PROTECT CIVIL RIGHTS

“The investigative team had determined that the protesters were exercising their first amendment rights. And so they say, we're not going to go forward with this investigation. And they're told, you have to open one anyway. It was so ludicrous. It's almost like this would have been in normal times, this would have been your scenario in your in your legal training that you would take a test on, and it would be, you know, so you've been told to open this investigation. What do you do? And the answer would be, you do not because this is first amendment protected activity.”

“Agents were being assigned to immigration enforcement and pulled away from things like public corruption, cybercrime, white collar crime, drug trafficking, terrorism, things that, under the Biden administration and for decades before, had been core priorities of the FBI. They wanted three times as many people working the command post than we would normally have. And I just had logistical concerns. And when asked, it was, well, we've gotta do this for optics. We've got to make a show for the president.”

“The destruction of the first iteration of the Klan came through the Enforcement Acts, which allowed the federal government to suspend habeas corpus. It was a massive exercise of federal power that eventually brought the organization to its knees.”

“For many white Southerners of the time, the Klan were not viewed as terrorists but as defenders of their civilization. This historical perspective is crucial to understanding why the violence was able to escalate so rapidly in the 1860s and 70s.”

“At the same time, Tash Patel was putting out videos of him at Quantico, kind of cosplaying as Rambo, being around explosions and people, you know, rappelling from helicopters, all to kind of give this idea of the FBI is tough and he is tough, which then takes away resources and time and money and energy from those teams so he can film something at a training ground or at a Quantico. And it, to many people, those videos, myself included, looked completely childish.”

“When we look at the barbaric treatment of freedmen, we see that the primary objective was to ensure they did not exercise their right to vote. The Klan was effectively the paramilitary wing of the Democratic Party in the South at that time.”

“The Ku Klux Klan's activities weren't just random acts of violence or midnight pranks. It was an increasingly barbaric treatment of freedmen that served a very clear political purpose, which was the destruction of the Republican Party's influence in the former Confederacy.”

“My letter said, you know, due to my lack of judgment and lack of impartiality that led to the political weaponization of the government. And to me, what that meant was you were on this investigation, and, we're firing you for it. I just kept thinking, you know, this this life that I had, that I enjoyed, that I loved, the people that I was able to help, the justice that I was able to get for individuals is over.”

“What we found was an agency that was really straining under political pressure where the leadership was transformed into something much more partisan than anyone at the FBI had seen before, and where agents were finding themselves doing work that felt to them like it was different and at odds with their own sense of mission and purpose. And they were just really beginning to worry about the safety and security of the country.”

“It's about holding the government accountable for doing the right thing, the way we hold ourselves accountable for doing the right thing. Yes. We are seeking reinstatement. We are seeking the due process that we were not afforded during this process. That is one of the goals of the lawsuit. Absolutely. I just never think about that part because to me, the lawsuit is also about making sure that others are protected now and in the future.”

“The Reconstruction era was a period where the Southern states, having been brought back into the Union, were struggling with the new reality of multiracial democracy. The political context for the Klan's rising popularity was a direct reaction to the enfranchisement of Black Americans.”

“Ulysses S. Grant realized that the states were unable or unwilling to protect their own citizens from this terror. He made the decision that federal intervention was the only way to safeguard the rights that had been won during the Civil War.”