From landing whales to snatching minnows: Steve Baker’s arrest disgraces the FBI

Sic semper tyrannis — “Thus always to tyrants” — is the state motto of Virginia, which was my home for the first five years I served as an FBI special agent. Virginia is also the home to the FBI Academy at Quantico. I don’t know if it is poetic or ironic that this motto adorns the flags flying over the land where new agents accept their badges, their duty weapons, and their credentials identifying them as special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. That is usually a proud moment for what my fellow FBI whistleblower Steve Friend calls a “system idealist.”

One must be a system idealist to take on the duty of “investigating violations of the laws of the United States, collecting evidence in cases in which the United States is or may be a party in interest, and performing other duties imposed by law.” That is what every agent’s credentials say.

No FBI agents prior to the Capitol riot case in 2021 saw a squad-wide let alone bureau-wide effort to pursue misdemeanor investigations.

But that list is cursory job description. Every agent also swears an oath.

The oath of office is a sobering paragraph for a system idealist. It is a commitment to the duty, but also to the limits, that the U.S. Constitution imposes on those who agree to “well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office.”

The most critical section of the Constitution for a limited agent of the government (that is what is “special” about federal agents — a limited set of authorities) is the Bill of Rights. The first 10 amendments are the original restrictions on government power. First among equals is the freedom of religion, freedom of speech, the freedom of the press, and the freedom to peaceably assemble to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

My friend Steve Baker was taken into custody on Friday in violation of the constitutional commitment of FBI agents in the Dallas field office, on the sworn word of an agent from the Raleigh Resident Agency under the Charlotte, North Carolina, field office.

Those agents carried out a political agenda handed down from a Department of Justice that is prosecuting political targets of opportunity in a way that has disgraced the once-respected FBI. It is no exaggeration to say that the FBI threw out all normal procedures and agency norms to pursue peaceful and non-peaceful protesters who attended a single, black-swan event at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

A waste of time and resources

“The FBI doesn’t waste its time pursuing misdemeanors.” I recall this statement from an early lecture by Michael J. “Bull” Bulzomi, a hilarious and legendary FBI agent and legal instructor. Bull was brash and to the point. He was loud and entertaining. He didn’t mince words while others might toe the line.

The FBI doesn’t waste time with misdemeanors because the FBI is only interested in big fish. Major fraud. Interstate organized crime. Bonnie and Clyde. The Dillinger Gang. Big game. That is the lesson every bureau trainee learns.

As a special agent of the FBI, you don’t waste your time on minnows. Your job is to land whales.

Anyone in real law enforcement can tell you, however, that mileage on that statement may vary. But I would like to suggest that no FBI agents prior to the Capitol riot case in 2021 saw a squad-wide let alone bureau-wide effort to pursue misdemeanor investigations. No one swore out a criminal complaint for a journalist accused of being present and walking around while some other federal crime took place. And no one has doggedly pursued a man who exercised his sacred and God-given right to engage in speech, press, and assembly because it was unpopular with a political regime in this way.

The First Amendment was not written to protect gardening tips or small talk. It was implemented because the men who wrote it had just successfully completed an insurrection and overthrow of a regime they believed was tyrannical.

The First Amendment was written to protect hate speech, inflammatory speech, incendiary speech, and all other speech about which the federal government is mandated by charter to remain agnostic. The actions of the Justice Department and the FBI have proven they will willingly and brazenly violate that critical restriction.

Question the next order

I am constantly amazed to see agents carry out their present-day orders. I didn’t work with unjust or dishonorable people when I was a special agent. Quite the contrary; most of the front-line agents (whom we call “brick agents”) were likeable and relatable. We didn’t bring politics or much outside flavor to the job because it wasn’t an appropriate environment.

The agents involved in putting cuffs on Steve Baker likely had no idea who he was or why he was being transported. “Another J6er” is almost certainly the scope of the briefing they received. I hope that after seeing the thoughtful, intelligent, humble, and patriotic man they moved in leg irons and a belly band to be read pathetically weak misdemeanor charges, they will question the next order.

But there is no reason for us to expect a change because past performance is the best predictor of future behavior. The FBI broke its own rules pursuing January 6 subjects for violations big and small. Why stop now?

Of course, Steve Baker is not the first journalist to be charged and possibly convicted and imprisoned for attending or covering the events of that day. But he has been the single most damaging investigator exposing how fraudulent and biased the Department of Justice narrative has been over the past three years. It seems clear that the FBI has donned the blinders of “just doing my job” and the system idealists will become the worst abusers of the oath they swore to follow.

The FBI has become the tool of tyrants. It has allowed itself to be captured by ideology and political purpose. In the words of a senior brick agent, “Even though the work I am doing is good, [the FBI] is irredeemable.” In truth, the FBI has abused its principles and its prestige and squandered its hard-won credibility with many Americans to serve an inaccurate narrative. Steve Baker has deeply wounded that narrative. And he was paraded in front of a courtroom in shackles for his trouble.

Sic semper tyrannis.