WASHINGTON — A former FBI agent who was suspended under the Biden administration and was reinstated under President Trump to much fanfare has been ousted again, The Post has learned.
FBI whistleblower Steve Friend issued what was deemed to be a threat against Director Kash Patel on a podcast hosted by ex-FBI agent Kyle Seraphin last week and that outburst helped cost him his job on Saturday, bureau insiders told the Post.
Friend gained fame for claiming he was wrongly placed on leave by ex-FBI Director Chris Wray for exposing problems with the Jan. 6 investigation that saw roughly 1,600 defendants prosecuted for the 2021 attack on the Capitol. He went on to become an author, media commentator — and onetime ally of Patel.
Suspended in August 2022 and having resigned in February 2023, Friend returned to the FBI’s payroll on Oct. 10. However, he hadn’t been performing duties at the FBI in Jacksonville, as he had not yet been cleared for a background check, an issue that can arise in whistleblower cases.
While pedaling a conspiracy theory that Patel falsely arrested alleged DC pipe bomber Brian Cole Jr. as part of an elaborate “cover up,” Friend made disturbing remarks about bringing “God’s wrath” to punish him.
“You better pray to Gaia or Vishnu or whatever your maker is, that real Steve Friend is never in a position to be an instrument of God’s wrath, because I will be merciful: I won’t give you a trial and a hanging,” he told The Kyle Seraphin Show on Dec. 5. “I’ll allow you to breathe every breath that your body will have for the rest of its natural life inside of a box, and then when it ultimately fades to black, that’s when real wrath begins.”
While Friend did not mention Patel by name, he alluded to the FBI director as the person who allegedly concocted the bogus coverup — noting the person may have been in “executive leadership” and made references to Hindu god Vishnu, a likely nod to Patel being raised Hindi.
The video, clipped and shared on X by retired FBI supervisory special agent John Nantz on Dec. 8, raised alarm bells at the bureau, which he said called Friend into the office to “stand tall before the man.”
Friend has been required to report in-person to the FBI Jacksonville field office since Monday, a law enforcement source told The Post.
The hot rhetoric is just the latest outburst by Friend that runs afoul of FBI policy that bans speaking publicly about the bureau’s work without authorization, The Post has learned.
Attorneys at Empower Oversight — which won a settlement for Friend securing his rehiring and years of back pay — fired Friend as a client the same day he went on the deranged rant, according to a letter sent by the firm that Seraphin posted to his X account.
The letter revealed Friend’s attorneys counseled him on Nov. 24, stating he was subject to the FBI’s social media policies since getting back on the bureau’s payroll. Still, Friend continued speaking out, bashing the FBI and weighing in on conspiracy theories.
“You seem unwilling to follow our advice on the matters discussed above,” the lawyers wrote. With the threatening remarks, Friend risks “further adverse administrative action by the FBI,” the law firm warned.
Friend had also violated FBI policy by speaking to the media — including a December 2022 interview with Russian propaganda outlet RT — during the time he was suspended and later reinstated, Nantz said.
“When he gave the [RT] interview, he was still technically indefinitely suspended. So, you know, that made him technically an FBI employee when he did that,” he said. “So yeah, this, this is nothing new for him.”
Before taking office, Patel had supported both Friend and Seraphin through his foundation after they claimed they were fired by the Biden administration for their resistance to investigating Jan. 6 rioters.
Upon taking the director position, Patel looked into reinstating Friend, but was concerned by what he found in personnel files about the real reasons for the ousting under the Biden administration, informed sources told The Post.
Details of the files’ contents are unclear — the FBI said it does not comment on personnel matters. But Nantz said it’s significant that Patel — who believed and supported Friend’s initial whistleblower claims — was targeted by Friend.
“Kash Patel, he’s the author of ‘Government Gangsters.’ This guy has spent his whole life in conservative and MAGA circles, and was instrumental in exposing the Crossfire Hurricane investigation after Trump,” Nantz said. “This is the guy who is now the FBI director, this is the guy who supported these guys financially and otherwise until he set foot in his office and got access to their personnel files.”
“So what does that tell any thinking person, any honest person?” he added.
The FBI declined to comment for the article. Friend did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
