The FBI's 2025 budget is $11.8 billion, and what do we have to show for it?
Former President Trump was nearly assassinated over a month ago, and we still haven't learned anything new about the shooter or his motives. What is the FBI doing with all the money it spends besides arresting reporters and listening to our phone calls? Recently, Glenn had former FBI agent and whistleblower Steve Friend on his show to discuss what exactlythe FBI is up to, and — spoiler alert — it's nothing like how they are portrayed in the movies. In fact, according to Friend, it's a whole lot less like Jodie Foster and a whole lot more like the DMV with guns and badges.
So what IS the FBI up to?
Letting threats slip through their watch
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The FBI spends its time hunting down the worst criminal minds in America, kicking down their doors and slapping them in irons, right? That's what they're supposed to be doing... at least on TV. As it turns out, that is not the case when it came to Thomas Crooks, the would-be Trump assassin. Apparently, he wasn't even on the FBI's radar, yet we're supposed to believe that he gave off no signs, no indication that he was liable to do something extreme right up until he pulled the trigger.
Gathering intelligence without your consent
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Imaging the scene: the FBI is engaged in a stakeout. Several serious and competent agents huddle in a blacked-out van full of advanced monitoring equipment, listening to the nefarious phone call of some radical terrorist with a thick foreign accent. A compelling scene, but again, pure televised fiction. Instead, the FBI is busy listening to your phone calls and other "private" communications. According to findings by the FISA Court of Review in 2019, the FBI collects and uses information "incidentally" collected from innocent, non-suspect Americans. How this practice ever started is beyond reckoning, as it clearly violates the Fourth Amendment, not to mention common sense.
Empowering would-be-terrorists
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If the FBI isn't stopping or investigating terrorists and other bad guys, what are they doing with all our tax money? According to FBI whistleblower Steve Friend, the FBI finds radical individuals in foreign nations who may have bad intentions, but with no means of carrying them out. Then, they encourage these individuals to carry out these bad intentions and even supply their plans, which include bringing them to America from foreign countries. Once the would-be-terrorist has been convinced to make an attack, the FBI jumps in, slaps handcuffs on them, and uses this "success" as justification to ask for more money from Congress. They groom terrorists for profit at the taxpayer dime.