Something remarkable happened in a U.S. courtroom yesterday. An FBI agent blurted out the truth about Trump’s politicized investigations.
That agent took the stand in Washington, D.C. to defend a case that he admitted his own office didn’t believe was legitimate. Under cross-examination, Special Agent Bryan Witt acknowledged that the prosecution of two former FBI officials (accused of lying about Hunter Biden’s laptop) was commonly regarded inside his office as a “witch hunt.” He also confirmed who had ordered it: FBI Director Kash Patel, who issued the directive the day that Trump himself demanded a probe.
It’s hard to overstate how damaging this is to the FBI’s case. It’s not like Special Agent Witt’s words were a leak from some anonymous source. He said it under oath, and he’s the very same agent who filed the criminal complaint on behalf of the FBI in the first place, alleging that two ex-FBI officials misled Congress about the Hunter Biden laptop investigation, something those two individuals vehemently deny. Under cross-examination, Witt confessed to worries that the whole thing looked “political.”
Let me step back for just a moment because two things happened yesterday that are historically significant.
The first is that Donald Trump’s Justice Department has shown, once again, that it will not relent in its campaign to prosecute the president’s perceived enemies. The second is that the American people, in the form of federal agents, grand jurors, and judges, are refusing to go along with it.
This duality was shown last night with breaking news about Cassidy Hutchinson. A federal grand jury in Washington declined to indict her for the testimony she gave the January 6th committee about Trump’s conduct that day. Prosecutors were attempting to charge her with lying to Congress. Yet when they brought in a panel of ordinary citizens, as a grand jury, those citizens refused to accept the facts of the government’s case. They said “no.”
Grand juries almost never do this. The old line is that a prosecutor could indict a ham sandwich. Yesterday, the sandwich gave the middle finger.
I didn’t know Cassidy well in the first Trump administration. She started working in the White House just a few months before I resigned in protest. But we share plenty of former colleagues, including several who have since spoken out against Trump, and I’ve never heard anyone question her character. She told the truth about what she saw on January 6th at enormous personal cost, and the White House’s response, four years later, is to try to put her in prison for it.
The grand jurors who listened to that case understood exactly what they were being asked to do. And they refused.
Then there’s the case I mentioned above, against ex-FBI agents Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides. Unlike Cassidy, I know them well. We worked closely together on protecting the security of our elections from foreign interference, when Nikki was deputy assistant director and Brad was section chief of the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force. These are two people who spent their careers in the shadows, dedicating their lives to protecting Americans from threats most of us won’t hear about for decades.
They’re among the most honorable public servants I have ever worked with. I mean that. And their reputations among other FBI agents are sterling. When the charges dropped last week, I was gobsmacked. I texted a former top FBI leader the news, and his response was the same as mine: Those two are the best of the best.
Last week, the Justice Department charged them with lying to Congress in 2023 about what they knew of Hunter Biden’s laptop. Then, in the middle of the night before their hearing, prosecutors filed a “superseding complaint” tacking on an obstruction charge, without bothering to get a judge’s approval. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui was not amused. He refused to sign off on the new complaint, called the maneuver unusual, and reminded prosecutors that if they want to charge a case like this, it has to go to a grand jury.
Given what grand juries in Washington have been doing lately, the department might want to think about that.
The whole case couldn’t be more profane. The administration is pouring the resources of the FBI and the Justice Department into a six-year-old grievance about a laptop. Meanwhile, a new book excerpted in Vanity Fair alleges that Jared Kushner, the president’s own son-in-law and Middle East envoy, had access to undisclosed foreign bank accounts holding hundreds of millions of dollars in Saudi and Emirati money, intended to buy influence inside the U.S. government. (Kushner of course flatly denies the allegations, says they are fabrications, and has threatened to sue.)
Ask yourself which story deserves the attention of the U.S. Department of Justice that you pay for. The government’s answer tells you everything you need to know about the DOJ we actually have.
In the end, I believe Nikki and Brad will be vindicated. But they should never, ever have been dragged into a courtroom in the first place. The fact that the lead agent assigned to their case openly confessed that his FBI colleagues called it a “witch hunt” should be enough for all Americans to see this for what it really is.
Despite the pushback, we all know Trump will keep trying. He’s made clear that the Justice Department’s mandate is to punish the people who crossed him.
But yesterday showed us that his intimidation isn’t working anymore. Grand jurors are saying “no.” Judges are saying “no.” Even the FBI’s own agents are sitting on the witness stand and refusing to toe the party line. The American people are done with this lawless circus, and they’re saying so — inside and outside the system.
Your friend, in defiance,
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