A former FBI agent who was suspended during the Biden administration and reinstated under Donald Trump has been fired from the bureau once again.
Steve Friend, a whistleblower who was key to 2023 Republican claims that the FBI was being weaponized against conservatives, was dismissed by FBI director Kash Patel after making veiled threats directly to his boss on a podcast, according to The New York Post.
“You better pray to Gaia or Vishnu or whatever your maker is, that RealSteveFriend is never in a position to be an instrument of God’s wrath,” Friend said on the podcast of another former FBI agent, Kyle Seraphin.
“I will be merciful: I won’t give you a trial and a hanging,” Friend said on The Seraphin Show on Dec. 5. “I’ll allow you to breathe every breath that your body will have for the rest of its natural life inside of a box, and then when it ultimately fades to black, that’s when real wrath begins.”
While not mentioned explicitly by name, Patel quoted the threat made toward “executive leadership” in Friend’s dismissal letter dated Dec. 12.
“You are being summarily dismissed from your position at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and removed from the federal service, under my authority as the FBI Director, effective immediately,” Patel wrote.
“You have demonstrated unprofessional conduct and poor judgment.”
The 40-year-old former FBI SWAT team agent was suspended in Aug. 2022 under the Biden administration after alleging that the bureau was using inappropriate force to pursue those involved in the Jan. 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol building.
He was one of three whistleblowers who testified before Rep. Jim Jordan’s 2023 investigation into allegations of discrimination and bias at the FBI.
Friend went on to author a book about his trials as a whistleblower and has appeared regularly on podcasts, becoming something of a minor online personality in conservative digital circles.
While he returned to the FBI payroll in October, according to the Post, he continued his media appearances. In October, Friend began disseminating the conspiracy theory that the Jan. 6th pipe bomb suspect, Brian Cole Jr., was arrested as part of a major cover-up.
“You’re just so damn thirsty to get a win for dad so that the president will be proud of you, finally, and your fans will return and have devotion to you,” Friend said on the same Kyle Seraphin podcast, describing the arrest of Cole as “a put-up job.”
Since his dismissal, Friend has reshared several posts to his X account, which suggest that his firing confirms the pipe bomb arrest cover-up.
Conservative commentator Miranda Devine has come out in support of the whistleblower, saying that Patel’s firing of the “hero” for “rude comments” is unfitting for his position.
“I think it has been unwise and self-destructive for Steve to blow off steam in public,” she wrote, adding “But this whole debacle could have been averted if anyone at the FBI had treated him with respect.”
However, Jordan Schachtel, publisher of the popular right-wing Substack The Dossier, argued Devine was “way off base” in her assessment.
“In no world can anyone, as an employee of the FBI, wage a public, vicious personal attack against the Director and be expected not to face any recourse,” Schachtel wrote. “This is absurd. He is not a victim.”
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