For over a century, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has presented itself as America’s incorruptible guardian of justice—an institution above politics, beyond reproach, and fully committed to the rule of law.

However, a careful review of FBI leadership uncovers a troubling truth: ongoing corruption, politicization, and abuse of power at the highest levels have not only persisted for generations but have also permeated the entire agency, turning what should be an instrument for justice into a tool for political and institutional intimidation.

The historical record is damning.

From J. Edgar Hoover‘s decades-long reign of surveillance, blackmail, and political manipulation to the recent indictment of James Comey for false statements and obstruction, FBI directors and senior officials have repeatedly shown that power without accountability leads to corruption.

Mark Felt approved illegal break-ins and was convicted for it. L. Patrick Gray destroyed Watergate evidence to protect President Nixon. William Sessions was fired for misusing FBI resources for personal gain. Louis Freeh led the cover-up of the FBI’s full range of responsibility for the catastrophic use of excessive force at Ruby Ridge and Waco, which resulted in significant civilian casualties.

Andrew McCabe leaked information, misled investigators, and provided false information to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) to support false claims of Russian collusion against candidate and later President Donald Trump. Christopher Wray led an agency plagued by retaliation against whistleblowers and allowed the organization to be used as a political weapon.

This is not just a series of isolated incidents.

It is a pattern of institutional failure that reveals a fundamental problem: when top FBI leaders engage in misconduct, they set examples that ripple throughout the organization, fostering a culture that tolerates abuse, punishes dissent, and places political interests above the American people.

When FBI leadership demonstrates corrupt behavior, the consequences are immediate and damaging throughout the agency. Subordinate agents see that accountability depends on who’s in favor and who isn’t, that political interests often override legal standards, and that career advancement relies more on loyalty to authority than on fidelity to the Constitution.

Excessive Force and Intimidation Tactics: Perhaps nowhere is the infection from corrupt leadership more visible than in the FBI’s increasingly militarized approach to serving warrants on non-violent individuals who pose no threat. Under leadership willing to weaponize federal power for political purposes, agents have been deployed with shocking force against ordinary citizens.

Consider the August 2023 killing of Craig Robertson, a 75-year-old Utah man who had made online threats against President Biden. Instead of using de-escalation techniques or arranging a controlled surrender—standard procedures for elderly individuals with no history of violence—the FBI sent agents for a predawn raid. Robertson, who appeared at his door armed, was shot and killed.

Critics argued that agents could have “finessed an arrest rather than provoke a confrontation,” especially considering Robertson’s age and the fact that he had previously told FBI agents in March that they should not return without a warrant. The FBI obtained the warrant, but instead of using it to arrange a peaceful surrender, they chose maximum force at 6:15 a.m.​

This pattern repeats with disturbing regularity. Roger Stone, a 66-year-old political consultant with no history of violence or flight risk, was arrested in January 2019 when about two dozen heavily armed FBI agents in tactical gear raided his Florida home before dawn. Stone had been cooperating with the investigations, and his attorneys had repeatedly stated that he would surrender voluntarily.

Yet the FBI chose to deploy what Stone called a “29-member SWAT team” with assault weapons, armored vehicles, and a helicopter.

Even Chris Christie, the former New Jersey Governor and not an ally of Stone, described the tactics as “unusual,” noting that Stone posed no threat and would have surrendered willingly.

More troubling was the September 2022 raid on Mark Houck‘s Pennsylvania home. Houck, a Catholic pro-life activist and father of seven with no criminal record, was accused of pushing a Planned Parenthood escort who was allegedly harassing his 12-year-old son—an incident that local authorities had already investigated and dismissed.

Despite Houck’s attorneys offering his full cooperation, about 25 armed FBI agents in tactical gear arrived at dawn, pointing guns at Houck and his family. His seven children, aged between 2 and 14, watched their father being arrested at gunpoint as they screamed and cried in terror. Houck’s wife has said that she had three miscarriages during the years-long ordeal due to the stress caused by the FBI’s actions and subsequent prosecution of him.

In January 2023, Houck was unanimously acquitted of all charges. The Houck family is now suing the FBI and DOJ for $4.35 million, accusing them of malicious prosecution, abuse of process, false arrest, and assault.

Paul Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign chairman, faced a similar predawn raid in July 2017. FBI agents arrived unexpectedly at his Alexandria, Virginia, home, despite his ongoing cooperation with investigators and his voluntary testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee the previous day.

The raid—described by observers as “shock and awe”—resulted in the seizure of documents and sent a clear message: cooperation doesn’t matter when the FBI leadership chooses to make an example of someone.

Surveillance Overreach and Religious Targeting: The corruption within leadership extends beyond physical force to the abuse of surveillance. In 2023, leaked FBI documents revealed that the Richmond field office had drafted a memo targeting “radical-traditional Catholics” who favor the Latin Mass and pre-Vatican II teachings as potential “racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists.”

The memo, partly sourced from the discredited Southern Poverty Law Center, suggested that FBI agents develop “sources with access” in “places of worship”—essentially recruiting Catholics to spy on fellow parishioners.

Although the memo was rescinded and the Inspector General found no evidence of “malicious intent,” its very existence shows how an FBI leadership culture tolerant of politicization allows field agents to target Americans based on their religious practices and political beliefs. Multiple state attorneys general criticized the memo as an unconstitutional attack on religious freedom, pointing out that it differentiated between “acceptable and unacceptable Catholic beliefs.”

Weaponization Against Parents and Political Dissidents: One of the most disturbing examples of corruption at the highest levels is how the FBI targeted parents who speak at school board meetings. In October 2021, Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a memorandum instructing the FBI to collaborate with local law enforcement in addressing alleged threats against school board members. This order came just days after the National School Boards Association (NSBA) sent a letter to President Biden calling parental opposition at school board meetings “domestic terrorism.”

Whistleblowers revealed that the FBI created a special “threat tag” to track and investigate parents. One mother was investigated for reportedly telling a school board, “We are coming for you.” Another father was investigated simply because he “rails against the government” and “has a lot of guns.” These were not terrorists—they were concerned parents exercising their First Amendment rights to advocate for their children’s education.

Yet, FBI leadership, already inclined to politicize investigations, authorized agents across the country to open files on American citizens for exercising their protected speech.

A U.S.House Judiciary Committee investigation concluded there was “no legitimate basis” for Garland’s directive and that “the Biden Administration misused federal law-enforcement and counterterrorism resources for political purposes.”

The weaponization of the FBI against parents illustrates how corruption at the top—specifically, leaders willing to use federal power for political reasons—allows agents at all levels to abuse their authority.

When corruption infects an organization from the top, accountability is often the first to suffer. FBI whistleblowers who have attempted to expose misconduct have faced consistent retaliation, indicating that the culture of corruption extends beyond operational abuses and includes suppressing internal dissent.

Ten FBI whistleblowers who reported waste, fraud, abuse, and politicization during the Biden administration faced demotions, security clearance revocations, and indefinite unpaid administrative leave, resulting in more than 12 years of wrongful suspension. These included:

• Special Agent Stephen Friend, who questioned the deployment of a SWAT team to arrest a January 6 defendant for a misdemeanor charge, was suspended without pay and had his clearance revoked.
• Special Agent Garret O’Boyle, who reported concerns about the FBI’s handling of Project Veritas investigations, was suspended and stripped of his clearance. He went 200 days without pay while his family struggled financially.​
• Supervisory Special Agent Jeffrey Schoffstall, who refused to sign a search warrant affidavit against the Patriot Front group after discovering exculpatory evidence, was removed from his position and proposed for termination.
• Monica Shillingburg, who reported gross mismanagement and waste of funds in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, was reassigned and had her responsibilities stripped.

In August 2025, these whistleblowers finally received settlement agreements from the FBI, under the leadership of Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel. Senator Chuck Grassley noted that the “whistleblowers’ brave actions were met with intense bureaucratic blowback that caused severe financial and emotional hardship.”

The message conveyed by leadership’s retaliation against whistleblowers is clear—agents who challenge politicization, excessive force, or abuse of power will face professional and financial repercussions. This fosters a culture of corruption that remains unchallenged from within.

The corruption within FBI leadership is most evident in the clear double standard the bureau enforces. While using excessive force against non-violent parents, elderly men, and pro-life activists, the FBI remains noticeably passive in tackling actual political violence.

According to a Heritage Foundation report, around 70 pro-life pregnancy centers and churches were vandalized or attacked following the Supreme Court‘s Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade. These facilities are explicitly protected under the same Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act used to prosecute Mark Houck. Yet, despite clear evidence of organized campaigns involving arson, vandalism, and intimidation—including threats spray-painted on buildings—the FBI has made relatively few arrests and pursued minimal investigations or prosecutions.

This selective enforcement and selective assignment of investigative resources demonstrate how corrupt leadership priorities influence operational decisions throughout the agency. When leaders indicate that certain political views should be met with maximum force while others get minimal attention, agents across the country adjust their behavior accordingly.

The corruption at the highest levels of the FBI extends beyond politics and raises questions about fundamental ethics and responsibility. According to investigations by the Associated Press and Politico, at least six senior FBI officials, including assistant directors and special agents in charge, have faced credible allegations of sexual misconduct since 2015. These allegations include harassment, unwanted touching, coercion, and retaliation against whistleblowers who reported the misconduct.

The FBI saw a sharp rise in sexual misconduct complaints in recent years, finding that over half of them required internal investigation. However, the bureau has consistently declined to reveal how many cases led to termination or discipline. In several documented instances, offending officials were permitted to retire quietly or were transferred—avoiding any real consequences for their actions.

This pattern of shielding senior officials from accountability for sexual misconduct reflects the broader institutional decay: those in leadership are held to a different standard than everyone else, and the lack of consequences sends a clear message across the organization that power insulates wrongdoers from justice.

Every institution rots from the top.

When FBI directors and senior officials engage in politicization, abuse of power, retaliation, and corruption, they not only fail in their individual duties but also corrupt the entire organization. Agents across the country learn that the rules don’t always apply equally, that political considerations are more important than constitutional principles, and that anyone who challenges the corrupt system will face destruction.

Reform cannot originate from within an institution so deeply corrupt. External oversight, accountability mechanisms, protections for whistleblowers, criminal prosecution of officials who abuse their authority, and a total cultural overhaul are crucial. Until those at the top of the FBI are held accountable to the same standards as everyone else—until directors, deputy directors, and senior officials face real consequences for corruption and misconduct—the infection will keep spreading, turning America’s leading law enforcement agency into a tool of political repression and institutional tyranny.

The American people deserve better. They deserve an FBI that upholds justice, not power. They deserve leaders who demonstrate integrity, not corruption. Until that day arrives, the infection from the top will continue to poison every level of this once-respected institution.

“Because we have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net.

Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. . .” John Adams, October 11, 1798