An FBI whistleblower is warning that identity and race-based ideology runs deep in the nation’s top law enforcement agency — and officials may try to undermine President Donald Trump’s FBI director to keep it that way. According to former FBI Special Agent Steve Friend, FBI officials are secretly defying Trump’s order to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) offices and programs, instead shuffling DEI-driven leaders around to other influential posts.

The Washington Stand reported earlier this month that the FBI had already closed its Office of Diversity and Inclusion (ODI) prior to the president-elect taking office. Subsequently, Trump warned the FBI to “preserve and retain all records, documents, and information on the now closing DEI Office — Never should have been opened and, if it was, should have closed long ago.” He questioned why the ODI was being shut down shortly “before the Inauguration of a new Administration? The reason is, CORRUPTION!”

Citing internal FBI memos, Friend revealed that DEI officers within the FBI were not being fired but, rather, moved to different divisions and entrenched further into the agency. One internal memo reportedly read, “In recent weeks, the FBI took steps to close the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, effective December 2024. Special emphasis programs have been realigned under the Office of Equal Employment Opportunity Affairs.” The Equal Employment Opportunity Affairs office, Friend reported, is just as DEI-obsessed as the defunct ODI. “The American people pay for this. And they don’t know how bad it is,” he commented.

Article III Project Founder and Trump ally Mike Davis, an attorney who has served in all three branches of the federal government, reported that former ODI director Jenise Carroll is now a section chief of Human Resources at the FBI. J. Michael Waller, a senior strategy analyst at the Center for Security Policy, also reported that Carroll had been reassigned to human resources and her DEI record has been “scrubbed off the web.” Friend commented, “They’re promoting a lot of people into senior executive service roles, which are very hard to get rid of. They’re creating jobs for them so that they can just exist.” He added, “This is all a total spinning to be in compliance with what they perceive to be the new administration and a new director.”

Friend predicted that FBI officials will attempt to “distract” Trump’s nominee for FBI director, former National Security Council Counterterrorism Director Kash Patel, in order to shield woke programs and rebranded DEI officers. Once Patel “makes it through” the confirmation process, Friend predicted, senior FBI officials are “going to just try to bubble-wrap him like they did to Chris[topher] Wray, keep him away from things, give him all these little side projects.” While Trump’s first FBI director, Wray, who also served under almost the entire duration of the Biden administration, faced intense criticism for his handling of such incidents as targeting pro-life Americans and American Catholics, suppressing the Nashville shooter’s manifesto, pressuring social media platforms to censor Americans’ political speech, and illegally undermining Trump’s first presidential term, among other incidents, Friend suggested that other top FBI officials, including Deputy Director Paul Abbate, likely manipulated Wray and effectively ran the FBI without his input.

Senior FBI officials are already planning to subject Patel to similar treatment and “not let him do anything,” Friend warned. “There’s already a plan in place to thwart him, to slow-roll him,” the former FBI agent reported. He averred that some agency officials are plotting to “slow-roll” Patel’s background check and his security clearance. However, as a former member of the president’s National Security Council, Patel already has a high security clearance. Friend said that subversive FBI officials overlooked this crucial detail “because they’re not competent.”