A former FBI official warned "something is very wrong" after the bureau demoted two supervisors over calls to Stephen Miller's wife.
Frank Figliuzzi, a former FBI assistant director, made the remarks in a Saturday episode of "The Jim Acosta Show," where he and the former CNN anchor discussed a wave of turmoil at the bureau.
Acosta cited an MS NOW report that two veteran FBI counterterrorism supervisors were removed from their jobs after a disagreement over an investigation into alleged harassing phone calls made to Katie Miller, the wife of White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller. The FBI confirmed the demotions.
Figliuzzi said the story got his attention because the moves hit "the top two people in the counterterrorism branch" of the Washington Field Office, "one of the most essential offices in the bureau."
"Why is this even being worked by the counterterrorism branch?" he asked. "Threatening, harassing calls generally go over to violent crimes."
He also questioned the field office head's public claim that the decision was his.
"I think he does protest too much because the head of an office has no authority to send particularly an SAC and ASAC back to headquarters," Figliuzzi said. "A senior executive by governmentwide regulation cannot be demoted without a Senior Executive Service disciplinary board, which I sat on for a period of my career."
"So something is very wrong with this story," he added. "A head of an office saying, 'I did this. It's not headquarters. Don't look there. Look here.' Sounds wrong."
"The bottom line is, look, the rules aren't being followed," Figliuzzi said. "If you're someone special or someone special's spouse, you're going to be treated differently obviously than you and me."
Figliuzzi also weighed in on the ShinyHunters breach of the FBI's jobs portal, which The New York Times reported swept up agents' home addresses, Social Security numbers and secretive job assignments.
"This, to me, Jim, sounds like multiple databases at headquarters have been hacked," he said, adding that a transparent investigation under FBI Director Kash Patel was "less than likely."