A former FBI special agent said Thursday she walked away from the agency three months ago after more than a decade of service because the bureau had become “politically weaponized” from the top down.
Nicole Parker served as a special agent in the Miami Field Office from 2011 until resigning in October 2022, she wrote in Fox News op-ed.
“The FBI became politically weaponized, starting from the top in Washington and trickling down to the field offices,” Parker said.
Parker said the bureau’s trajectory, priorities, and governing principles transformed during her 12-plus years of service. Before stepping down from her position, Parker investigated several federal crimes, including the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, the Cesar Sayoc pipe bomb case, and multimillion-dollar Ponzi schemes.
“Every day, I woke up and embraced being an FBI special agent,” Parker said. “Until things changed.”
She said the Miami Division had always treated her with the highest level of respect. However, at a certain point, she became exhausted and distanced herself from “egregious mistakes, immoral behavior, and politically charged actions taken by a small but destructive few FBI employees.”
“I no longer felt that I was the type of agent the FBI valued,” she wrote.
The federal agency has been faced with heavy criticism following numerous investigations with questionable motives since 2015 when former director James Comey injected himself into the 2016 presidential race between former President Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
Parker noted in her op-ed that “one politicization issue after another” caused her to turn in her badge, which included uniformed FBI agents kneeling to protesters in Washington, D.C., during the George Floyd demonstrations in June 2020.
“Although agents have their First Amendment rights, they are not at liberty to publicly express any potential political support while on duty wearing official FBI gear,” Parker said.
According to the Justice Department, all employees are subject to the Hatch Act, which “generally prohibits Department employees from engaging in partisan political activity while on duty, in a federal facility or using federal property.”
Rather than facing reprimand for the agent’s actions, Parker said many received promotions while others were rewarded with $100 gift cards by the FBI Agents Association.
“It’s as if there became two FBIs,” Parker wrote.
Parker also pointed out the bureau lowered the eligibility requirements for recruitment, which she says has destroyed credibility, causing Americans to lose faith in the agency and “highly ethical” agents to carry the weight for some cases.
Such actions, Parker writes, have caused Americans to lose trust in the FBI and low morale among many FBI employees.
“As a result, teams are less cohesive, less trusting of each other, and less safe.”
More notable recent actions from the bureau under scrutiny include agents storming Trump’s Mar-a-Lago compound last summer to the agency allegedly working with Big Tech to censor dissenting voices against mainstream narratives surrounding the national election process pandemic-related information.
House Judiciary Republicans Reps. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Mike Johnson (R-LA) sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray last month “demanding” all documents and communication between FBI employees and representatives of Twitter from January 1, 2020, to the present.
“We are investigating politicization and abuses at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as well as Big Tech’s censorship of conservatives online,” the representatives said in a news release, adding the “revelations sadly reinforce our deep concerns about the FBI’s misconduct and its hostility to the First Amendment. ”
House Republicans approved a “Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government” on Tuesday that would expose alleged collusion between federal agencies and private companies.
“This is about the First Amendment, something you guys used to care about,” Rep. Jordan, who is expected to chair the panel, said Tuesday during debate with House Democrats on the House floor.
“We don’t want to go after anyone — we just want it to stop,” he added. “And we want to respect the First Amendment to the Constitution that the greatest country in the world has.”
The Daily Wire contacted the FBI to comment on Parker’s 0p-ed but did not immediately receive a response.