The man who led the FBI Unabomber task force — which ultimately arrested violent suspected terrorist Theodore Kaczynski without deploying a tactical team — is now decrying the use of SWAT teams to arrest Jan. 6 defendants for misdemeanors and warning of the politicization of the bureau.
The FBI doesn’t use SWAT teams for misdemeanors and has rarely used them to arrest nonviolent offenders, said Terry Turchie, former deputy assistant director of the Counterterrorism Division of the FBI, in an interview with Just the News.
Certain criteria must be met to use SWAT, such as the subject of an arrest warrant having a history of violent behavior and owning a firearm, Turchie explained.
FBI whistleblower Stephen Friend says the bureau suspended him from his job recently for raising a range of concerns about the FBI’s and DOJ’s conduct in the Jan. 6 investigation, including the bureau’s use of SWAT teams to arrest Jan. 6 defendants facing misdemeanor charges, thus violating, he alleges, the bureau’s Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide and creating potentially unsafe encounters. Turchie shares Friend’s concern about the use of SWAT teams in these cases.
