A former FBI analyst who resigned over the Trump administration and boasted about working on January 6 cases is running for Congress as a Democrat.
John Sullivan is challenging New York Republican Rep. Michael Lawler for New York’s 17th Congressional District — and he’s wasted no time in blasting the Trump administration and invoking January 6.
Sullivan worked in the bureau for almost 17 years but resigned in April over the Trump administration, according to his Substack
Since leaving the bureau, he’s slammed the Trump administration and Elon Musk. Sullivan claimed President Donald Trump and FBI Director Kash Patel pose a “threat … to American safety and security.”
He also stated that investigating January 6 was “one of [his] proudest moments in the FBI.”
There were 26 FBI confidential human informants (CHS) in Washington D.C. attending events connected to January 6, according to a Department of Justice (DOJ) watchdog.
For 17 years, I served in secret, protecting us from threats like Russia, foreign terrorists and drug cartels, and eventually the insurrectionists who stormed our Capitol.
Now, I’m stepping out of the shadows to run for Congress. pic.twitter.com/CV7XYsR2ix
— John Sullivan (@FBI_Sullivan) April 22, 2025
Sullivan’s career in the FBI began several months before former President Barack Obama was first sworn into the office.
Notably, Obama emboldened the intelligence community’s surveillance of Americans.
He updated President Ronald Reagan’s Executive Order 12333 in 2016, reportedly broadening the National Security Agency’s (NSA) spying power and allowing agencies like the FBI to gain access to raw signals intelligence.
Sullivan started out as a Surveillance Specialist in Washington, D.C. in 2008, according to his LinkedIn. He served in both the D.C. and New York field offices, eventually reaching the rank of Section Chief of the FBI’s Directorate of Intelligence. (RELATED: ‘Ghost Guns’ And ‘Hate Crime’: Tulsi Gabbard Declassifies Biden Admin Docs Targeting ‘Domestic Terrorism’)
He also worked on counterterrorism for over three years in Israel until May 2020, according to LinkedIn.
“John left the FBI as one of the most senior gay officials in the bureau,” his campaign website noted.
Every action on each case he was involved in over the past 4 years should be scrutinized for political bias.
— Ezra A. Cohen (@EzraACohen) April 23, 2025
While Sullivan is running as a Democrat, he served under former FBI Director Christopher Wray during Trump’s first term.
Wray resigned in 2024 before Trump could fire him. The bureau raided Trump’s Mar-a-Lago in August 2022 when Wray was still director.
Sullivan told Brian Tyler Cohen in an interview that Wray deemed “domestic terrorism” the number one threat in the country. (RELATED: Americans Are Applying To Work For Kash Patel’s FBI At Historic Rates)
“[Wray] identified domestic terrorism in different Senate and House hearings as the number one threat facing Americans … Kash Patel and Dan Bongino, under Trump’s direction, have actually lessened the personnel size of that team,” Sullivan said in the interview. “You are being made less safe by the choices that are being made.”
Wray testified that white supremacist organizations were a greater domestic terror threat than Antifa.
He also characterized Antifa as “a movement or an ideology” instead of a “group.”
WASHINGTON, DC – JANUARY 27: FBI Director Christopher Wray attends a news conference to announce recent law enforcement action in transnational security threats case, at the U.S. Department of Justice headquarters on January 27, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
The FBI has been accused of political bias and weaponization by conservatives.
The Biden administration emphasized domestic terrorism and created the first ever “National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism” in June 2021.
FBI whistleblowers have spoken out about weaponization of the bureau, including Steve Friend, who told Congress the bureau surveilled parents protesting school boards.
He previously told the Daily Caller that his FBI office in Daytona Beach was reassigned from working on child pornography cases to investigating domestic terrorism. (RELATED: ‘Russiagate’ Files Raise Questions About Potential Use Of Illegal Alien FBI Informants)
Garret O’Boyle, who was suspended without pay from the FBI, told the Caller he witnessed a political bias against pro-life individuals at the bureau.
The FBI raided the homes of pro-life Christians, including some who were eventually pardoned by Trump.
The Caller previously reported on Zach Schoffstall, who said he was forced out of the bureau after refusing to go along with the Biden administration’s agenda targeting “domestic terrorism.”
However, Sullivan didn’t resign from the FBI during the Biden administration. It was not until Patel became director that Sullivan decided to leave the bureau.
“Donald Trump and his administration are the biggest threat to American safety,” he asserted on his Substack.
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