The FBI has spent years earning our distrust.  Those leading the bureau have refused to address their obvious issues — behaving as if they were above accountability.  But violating the public trust has consequences, which they are just now learning.

In just the last eight years, the world’s “premier law enforcement agency” has been caught

• implementing an “insurance policy” to subvert our electoral choice (Crossfire Hurricane),
• entrapping useful idiots for political advantage (Whitmer kidnapping and January 6 defendants),
• colluding with the DNC to pin their email server attack on the Russians and Donald Trump,
• hiding evidence of Biden family corruption (Hunter Biden laptop),
• obfuscating and perjuring before Congress (Seth Rich laptop testimony),
• raiding a journalist’s home to retrieve the diary of Joe Biden’s daughter (James O’Keefe),
• conducting the first ever armed raid on a former president’s home (Mar-a-Lago), and
• violating our 1st Amendment rights to protect the Democrat narrative (social media censorship).

If there is anything more the FBI could have done to prove its untrustworthiness, it escapes my imagination — and I have a vivid imagination.

According to Rasmussen, 53 percent of Americans agree with the Roger Stone statement: “There is a group of politicized thugs at the top of the FBI who are using the FBI as Joe Biden’s personal Gestapo.”

The unethical, and even illegal, activities of the bureau are gaining public recognition.  Suspecting the worst of the FBI is no longer the stuff of “lunatic conspiracy theories,” as its bad behavior has been documented by Michael Horowitz in his inspector general report and John Durham in his special counsel findings.  As congressional investigations continue to examine the FBI as part of its oversight role, more evidence of corruption is coming to light every day.  Here are highlights from some of the past bad actors.

• Peter Strzok attempted to oust an elected president.
• Andrew McCabe committed felony perjury to investigators.
• James Comey set a perjury trap for President Trump’s national security adviser and illegally leaked classified information to the press.
• Kevin Clinesmith falsified evidence, which was used to obtain a FISA warrant.
• Stephen D’Antuono oversaw an entrapment scheme to implicate MAGA conservatives.
• W. Jay Abbott failed to take action against sexual predator Larry Nassar, while he pursued employment opportunities with the U.S. Olympic Committee.

Many more continue to work at the FBI but are being protected by bureau refusal to cooperate with congressional oversight (looking at you, Director Wray).

None of these FBI officials received any punishment even approaching what would be applied to American civilians for similar offenses.  The minimal punishments they received, if any, will do nothing to discourage future misbehavior at the bureau.

The public has been left with the perception that the FBI refuses to hold its own accountable for ethical or criminal violations.  If there were a “few bad apples” ten years ago, they have now caused rot throughout the basket.  The motto of the bureau that claims to operate “above reproach” has become a joke:

• Fidelity — but only to leftist ideology.
• Bravery — in subverting self-governance.
• Integrity — except when lies are more convenient.

Did the FBI understand the consequences of lost public trust?  Did its members think treachery would lead to limitless power — in which they could wield police powers with impunity?  How did they fail to see that their loss of integrity would eventually usurp their ability to function?

The bureau’s police powers derive from those they swear an oath to — the citizens of the United States.  Without our trust, any real power the FBI thinks it has is an illusion.  Without trust, no law enforcement organization can successfully investigate crimes or convict offenders.

The story of investigative reporter Sarah Fields illustrates this principle.  Fields has spent years reporting on problems associated with our open southern border.  She has documented human-trafficking, drug-smuggling, and even a terrorist training camp near the border.  On October 17, FBI agents arrived at her home, ostensibly to investigate her claims.  Fields refused to talk to them, saying:

I understand that the FBI has a few “good guys” spread throughout their agency. However, it’s impossible to know who is good and who is corrupt. The FBI is corrupted beyond repair and you will never see me cooperate with them. Right now, they’re acting like a desperate guy who got turned down and has now turned stalker. If the FBI is reading this, kindly stick it.

Fields is no anarchist, subversive, or anti–law enforcement nut.  She reports about lawlessness at our border because she is genuinely concerned about it.  Yet when the FBI requested her help, she refused — because the bureau isn’t trustworthy, and she knows it.  How can she possibly know if they’re actually investigating crimes at the border or investigating her — as they did whistleblower Gal Luft, who attempted to tell the DOJ about Biden family corruption?  Is it possible that Fields noticed the investigation of New York mayor Eric Adams, which went public shortly after he criticized the Biden immigration policies?  Should she assume that the timing of the Adams investigation is just a coincidence?  Such an assumption would require us to believe that the FBI applies the law equally.  After what the bureau did to Donald Trump, why would we assume such a thing?

Welcome to the FBI’s new reality — a world in which its mission must be conducted without public support.  Now over half of U.S. citizens realize that they must weigh the danger of cooperation with “Joe Biden’s Gestapo” against the danger of allowing criminals to run free.  It’s a reality in which witnesses don’t cooperate, jurors don’t believe, and judges don’t trust them.  Under such limitations, the FBI will become powerless to solve crimes, and the rationale for a federal law enforcement agency will eventually become invalid.

John Green is a political refugee from Minnesota, now residing in Idaho.  He is a staff writer for the American Free News Network and can be reached at greenjeg@gmail.com.

Image: Tom Ahearn via Flickr, CC BY-NC 2.0 (cropped).