If the Senate confirms Kash Patel as the next FBI director, we may see a change in the FBI that functions as a homeland security, akin to a national political police — similar in reputation to the Russian KGB or Hitler’s Gestapo.
If this goes unchecked, Patel could end up redesigning the FBI and using it to violate First Amendment rights and target political opposition, thus impinging on the freedoms of those who speak out against Donald Trump or his actions. And with the rhetoric that Trump and his allies have regularly used, I expect the next president will use the FBI, or at least try to, to prosecute naysayers. I believe Bittel will fire any FBI employees who oppose him, then replace them with those who are more willing to comply with him. Bittel has already identified nine former and current FBI employees as targets of investigation and potential prosecution.
I am concerned about how Patel could abuse the FBI to advance Project 2025 and Donald Trump’s fascist agenda.
As a former FBI agent for 31 years—26 as a field investigator and five as a supervisor—I have witnessed a lot of the good things the FBI does, as well as the bad things done by poorly supervised or poorly directed agents. I know the FBI mentality and understand how agents can be abused in their work.
She worked in five FBI offices, including in Washington, D.C., where she worked on the Watergate investigation.
L. Patrick Gray was the acting director of the FBI at the time. Gray resigned after the Watergate evidence against Nixon, who had nominated him in the first place, was destroyed. In fact, Gray was serving as chief of the US Homeland Security Police under Nixon. We can’t let that happen again. As American citizens, we must oppose Patel’s appointment as FBI Director.
As an FBI agent, I worked closely with US attorneys and FBI officials to ensure that we did not violate constitutional guidelines in our investigations. We have closely followed FBI policy and protocols, which are designed to protect the rights of all individuals under investigation. We have to ensure that this continues.
If Donald Trump follows through on the numerous statements he has made in recent years, it will represent the greatest threat to our American freedoms, and he will use Patel to enforce those threats.
Make your voice heard. Convince your representatives to keep constitutional freedoms at the heart of FBI operations.
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