We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: The Left ruins everything it touches. This is a brilliant point put forth by conservative talk-show host and author Dennis Prager, and we’ve yet to find a single instance where it isn’t true. You name it, and the Left has likely ruined it: warfighting, education, religion, free speech, film, literature, the arts, sports, social media, late-night TV, the Boy Scouts — even ice cream, for Pete’s sake.

Now it’s gone and wrecked the FBI.

The bureau’s slide into rank partisanship didn’t happen overnight, though; it happened over the course of years. It was obvious that at least the leadership of the FBI had become corruptly partisan during the Barack Obama years, when it slow-walked the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s “private” email server and then launched a phony investigation of then-candidate Donald Trump — an investigation that hinged on a piece of uncorroborated oppo-research garbage called the Steele dossier, which was put together by a Trump-hating British spy, was chock-full of Russian disinformation, was bought and paid for by Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee, was vouched for by smarmy, scummy, slippery FBI Director James Comey, and was used with devastating effect to secure FISA warrants for spying on Trump’s campaign.

The investigation also included the falsification of evidence by FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith, who willfully changed the language in an email to help the bureau secure those same spy warrants. The whole investigative episode, called Crossfire Hurricane, plagued Trump’s entire presidency and will go down in history as one of the FBI’s darkest hours. On the bright side, the illegitimacy of that investigation is still being probed by special prosecutor John Durham, and indictments may be forthcoming. On the not-so-bright side, it’s unlikely that the scumbags most responsible for wrecking the bureau’s reputation — Comey, Assistant Director Andrew McCabe, and Special Agent Peter Strzok — will ever do time.

As to the FBI’s conduct during the course of that investigation, DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz, who found “at least 17 significant errors or omissions in the Carter Page FISA applications,” wrote in his 476-page report: “Our review revealed instances in which factual assertions relied upon in the first application targeting Carter Page were inaccurate, incomplete, or unsupported by appropriate documentation, based upon information the FBI had in its possession at the time the application was filed.”

Translation: The FBI is either pathetically sloppy, or willfully dirty. You be the judge.

We take no joy in saying that. The once-proud bureau, which has 37,000 employees, was for decades the world’s premier investigative and law enforcement agency. But what a mess the scumbags on the 7th floor have made of things lately. And the rot has trickled down. In 2018, an IG report identified dozens of agents in the violation of the bureau’s ethics policies, especially concerning the receipt of gifts and the leaking of sensitive information to the press.

Are there good agents and support staff among the 37,000? Of course. Many thousands of them. But it’s fair to say that the bureau’s reputation is worse than it’s been in decades. And it’d be a lie to say it’s merely a leadership problem.

These days, where, why, and how you engage in political protests will likely determine whether the FBI considers you to be worth investigating. For example, earlier this year the bureau ignored the repeated attempts by antifa rioters to burn down the federal courthouse building in Portland, Oregon. In June 2020, at the height of the “mostly peaceful” George Floyd riots, they also ignored the successful efforts of Black Lives Matter protesters to burn down the 3rd Precinct police building in Minneapolis.

Heck, if you’re a Democrat, the FBI won’t even investigate you for fraudulently marrying your brother in order to skirt U.S. immigration laws — which is precisely what radical-left Congresswoman Ilhan Omar did, a crime for which she has never been held accountable. (In fairness to the FBI, perhaps investigators thought there was still plenty of reasonable doubt in the results of the DNA match between Omar and her husband/brother. After all, the likelihood that they’re siblings is only 99.999998%.)

Of course, if you’re the son of a prominent Democrat, you can peddle influence with foreign governments with absolute impunity. And you can lie through your teeth on a federal gun form. Heck, you can even leave your incriminating laptop computer with the FBI for a year or more without a worry in the world. (The jury’s still out on whether you can evade taxes, too.)

On the other side of the political spectrum, the FBI sent multiple agents to raid the home of Paul and Marilyn Hueper. They barged in at 9 a.m. with guns drawn, handcuffed and separated them, interrogated them for hours, then took their laptop computers and their cell phones, all in a case of mistaken identity over what the bureau believed was the Huepers’ involvement in the January 6 breach of the Capitol building.

Actually, the Huepers got off easy. Take the case of Karl Dresch, for example. Dresch, 40, from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, came to Washington to attend Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally. As Byron York reports: “[He then] joined a crowd heading down the Mall toward the Capitol. And when he got there, he … walked in through an open door. He wandered around for perhaps 20 or 25 minutes, and then left.”

Dresch was arrested and jailed in Michigan on January 15, then he was moved to Oklahoma, and finally to Washington, DC. He was charged with five crimes and was confined to his cell, cruelly and unusually, for 23 hours per day, even though a DOJ memo confirms that Dresch “did not engage in physical violence or destruction of property, nor join others attempting to enter the U.S. Capitol in physical violence.” As York continues, “He pleaded guilty to one charge — Parading, Demonstrating, or Picketing in a Capitol Building. It was a misdemeanor carrying a maximum sentence of six months. Dresch was quickly sentenced to time served, fined $500, and set free.”

Thus, Dresch spent more than six months in jail for a misdemeanor whose maximum sentence was less time than he’d already served. And there are approximately 600 January 6 defendants, most of whom have stories similar to Dresch’s.

Finally, let’s consider the case of some other Michiganders: those who allegedly plotted to kidnap the state’s governor, Democrat Gretchen Whitmer. The first of these defendants was sentenced last week to six years in prison, well below the guidelines of 14 to 17 years, for agreeing to turn state’s evidence against his fellow plotters, who call themselves the Wolverine Watchmen.

It appears, though, that more than a dozen FBI agents had infiltrated the group and played a much bigger role in the plot than had been previously reported. One of the FBI’s informants, the defendants’ lawyers claim, was so deeply involved in the group that he rose to become its second-in-command. And one FBI agent allegedly instructed an informant to lie and to delete text messages that would reveal the bureau was unlawfully furthering the conspiracy.

In sum, where the FBI is concerned, you’re perfectly free to talk about punching, maiming, or killing President Donald Trump, but if you think the 2020 election was deeply flawed or improperly adjudicated, well, let’s just say, You have the right to remain silent…

And if you suspect a family member of being a Trump supporter or flying the American flag too patriotically, the FBI invites you to rat him out.

(Updated.)