In the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, Robert S. Mueller decided to change the culture of the FBI into that of an intelligence agency. The FBI culture had been rooted in law enforcement. A law enforcement agency deals with facts. A law enforcement agent works toward the day when one stands up in court, raises the right hand, and swears to tell the truth about those facts.
Intelligence agencies deal in estimates, i.e., best guesses. Guesses are not allowed in court. Intelligence agencies routinely use deception. Hence, bending a rule or shading the truth comes naturally to the intelligence culture. Mueller’s handpicked successor as FBI director, James Comey, exacerbated the damage done by the change in culture with his faulty policies. He gave DEI pride of place in the Bureau’s changing values. His poor leadership in the Hillary Clinton email investigation and in the Russian collusion fiasco did historic damage to the FBI’s reputation. Comey’s successor, Christoper Wray, sadly failed to address the underlying cultural problem.
Nicole Parker served as an FBI Special Agent during the disastrous reign of these three directors. In The Two FBIs: The Bravery and Betrayal I Saw in My Time at the Bureau, she provides an on-the-ground inside view of an agency torn in two halves. Her observations and her telling are heartfelt, believable, and at times deeply moving. A person of faith, she took her mission seriously, while at the same time, she clearly loved the job. But the attitudes and policies she experienced caused her to question today’s FBI. She ultimately decided to resign from the Bureau. Today, Nicole Parker is a commentator at Fox News.
Her story begins with a gripping account of the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center. Parker was then a 23-year-old working at Merrill Lynch International in the World Finance Center. She witnessed the attack, saw bravery in others, and admits to fear and nervousness. Clearly, the experience of that day was a life-altering event, which ultimately led her to the FBI. Throughout her memoir, Parker manifests deep faith. Quoting Mother Teresa, “wherever God puts you, that is your vocation” propels her narrative.
Her training as a new agent at Quantico is a revealing chapter as well. Although she enjoyed much of the coursework — in particular, she mentions the time spent studying the Constitution — she admits that the firearms and defensive tactics training were extremely challenging. With extra time and application, she became proficient in firearms. But the physical demands of fighting with male classmates were something to be endured.
Here, as elsewhere, she reflects on her upbringing in a large, close-knit family as a positive. The experience of rough-housing with her three older brothers helped prepare her for this tough training as well as for the horsing around that happens in a male-dominated organization. Despite her own challenges, she was later disappointed to learn that the physical standards at Quantico were lowered in the interests of DEI.
The bulk of Parker’s narrative is an account of investigations she was involved with in Florida. These cover the gamut from white collar crime to violent crime. Like the rest of her memoir, these all ring true. The Parkland School shooting is a particularly emotional case as it involves the murder of children. Parker’s gut-wrenching duty of notifying parents of their loss is yet another highly emotional passage in The Two FBIs. These emotions culminate in the chapter about Special Agent Laura Schwartzenberger, Parker’s best friend. Schwartzenberger was one of two agents murdered while executing a search warrant at the home of a suspected child predator. Parker recounts her conversations with her friend about faith and their concerns about the direction of the Bureau. Parker found Wray’s response to the murders disappointing.
But Comey is the biggest villain of the three directors Parker served under. She recounts watching on TV with other agents as Comey declined prosecution of Hillary Clinton for her mishandling of classified information. Parker relates their shock as Comey did something they had all been told was exclusively the job of a prosecutor.
Nicole Parker has written a first-rate book. It is a firsthand warning about what has happened to the FBI. It is a witness to her faith and her belief in the principles of the Constitution, and it makes a powerful case for the need to repair the culture at the Bureau.
Thomas J. Baker is an international law enforcement consultant. He served as a FBI Special Agent for 33 years in a variety of investigative and management positions facing the challenges of crime and terrorism. He is the author of “The Fall of the FBI: How a Once Great Agency Became a Threat to Democracy.”
