A former FBI agent who was hired by the Department of Justice after participating in the 2021 insurrection says he has resigned from the federal agency due to his inability to “fully expose” government abuses from the inside.
Jared Lane Wise, who took a job as a counselor to Justice Department pardon attorney Ed Martin Jr. last July, said he handed in his resignation on Thursday.
“I returned to Washington to fully expose the abuses by the FBI and DOJ against J6 defendants, but it became clear that this will only happen from outside of government,” he posted on X. “So I left and will do so.”
Wise was charged with breaching the Capitol during the violence and repeatedly shouted “kill ’em” as he watched rioters assault officers outside the building, according to an FBI agent’s affidavit. He was one of nearly 1,600 participants who were ultimately pardoned by President Donald Trump last year.
A DOJ spokesperson confirmed his resignation to HuffPost on Friday, saying it had been “long planned.”
“We thank him for his service to this nation,” they said in an email.
Wise had been hired as an adviser to Martin, who at the time was overseeing an investigation into Trump’s claims of anti-conservative bias within the DOJ during the Biden administration, The Associated Press reported.
Pam Bondi, who was ousted from her role as attorney general on the same day as Wise’s resignation, had last year called for creating the so-called “weaponization working group” within her office.
This group was meant to identify instances where a federal department or agency, within the prior four years, tried to “achieve political objectives or other improper aims rather than pursuing justice or legitimate governmental objectives.”
The group was directed to provide the White House with quarterly reports on its progress.
It wasn’t immediately clear where the group stands today, and what revelations it presented to Trump, though Bondi had been publicly chastised by Trump for failing to successfully prosecute his political foes.
Martin was quietly removed from overseeing the investigative group in February. Though no reason was given, a person familiar with the matter told the AP that the group, under his leadership, was not making much progress.
