News/Commentary

Jan 6 prisoners feel betrayed by Patel and Bongino over promotion of agent who persecuted them

April 8, 2025 | | Print Article

Some Trump supporters, including Jan. 6th rioters, are upset with FBI Director Kash Patel over his hiring decisions.

At issue is a decision by Patel to promote an FBI agent who once persecuted conservatives to a senior role in the FBI’s Washington Field Office.

The agent, Steven Jensen, previously served as the section chief of the FBI’s Domestic Terrorism Operations Section from April 2020 to October 2021.

In this role, he didn’t just go after Jan. 6th rioters — he smeared them as “terrorists,” according to retired FBI National Security Intelligence Supervisor George Hill.

Testifying before the House Judiciary Committee in 2023, Hill described how Jensen had referred to Jan. 6th rioters as “terrorists” on a conference call two years earlier, despite pushback from the FBI’s Philadelphia office.

“[T]he Philadelphia office said, well, there’s no evidence of any kind of, you know, violent leanings or insurrectionist leanings, to which Steve Jensen said, you know, I don’t give a blank, they’re goddamn terrorists and we’re gonna round them all up,” Hill recalled.

In his prior role, Jensen also tried to persecute dissenting, protesting parents as domestic terrorists.

“Mr. Jensen was … responsible for establishing a system to monitor incidents of violence at school board meetings across the country as potential acts of domestic terrorism,” according to the New York Times.

Except there were no incidents of violence at school board meetings. There were just incidents of angry parents getting a bit loud as they slammed their school boards over their bad policies.

Despite all this evidence against Jensen, he’s since been promoted by Patel, sparking anger from a large number of voices on the right, including Jan. 6th rioters and dissenting parents.

“Seriously Kash? Why the fvck does this guy have a job, let alone a promotion?” former West Virginia state lawmaker Derrick Evans tweeted.

“I would admonish all Trump supporters to voice their opposition to the appointment of Steve Jensen as @FBIWFO ADIC… because this is ‘not what we voted for,'” Jan 6th. rioter Steve Baker tweeted.

One of the most notable responses came from Jan. 6th rioter Richard Barnett:

“The anger and depression is hitting hard today,” he tweeted. “The DOJ and FBI weaponized against us. #J6ers were murdered. Others were tormented into suicide. The rest of us were imprisoned, tortured, our families left to fend for themselves, houses raided and children scared and scarred for life. Many now struggling to survive, some homeless. We thought our stand meant something.”

“@FBIDirectorKash and @FBIDDBongino who we thought were going to relieve some of the pain, go after the bad guys just added to our pain and torment. Stabbed us in the back. They actually promoted one of our tormentors, #SteveJensen, into a position of great power within the #FBI. We were promised they would tear it down, start from scratch. The traitors are being rewarded for what they did to us,” he added.

Even Kyle Seraphin, a former FBI agent known for leaving the agency over his objections to the Jan. 6th investigations, also complained about Jensen’s promotion, describing him in a tweet as a “true J6 insurrection believer.”

Seraphin’s criticism is especially important because, according to Raw Story, FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino previously described him as “a brave guy and a patriot” who gave up his job “to give us this incredible, incredible account of what’s going on inside the now-broken FBI, some of the abuses taking place.”

See more responses below:

There’s also been speculation that House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan recommended Jensen’s promotion.

Jordan has, for his part, dismissed this as total fake news.

Vivek Saxena
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