Major Development: Recently Disclosed FBI Documents Reveal That Bureau Agents Were Involved In “Illegal And Unethical Conduct”

Credit: Politico

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is tasked with enforcing federal law. 

However, many FBI employees have been caught over the past five years engaging in unethical and illegal behavior. They have been involved in drunk driving stealing property assaulting a child, mishandling classified documents, and losing their service weapons. They have often evaded being fired, according to internal disciplinary files provided to Just The News.

One agent left an M4 carbine unsecured in his government car during a Starbucks run and had the weapon stolen. He only received a two-week suspension despite violating the bureau’s protocols for weapons storage the records show.

“Although there was a lockbox in the trunk for storage of weapons and sensitive items,” the agent chose to store the rifle bag behind the car’s front passenger seat, one report shows. “While Employee was in the Starbucks, the Bucar was burglarized. The rear passenger, rear driver, and tailgate windows were broken, and the rifle bag containing the M4 was stolen.” 

Sexual misconduct was also extremely rampant in the reports dating back to 2017. This includes inappropriate affairs with felons in prison, confidential sources, and subordinate employees. Sexual misconduct often resulted in firings, unlike drunk driving and lost weapon offenses.

Just The News reported:

Typically emailed to all Bureau employees each calendar quarter, the FBI Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) reports provided to Just the News by a whistleblower afford an unprecedented look into the breadth of misconduct among the FBI’s workforce of 35,000, including agents, intel analysts, lab scientists, and crime scene technicians.

The reports emerge at a sensitive time for the FBI as it deals with a sprawling congressional probe into allegations by two dozen whistleblowers of political bias, misconduct, and weaponization of law enforcement powers.

The extensive reports were in fact so impactful that the FBI suspended distributing them for seven months in 2021-2022, due to complaints that the “employees harmed by misconduct” might feel shame. But in the end, the bureau resumed publishing them because of the belief it might sensitize workers in the future to avoid committing crimes or violations of conduct policies.

“OPR suspended sending our quarterly email that details employee misconduct and its consequences,” the April 2022 email noted. 

It explained: “We wanted to weigh the value of publishing this information with the discomfort employees harmed by misconduct may feel at its having been published.”

The bureau concluded that most agents wanted the memo to serve as a reminder of the professional and ethical standards they are sworn to uphold.

“In the seven months since, we’ve spoken extensively with affected employees and consulted with several divisions, including the Victim Services Division,” the email related. “After a great deal of deliberation, we have decided to resume the quarterly email. We made this decision as the vast majority of employees we spoke with indicated they wanted publication to resume.”

The reports show that there were at least 23 cases of agents and Bureau staff driving under the influence, but only five cases resulted in termination. The other cases just received suspensions or retired. 

At least 3 dozen agents reported lost or stolen guns.