19 Jan 2026

Philip Fields Sifts Through the Wreckage

But we, pale and alone and small in that immensity, hurled back the living stars.

Written by Philip Fields. Adapted from a longer essay on The Fed Up.

The decay didn’t start with the election. The realization the Bureau was too fragile to survive started in the quiet, persistent failures of earlier years. By Election Day 2024, the writing was on the wall. FBI leadership had already surrendered.

My initial reaction to the "Fork in the Road" email was visceral. When the email arrived, I hesitated. Twenty years of public service—thirteen as an FBI intelligence analyst—is no small thing to throw away.

As my colleagues speculated over the legitimacy of the buyout and the institution crumbled around us, I recalled a friend's departing words from years earlier. They felt like they could do more for the FBI’s mission by not working there. I finally understood.

Jill and I looked at our savings, and I weighed the moral cost of staying.

Two weeks later and just hours before a federal judge brought the first deferred resignation period to a halt, I walked into a meeting with the head of the Los Angeles Field Office and told him I was leaving. I was hoping for a reason to stay but expecting nothing. I lacked faith in his ability to guide us through the darkness ahead.

He sat there quiet and meaningless; a shape without form. Disinterested, unaware, and seemingly unbothered by the storm raging outside his door. He asked for more time; a gesture without motion. I left his office, returned to my desk, and replied ‘resign.’

I made sure my reasons for resignation were succinct and clear.

Four months later, I watched the news in horror as FBI Police placed United States Senator Alex Padilla in handcuffs just down the hall from where we’d met. Senator Padilla was detained for having the audacity to ask a question during a press conference in the FBI Los Angeles Field Office's Luis Flores Conference Room.

At the head of the room, the same hollow man who had failed me months earlier stood by silent, a paralyzed force, headpiece filled with straw, leaning together among the rest of the hollow men. His silence was deafening; the irony suffocating.

Luis Flores was a Salvadoran immigrant who grew up in a tough Chicago neighborhood, earned a law degree, and became an FBI agent at 26. The room was named to honor his memory. Yet, in that very room, the memory of Luis Flores was desecrated.

I took this photo across the street from FBI Headquarters while visiting DC in March 2025.

For the first time in years, I have my voice. I, too, can do more for the FBI's mission from the outside.

In a year when over 300,000 employees left federal service, hosting this podcast can feel a bit like The Star Thrower—tossing one sea star at a time amidst the wreckage and debris of life. Yet, there's solace in knowing we’re taking an active role in our strained democracy rather than idly watching its destruction. Maybe we’ll even inspire a few more throwers to join us at the foot of the receding rainbow.

We’re also building Ravenwood Intelligence Cooperative where intelligence services are democratized, owned by the members, and driven by ethics and civic virtue rather than shareholders or political agendas.

Two distinct paths diverged at the "Fork in the Road." One—a sunlit path crowded with hollow men—laid out clearly what would be expected, and the reward granted the compliant traveler. The other, vacant, bent into the undergrowth of uncertainty. I knew there would be no turning back. That was fine by me. I took the one less traveled.

I’m tired of merely watching the destruction. It’s time to build something new.

A close up of a paper

AI-generated content may be incorrect. — Read an excerpt from the message I sent my coworkers on my last day at the FBI.

Philip Fields is a former FBI intelligence analyst and Marine Corps veteran. For over a decade, he led offensive cyber operations and undercover dark web investigations to disrupt terrorist networks and state-sponsored threats. He resigned in 2025, after witnessing the erosion of institutional integrity from within. He is now the co-founder of Ravenwood Intelligence Cooperative, a decentralized intelligence firm, and the co-host of Forking Off, a podcast documenting the decline of the federal government.

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