'Politically motivated' FBI treated conservatives like domestic terrorists on Wray's watch: whistleblower
As FBI Director Christopher Wray is slated to resign after seven years of service in his 10-year tenure, questions about the bureau's "political weaponization" have been reignited, with critics like President-elect Trump citing bias in domestic terrorism and civil rights probes.
While Wray, who was appointed by Trump in his first term, has faced scrutiny from conservatives for a kind of political bias in the bureau, FBI whistleblower Kyle Seraphin said the FBI's shift toward politicized agendas within its field offices began in the post-9/11 era when sweeping reforms and surveillance powers were granted the agency.
"What people are seeing is the natural outgrowth of letting FBI agents, or FBI senior management, forecast what they think the crime is going to be in the country, being incentivized to be correct, because they're going to be paid a monetary bonus at the end of it if they're right, and then they go out and find that crime," Seraphin told Fox News Digital.
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"And so it looks very politicized," he added. "But I think that's actually just a mistake of the correlation. In reality, what's going on is the FBI is serving the interests of the senior management, which is that they want to get paid, and the easiest way to get paid is to go round up MAGA people, which they fall under this category of … anti-government, anti-authority, violent extremists."
Over the last four years, the FBI has intensified its focus on domestic terrorists and targeting white supremacist activities. Between spring 2020 and September 2021, the FBI's domestic terrorism caseload more than doubled, rising from approximately 1,000 to around 2,700 investigations, according to the Government Accountability Office. Wray testified in September 2020 that white supremacy is the largest category within domestic terrorism.
Over the last four years, the FBI has increased its focus on domestic terrorism, particularly targeting white supremacist activities. The agency's caseload more than doubled from about 1,000 to 2,700 investigations between spring 2020 and September 2021, according to the Government Accountability Office. FBI Director Christopher Wray testified in September 2020 that white supremacy constitutes the largest domestic terrorism category.
Critics, however, have questioned the FBI's definition of domestic terrorism. Seraphin said a New Mexico field office prioritized "anti-abortion extremists" as the state’s third-highest national security threat. Separately over the summer, a Texas doctor was charged with four felonies for exposing alleged transgender surgeries on children at a hospital.
"Everybody assumes that it's about politics because the FBI has some really politically motivated leads," Seraphin said. "The current deputy director, Paul Abbate, is very politically motivated, and he's very hard leading to the left."
Seraphin blamed the FBI's seemingly political bias on an integrated program management, a McKinsey & Company-designed system rewarding executives with large bonuses for meeting self-set metrics, including domestic extremism and terrorism.
In December 2023, the House Judiciary Committee released a report titled "The FBI's Breach of Religious Freedom: The Weaponization of Law Enforcement Against Catholic Americans." The report followed Seraphin’s disclosure of an FBI memo labeling certain Catholic Americans as potential violent extremists.
"They use national security words to go after domestic individuals, and they have national security tools to look through your email to grab access to your comms, your phone calls, your text messages, your emails and so on," Seraphin said. "They have the ability to look into your bank account and check out your financial records. And should they find evidence of a crime that is not related to what they're searching for, the threat that they're actually looking for?"
"Do we want people to get away with crime? No, but we want the government to be accountable to the freaking Bill of Rights," Seraphin said.
In a December interview on NBC's "Meet the Press," Trump said, "I can't say I'm thrilled with him," when asked if he would fire Wray upon entering his second non-consecutive presidential term.
"He invaded my home," Trump said, referencing the FBI's 2022 search of his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida. Trump announced at the end of November his nomination of Kash Patel – a Trump ally and previous chief of staff to the secretary of defense – as the next FBI director. Patel has been critical of the FBI's handling of investigations relating to Trump.
Seraphin, who said he has spoken to Patel about the bureau, said he may be "the most qualified" nominee for the role.
"He understands what the FBI does to directors in order to maintain their status quo," Seraphin said. "That makes him a very potentially disruptive force to the status quo. But I actually think he'll be if he's able to achieve the things that he said, which is going out there and rooting out the corruption, taking away the political things, making sure that the FBI is subservient to the Constitution."
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Wray made his resignation announcement during an FBI virtual town hall from Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, during which thousands of FBI employees across the country were expected to attend online.
"After weeks of careful thought, I’ve decided the right thing for the bureau is for me to serve until the end of the current administration in January and then step down," Wray said during the town hall. "My goal is to keep the focus on our mission: the indispensable work you’re doing on behalf of the American people every day. In my view, this is the best way to avoid dragging the bureau deeper into the fray while reinforcing the values and principles that are so important to how we do our work."
Wray also said his focus is and always has been on the FBI doing what is right.
"When you look at where the threats are headed, it’s clear that the importance of our work – keeping Americans safe and upholding the Constitution – will not change. And what absolutely cannot, must not, change is our commitment to doing the right thing, the right way, every time," Wray said.
Fox News Digital reached out to the FBI but did not hear back by the publication deadline.
Fox News Digital's Greg Wehner and David Sprunt contributed to this report.