:15:28.900 I joined in 2014.

00:15:31.520 So it was about eight and a half years that I was an agent.

00:15:34.920 First seven was spent in Iowa working on Indian reservations.

00:15:39.580 Then relocated to Florida to work on child pornography before being reassigned to work on domestic terrorism.

00:15:46.280 It's it's it's it's just amazing to me that an agent who had come up through the ranks and had the experience you did because you stood on principle saying that you didn't think it was appropriate to to go in with a tactical team for a misdemeanor arrest.

00:16:10.260 That that set off what was to be your separation from the FBI.

00:16:15.240 Tell us about that.

00:16:16.980 Well, I actually had a twofold concern.

00:16:18.900 One was that the FBI was manipulating its statistics when it came to domestic terrorism is using the January 6th cases and spreading them around the country to make it look like there was a greater risk of domestic terrorism.

00:16:31.360 And that was an effort done to enhance the statistics because the FBI has a quota system.

00:16:38.640 And that's why January 6th was such a boondoggle for the bureau.

00:16:41.580 And secondly, as you touched on, we were sending SWAT team to arrest an individual.

00:16:46.620 And in this case, he actually was alleged of committed a felony.

00:16:49.380 But my objection was, and I said this as somebody who was a SWAT team member for five years, he had pledged to be cooperative a year and a half before when we had actually interviewed him for the investigation.

00:17:01.340 And that lapse in time and plus sending the enhanced risk of the more more risk of use of violence when it comes to a tactical team.

00:17:10.900 I thought presented an unnecessary risk to his safety and to ours was very much like I could see a Waco happening. 1.00

00:17:16.940 And we always like to Monday morning quarterback those incidents.

00:17:19.700 And I said, guys, I'm here on Saturday saying what you're doing is wrong.

00:17:24.140 Yeah. And, you know, projecting to today, we're talking about a couple of incidents in the last month in which tactical teams from the FBI went out for arrest and and shot and killed two two people.

00:17:40.320 They were serving a warrant on and it's gotten to be.

00:17:44.400 And as far as I know, there's been no investigation whatsoever, but a 6 a.m.

00:17:49.740 Tactical, you know, approach to to taking into custody a a a person that they know to be having mental troubles, one of a veteran with post-traumatic stress syndrome.

00:18:03.000 And the other, again, a man, a fellow, I think he was in his late 60s.

00:18:11.100 These are considered risks that you bring a tactical team in and try to get bring them out at six o'clock in the morning.

00:18:17.820 I mean, this is this is crazy stuff they're doing.

00:18:20.800 And it's an a search warrant starting to be a death warrant, isn't it?

00:18:24.420 It is. It is. The FBI has made the process the punishment.

00:18:28.080 And that is not in keeping with traditional law enforcement.

00:18:31.740 It's your job to bring a subject into custody using the least amount of force necessary.

00:18:36.600 And that requires you to be nimble in your thought processes.

00:18:39.620 As it was a case, as we saw in Utah, that was a gentleman who was not ambulatory.

00:18:44.040 He was elderly. He was in poor health.

00:18:46.720 And it would have been completely appropriate to contact him by the phone or to send a deputy locally or to just interdict him when he was on his way to the mailbox with a couple of agents.

00:18:57.620 But unfortunately, there is a thought process problem that exists within the FBI where they no longer view themselves as case agents that you see on TV and movies where they chase after the bad guy, investigate him and then take him to jail.

00:19:11.360 Now you're a case manager. So if you need financial analysis, you send it to the forensic accountant.

00:19:16.320 If you need evidence collected, you send the evidence team.

00:19:19.420 And when it comes time to make the arrest, you send the arrest team, which is the default option now is the SWAT team.

00:19:24.660 And that's, again, a risk, an unnecessary risk to so many people.

00:19:29.600 It's outrageous. It truly is.

00:19:31.400 And I think most people are not even paying attention to what is happening.

00:19:34.940 But these tactical teams going in like, you know, it's the landing on the beaches of Iwo Jima for an old man who, as you say, wasn't even ambulatory, who had been making threats, I guess, over the over the Web.

00:19:49.700 I'm not entirely sure of the details, but then to end up shooting him up and flashbangs in the house and tear gas and all of the usual nonsense.

00:19:59.940 I mean, it looks great on television.

00:20:01.440 It's a terrifying and, you know, I can only imagine the fear in that man's heart is that was taking place as he was probably awakening to begin his day.

00:20:10.840 I don't understand how people I don't know how the men and women of the FBI can put up with being being the people who who killed it.

00:20:20.480 I really I just don't understand who these people are, who they've become.

00:20:25.180 And I hope that they're questioning who they've become, because it's ugly and it's a blight on a storied institution that is itself so solid and corrupt.

00:20:35.580 I don't know if it's retrievable.

00:20:37.380 Your thoughts.

00:20:38.080 I think that too many people have compartmentalized their objections and they've justified what's going on by doing the old tried and true.

00:20:46.720 I'm just following orders and I have bills to pay and mouths to feed.

00:20:50.900 But I've just fallen back on.

00:20:52.620 I would rather have hungry children than morally bankrupt ones.

00:20:56.120 And my oath of office meant a lot more to me than apparently so many people.

00:21:00.680 They they've basically made it a agreement on an iPhone update.

00:21:05.480 They just check yes and then do what they're told because they know there's an opportunity to to have a great pension and a great salary.

00:21:12.540 But that's not why I I joined the ranks of the FBI.

00:21:15.340 And I'm just tremendously disappointed that so many people, they can't bury their heads in the sand at this point.

00:21:20.440 We all received the same training.

00:21:21.820 We all went to the Holocaust Memorial and the MLK Memorial.

00:21:24.320 And we learned that it's incumbent on you to throw the flag if you think that the FBI is off the rails, because those sorts of atrocities only happen when people just follow orders.

00:21:35.480 Just follow orders.

00:21:37.300 And we know the orders coming out of out of FBI headquarters.

00:21:42.280 They were to find more domestic terrorists.

00:21:45.400 That was the new cry in 2020 during that campaign year, for some reason.

00:21:52.060 And and and suddenly you were amongst the very first, if not the very first to point out that they were cooking the books, trying to create the so-called, quote unquote, domestic terrorism cases.

00:22:07.520 Yes, I did.

00:22:08.100 In January 6th is not unique.

00:22:10.000 This is a practice that's been going on for a long time.

00:22:12.220 It started with homegrown violent extremists that we heard about in the early 2000s.

00:22:16.680 And you have the Liberty City 7, which is still the largest Al Qaeda takedown in the history of the FBI.

00:22:21.860 But unfortunately for those gentlemen, none of them were actually a member of Al Qaeda.

00:22:25.620 And the FBI is now focusing on what they are labeling domestic violent extremists.

00:22:30.500 And last September, President Biden said that those people are anti-government white supremacists.

00:22:36.080 And that is also, interestingly enough, how we characterize Republican voters.

00:22:40.160 So the FBI is really just doing the bidding of preserving the status quo for who is sitting at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, as opposed to combating real crime.

00:22:48.540 And they're manipulating the stats to do it and saying that the threat is far greater than it actually is in the country.

00:22:54.040 Well, they're right about one thing.

00:22:55.980 The three, the threat is greater, but the threat is emanating from the very government that we expect to defend us rather than target us.

00:23:04.040 We're talking with Steve Friend, a great American.

00:23:07.520 We are talking with him on the one-year anniversary of his suspension from the FBI as he stood on principle.

00:23:15.960 And the FBI, well, they have become a corrupt agency, and they proved it again in his case.

00:23:23.260 We'll be right back, talking with Steve Friend.

00:23:25.340 We're back now with Steve Friend, whistleblower and a great American.

00:23:36.660 Steve, what are you doing now?

00:23:38.420 Well, I resigned from the FBI last February, actually the morning that I testified for the weaponization select committee.

00:23:44.760 And I did that because the FBI denied me my request for outside employment.

00:23:48.840 I was an unpaid, indefinitely suspended agent for 150 days.

00:23:53.600 My wife lost her job as well in the immediate aftermath of what happened to us.

00:23:57.400 And those were just a few of the usurpations.

00:23:59.420 There were many more.

00:24:00.600 And ultimately, though, I applied for and was accepted as a fellow at the Center for Renewing America,

00:24:06.040 where I'm advising on domestic intelligence and domestic security services and hoping to push out more information to as many Americans as we can about the rampant abuses that we're seeing every day at the hands of the FBI.

00:24:18.360 And I hope your family is well.

00:24:19.620 I hope your wife is pursuing her career.

00:24:22.840 And I just like to know your thought process right now as you are watching what is happening with this federal government.

00:24:30.280 What is your impression of the government?

00:24:33.400 What how did it change over the course of your career with the FBI as a former law enforcement officer?

00:24:41.220 What are your thoughts about where the country is?

00:24:45.320 Well, I think the FBI has fallen into a trap of mission creep where they used to be the century on the wall looking for terrorists.

00:24:52.840 And now they've evolved into looking internally.

00:24:54.920 And they've combined that with the fact that it's no longer a law enforcement agency.

00:24:58.280 It's it's an intelligence agency.

00:24:59.760 You just look at the FBI's rulebook for itself, the domestic investigations operations guide, the DIOG, and it lists intelligence collection, first and foremost, ahead of actual law enforcement, criminal investigations.

00:25:12.700 And finally, a parrot with the integrated program management, which is the FBI quota book.

00:25:18.080 It's the ticket quota for the traffic cop.

00:25:20.520 And you combine all those forces together.

00:25:22.900 The oars are pulling in the same direction.

00:25:24.400 And the FBI has looked at the internal population as opportunity targets of opportunity for its needs, for cases, for arrests, for informants, all above board in their book.

00:25:37.080 And unfortunately, that has departed from what we expect of our law enforcement.

00:25:42.100 And you hire a police chief and elect a sheriff in your county to bring the crime numbers down.

00:25:46.980 But the FBI is perversely incentivized to bring the crime numbers up so it can justify an ever expanding budget.

00:25:53.720 And executives actually within the FBI get compensated because the quota numbers are hit.

00:25:58.720 They get compensated on what, like salesmen on commission?

00:26:02.820 Yes, the senior executives in all the field offices, and there's 56 around the country, they are no longer on the GS pay scale that all the government workers normally are.

00:26:11.500 They're on the senior executive service pay scale.

00:26:14.500 And that involves a bonus structure.

00:26:16.480 So hitting the quota entitles these managers to bonuses somewhere between $30,000 and $50,000 annually.

00:26:23.180 And that's not a one-time payment.

00:26:24.660 That's every year.

00:26:25.880 And on top of that, it goes towards their pension.

00:26:29.300 Incredible.

00:26:29.780 And I have to say, Steve, as you may hear the surprise in my voice, I have never heard of this before, that they are actually incentivized by the federal government.

00:26:42.980 It is not only one-time annual bonuses, but also goes in by some formula into their pensions.

00:26:50.900 Yes, your pension is calculated on your highest years of earning within the FBI, which normally is towards the end of your career, as you've ascended the ladder.

00:26:58.760 And now, as they sit in these senior executive service positions, that's where they're earning the lion's share of their highest years of earning.

00:27:06.180 And as a result of that, they retire from the FBI, and the percentage calculation is based on those years.

00:27:12.840 So it's something that the American taxpayer are on the hook for for decades, as opposed to just a one-time payoff, which on its own is pretty egregious.

00:27:21.120 And it also interferes with the day-to-day operations.

00:27:24.040 It's not just the number of cases that have to be open.

00:27:26.220 It's the tools that must be used.

00:27:27.700 So it's very common when you're in the field to be pressured by frontline supervisors to work cases that are going to end with a wiretap, because using a wiretap is one of the quota items.

00:27:39.120 So that is the most invasive tool in the tool belt of a law enforcement officer.

00:27:44.180 And now you've incentivized or pressured your subordinates to use everything they can in order to utilize it so that the boss can get a bonus.

00:27:53.140 And finally, it's also structuring around the calendar, which is completely inappropriate.

00:27:57.580 I've had experiences where I was told to delay indicting certain subjects because we'd already hit our numbers for the year.

00:28:03.560 We didn't want them to get bumped up for the following year.

00:28:06.380 Work smarter, not harder.

00:28:07.380 Why don't you wait a few months and then indict them when the fiscal year is rolled over and the calendar is fresh?

00:28:12.500 And then you can hit the ground running.

00:28:13.720 So sandbag now and look really good next year.

00:28:16.920 Are the congressional oversight committees aware of this, to your knowledge?

00:28:22.260 I've brought this information to them.

00:28:23.840 And I've talked about it very briefly in May when I testified in front of the weaponization committee.

00:28:29.760 And they certainly have the material, and I've sent it over, and I've actually written about it publicly, some columns about it.

00:28:38.040 I haven't heard very much about them.

00:28:39.760 I actually haven't heard back from the weaponization committee other than texts a couple times to make sure that I was doing okay.

00:28:46.340 It's sort of a sign to see that you're alive.

00:28:49.460 But I haven't seen any action taken on bringing these reforms to bear.

00:28:53.720 The most I've seen is an offer to maybe deny the FBI its new headquarters building.

00:28:58.540 But that's certainly not going to do anything about the corrupted DNA that it's at its core.

00:29:03.740 It's just a symbolic gesture.

00:29:05.420 Yeah, I've had arguments here of late, a number of people who are terrific Americans, they're patriots.

00:29:12.680 They don't want to see the FBI simply overhauled completely, which is, I insist that it happen.

00:29:21.980 I don't care what anybody says.

00:29:24.100 That place is so corrupt now that I don't believe that any part of it can be saved.

00:29:29.720 I may be wrong about that, but I know this, that just taking out leadership right now is not the answer.

00:29:36.620 This is pervasive.

00:29:37.660 I have never seen such a disheartening organization turn into something unrecognizable, certainly unrecognizable with the movies that the FBI is putting out on television, their series.

00:29:52.580 How many have they got now?

00:29:53.800 Four.

00:29:54.460 Talk about how great they are.

00:29:56.100 I mean, it's a propaganda role.

00:29:58.140 They've got, as you're talking about, their money incentivized in operating what is a corrupt organization.

00:30:06.360 It's politically corrupt.

00:30:07.540 It's now, I find out, actually financially corrupt.

00:30:11.880 How much worse is this going to get, Steve?

00:30:16.020 You know, its reputation is everything.

00:30:17.760 I think we were told when I first got hired that the FBI logo was one of the most recognizable images around the world, and the reputation precedes it.

00:30:26.260 And as a result of that, I was able to do my job very effectively in talking to people.

00:30:31.220 But I think the days are not long.

00:30:33.540 They surely exist now where people are refusing to talk to the FBI.

00:30:35.820 But how long before a jury immediately acquits anybody brought before them because they doubt the legitimacy of the charges because they were brought by the FBI?

00:30:44.400 So I think that there's a case we made, and I certainly share your sentiment.

00:30:48.080 I think that the FBI needs to be broken into a thousand pieces and scattered to the wind.

00:30:52.220 But I've also proffered one potential avenue if they lack the appetite to actually defund the agency entirely.

00:31:01.060 And that would be for Congress, which they can do today, defund the armed special agent position and make it an unarmed position, and then force the FBI to partner with local sheriff's offices in order to do investigations, use their personnel, because they would be the armed law enforcement officers present.

00:31:17.880 And then the sheriff would have a sort of bulwark position against an out-of-control weaponized government, and he would direct those investigations because, again, he knows where the criminals are.

00:31:28.000 He knows where the needs of the community are, and he's responsible for his constituents, and he wants to bring the crime down.

00:31:33.760 He said that instead of answering to a quota system that's coming from headquarters in Washington, D.C., we're going to answer and empower, not defund the FBI, empower local agencies.

00:31:45.280 And that might be the course correction that's needed because the FBI is not the magical police.

00:31:50.020 There's far superior actual law enforcement professionals who are working in people's towns every single day.

00:31:57.180 And who put their lives on the line every day holding that blue line.

00:32:01.880 And I'm a great believer and fan of sheriffs all over this country who are elected by their communities, who I think represent those communities, and who do an amazing job.

00:32:17.680 And the state patrol, the state troopers, the local police departments are magnificent.

00:32:22.920 They have been reduced to agencies that, well, I frankly don't know how anyone can work right now in local law enforcement in some cities, particularly the Democratic-led cities, where they're under immense pressure, facing horrible crime rates in communities that are indifferent to their welfare or that of others.

00:32:45.920 It's a mess, and I want to commend you before we go to break here.

00:32:52.160 You've put forward the first solution I've heard.

00:32:54.680 When we come back, I'd like to know how Congress reacted to your advocacy for what seems to me to be the smartest solution I've heard offered by anyone.

00:33:06.220 We're talking with Steve Friend, whistleblower, great American.

00:33:09.920 We'll be right back.

00:33:10.800 We'll be right back.

00:33:10.920 We'll be right back.

00:33:16.520 We're back with Steve Friend.

00:33:18.580 He has written a terrific book, True Blue, My Journey from Beat Cop to Suspended FBI Whistleblower.

00:33:25.860 It is available wherever books are sold, available on Amazon.

00:33:31.720 We will have it up on our website today, where you can also go to click on it to get to Amazon and to buy a terrific read.

00:33:42.840 We recommend it to you highly.

00:33:44.400 Steve, how did Congress react when you gave what I think is the most sensible, intelligent, and likely most effective approach to both rein in what is a corrupt organization and to support, importantly, local law enforcement?

00:34:03.220 Well, I only talked about that with some of the members of the committee briefly after testifying, and they definitely entertained that idea.

00:34:11.540 They seemed to think that it was novel and something that was maybe worth taking up.

00:34:14.900 But really, again, back to what I really said, have not heard very much from them.

00:34:20.040 I realize that they're spread really thin, and they have other things on their plate, and this is really central to my focus and my heart.

00:34:26.080 That's why I've put out some op-eds regarding it, and I've tried to speak out to folks such as yourself or across the media, hoping that this sort of idea could gain traction.

00:34:34.560 I think that too many of our elected officials lack the political capital or the political will to push for major reforms, and they're scared of being labeled as a defund the police representative.

00:34:46.680 And I think that you could message this one properly to the American people because so many people have tremendous respect and admiration for local law enforcement.

00:34:54.320 So empowering a sheriff, empowering local police or state authorities, I think, is something that most people would be willing to go on and get on board with.

00:35:02.980 And this sort of reform stops short of a defund the FBI, and I think it's a happy middle ground that would please the most amount of people.

00:35:10.700 Well, it is a time where we hear very few answers to what are egregious and deeply troubling divisions and conflicts within our law enforcement, our governments, and particularly the federal government I'm talking about.

00:35:30.480 Those agencies, whether it's the FBI, whether it's the intelligence community agencies, the CIA, NSA, DIA, et cetera.

00:35:38.520 It is a time of, I think, historic conflict within the government itself.

00:35:46.320 The government is pervasively corrupt, I believe, fundamentally.

00:35:51.240 And I think we have a Congress that doesn't quite yet appreciate how extensive and profound the corruption is, even though they're making great headway and these congressional committees are doing magnificent work.

00:36:04.680 I still don't think that entirely they grasp the dimensions of what is the Democrat Party, what it's become under the Marxist Dems who lead it.

00:36:15.980 This is a perilous time in our nation.

00:36:18.700 I'd like to get your perspective on the society as well as our governmental institutions.

00:36:25.580 I am a firm believer in the doctrine of the lesser magistrate, and I think that the weaponization that we've all witnessed and, in many cases, been victims of over the last few years have laid bare that the necessity for that sort of governing philosophy to become the predominant philosophy once again.

00:36:45.560 And I, again, agree with you.

00:36:47.980 I think the sheriff is the highest-ranking law enforcement officer in your county.

00:36:51.640 He's most responsible to you.

00:36:53.400 And you should have a say in what goes on in your community and care way more about what happens at the Board of Commissioners level in your county or the town council or the school board than what the goings-on are in Washington, D.C.

00:37:07.200 But, unfortunately, it's been flipped on its head, and it's become sort of a circus and sort of actually, unfortunately, a means of entertainment for too many people.

00:37:14.480 They view it as almost like professional wrestling.

00:37:16.860 And I think that the only way that we can really course-correct as a country would be to pull back from the brink here and re-engage.

00:37:23.680 I become fond of saying that we always hear America is not a country, that it's an idea.

00:37:29.160 And I want to proffer that it's not just an idea.

00:37:32.120 It's an action verb.

00:37:33.720 America is something you have to do. 0.87

00:37:35.680 And it's not a leisure pursuit.

00:37:38.060 It means you have to get out of your comfort zone, and you're going to have to go and sit at those boring meetings and make sure that your voice is heard because sitting home and complaining about the problem is never a good solution.

00:37:49.560 It's just a symptom of the problem.

00:37:52.060 And, hopefully, more people are going to be activated and engaged and use this rage and frustration that they have with organizations like the FBI and with Congress.

00:38:00.060 And as long as they direct that energy in a positive way and impact their community most directly, I think that that bodes well for the greatest overall outcome.

00:38:09.340 When you were an agent and you worked with the local police departments, the local sheriff's office, they had to be resentful.

00:38:18.680 And I'm going back to my youth as a young police and fire reporter.

00:38:23.360 I knew the police department, the police officers, deputy sheriffs, they were deeply resentful occasionally when the FBI got into a case.

00:38:36.640 They wanted to, you know, they protested a little bit, the interjection of the FBI, but it was not a, it wasn't the anger.

00:38:50.180 It wasn't even the jealousy.

00:38:52.880 It was just sort of a, you know, I guess I would say a friendly rivalry over jurisdiction is the best way to put it.

00:39:02.600 There seems to be something else afoot today.

00:39:05.900 This seems to be an FBI that means to take both the resources and the authority of local law enforcement from them and not even notify often.

00:39:17.040 I mean, I can't tell you how many stories I've read and heard that they didn't even notify local authorities when they were making a raid.

00:39:26.040 Yeah, I think, unfortunately, that that humility that's required and that I always tried to do my best to express to the local partners that we had, that's been lost.

00:39:37.340 And what people in local law enforcement could and should realize is that they actually hold all the cards when it comes to the functionality of an FBI outside of so many of these large cities.

00:39:49.080 My office in Daytona Beach was four counties, eight special agents, one million citizens.

00:39:57.140 It was impossible to police at a federal level without the assistance of our local partners.

00:40:02.200 And therefore, the local sheriffs and the deputies that were augmenting our manpower as task force officers, they had a tremendous amount of power because they had they brought a lot of local knowledge and experience that a lot of the agents didn't have.

00:40:15.560 And they made our jobs that much better. And therefore, I think that the way to maybe bring the FBI and rein it in, it's certainly it's eccentricities at the local level might be for the sheriff here.

00:40:28.420 And what one of them actually did, and that was to divest his agency from the FBI, which required some courage because there's funding available.

00:40:35.840 But nowadays, you don't need an FBI. It's not the Bonnie and Clyde days where they could rob a bank and run over state lines.

00:40:41.640 You can coordinate with other agencies at a state level, at a local level and and force the FBI to come into compliance with what you expect and what you need.

00:40:51.540 And that is supposed to be an agency that makes your job easier as opposed to using you to boost its own image and accomplishments.

00:41:00.140 Steve Wren, we thank you for being with us. And this has been our first conversation.

00:41:05.280 I hope it'll be the first among many. We appreciate you being with us and God bless you, Steve.

00:41:11.640 Thank you very much, Lou. God bless you as well.

00:41:14.400 Thanks, everybody, for being with us today. Please join us here tomorrow and each and every day.

00:41:20.040 Follow me on Twitter and true social at Lou Dobbs on Facebook and Instagram at Lou Dobbs tonight and visit our Web site, Lou Dobbs dot com.

00:41:29.980 Thanks, everybody. God bless you and may God bless and save America.

The Great America Show - September 27, 2023

FBI： COOKING BOOKS & BOOSTING BONUSES

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