A recently reinstated FBI “Suspendable” was fired from the bureau on Friday for demonstrating “unprofessional conduct and poor judgment” after making a thinly veiled threat — believed by some to be directed at FBI Director Kash Patel — during a recent podcast appearance.

Ex-FBI special agent Steve Friend, who had been working out of the FBI’s Jacksonville field office as an applicant coordinator for the past week, was fired on Saturday after making  “unauthorized interactions with the media,” including the podcast hosted by Friend and fellow FBI Suspendable, Kyle Seraphin. 

“After being reinstated, you continued to appear regularly on podcasts with members of the media discussing FBI matters and ongoing FBI investigations. You did not seek, nor did you receive, authorization to engage with the media regarding FBI matters,” Mr. Patel wrote in his December 12 termination letter to Mr. Friend.

Mr. Patel singled out Mr. Friend’s December 5th appearance on the “Kyle Seraphin Show,” in which he warned he would “bring out my inner Commodus” if the FBI’s arrest of January 6th pipebomb suspect Brian Cole Jr. was another “put-up job” by the Justice Department. 

“You’d better pray to Gaia or Vishnu, or whatever your maker is, that the real Steve Friend is never in a position to be an instrument of God’s wrath, because I will be merciful. I won’t give you a trial and a hanging. I’ll allow you to breathe every breath that your body will have for the rest of its natural life inside of a box, and then when it ultimately fades to black,” Mr Friend added.

The strange threat – invoking the Roman Emperor Commodus, or more likely the highly fictionalized film version of the second century ruler in Ridley Scott’s “Gladiator,” and then making an inscrutable reference to “life inside of a box” – may have been the last straw for Mr. Patel, who’s had a rocky relationship with the Suspendables, despite their support for the change he was supposed to bring to the FBI.

Empower Oversight, the nonprofit watchdog group that has represented Mr. Friend since 2022, fired him as a client shortly after the December 5 podcast episode aired. 

In his termination letter, Mr. Patel said those statements “demonstrated unprofessional conduct and poor judgment as an FBI employee.”

On Saturday,  shortly after his firing, Mr. Friend posted the offending clip of himself on the podcast to his X account, adding that Mr. Patel, “should be more concerned about his agency arresting the wrong suspect in the J6 pipebombing case than retaliating against me for pointing out they didn’t.”

Mr. Friend has been among the most vocal members of “The Suspendables,” a group of ex-agents who say they were punished by a “weaponized” FBI, under the aegis of former Director Christopher Wray and President Biden, for political reasons. In 2022, Mr. Friend was suspended without pay and his security clearance revoked after making what he argued was a protected whistleblower disclosure to his immediate supervisor over his concerns about the FBI’s investigation into the Capitol Hill riots on January 6th. 

In 2023, while testifying before a House Judiciary Subcommittee hearing, Mr. Friend criticized the FBI’s use of  SWAT teams to arrest suspects, saying it “created an unnecessary risk to FBI personnel and public safety” and may have been done in part “to inflate  the FBI’s statistics on domestic extremism.” Mr. Friend resigned under pressure from the bureau in 2023. In the ensuing years, he became an outspoken critic of the FBI, appearing during the Biden Administration on now-FBI Deputy Director Daniel Bongino’s show on Fox News and several podcasts like the Moment of Truth and Sandy Rios 24/7. 

In a 2023 article for The Federalist, Mr. Friend called on lawmakers to disarm the FBI and “force it to partner with local law enforcement agencies for any investigative and enforcement activities.”

“If Republicans disarm the FBI, they will ensure it can never inflict a mortal wound upon citizens regardless of who holds federal power,” he wrote.

The Suspendables would become a cause celebre for Mr. Patel, who, before his surprise elevation to FBI director, provided several members with financial support through his Kash Foundation. In the months leading to his confirmation as FBI director, Mr. Patel sought input from Mr. Friend and other Suspendables to identify FBI officials who were “problems.”

In August, Mr. Patel announced a settlement with several whistleblowers to restore their benefits and back pay, along with a lump-sum payment for damages. As part of the agreement, the FBI would reinstate Mr. Friend and two other agents to duty.

But Mr. Friend, despite being returned to the FBI payroll in October, continued to speak openly about existing FBI investigations. He repeatedly floated now-debunked conspiracy theories about the identity of the pipebomber who placed two bombs outside the Republican and Democratic party headquarters on the night before the January 6, 2021, Capitol riots.

During his December 5 appearance on the Kyle Seraphin Show, Mr. Friend suggested that the “thirsty” FBI leadership may have struck a backchannel deal with Brian Cole Jr., the man charged as the January 6th pipebomber, to satisfy President Trump and an increasingly wary MAGA audience. 

“Maybe this guy, this Cole character, was an entrapment playbook person you already had on the hook,” Mr. Friend told former FBI special agent and fellow Suspendable, Kyle Seraphin.

In its letter to Mr. Friend,  Empower Oversight said that it advised him during a November 24 phone call that he was still subject to the FBI’s social media policies. “We are no longer willing or able to expend further time and resources representing your interests or providing counsel moving forward.”

“Seraphin and everyone in his orbit are absolutely toxic. How many more people have to torch their reputations before it finally sinks in?” Federalist CEO and Co-Founder Sean Davis said on his X account.