The wife of a senior U.S. Air Marshal was branded a domestic terrorist and subjected to invasive monitoring after attending the Trump rally on the Ellipse in Washington D.C. on January 6, 2021, despite zero evidence linking her any unlawful activity on that day, according to a stunning new Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee report on the Biden administration’s weaponization of the Quiet Skies program.
“She was placed in the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Database and, for two years, followed on domestic flights by Federal Air Marshals, who reported her movements and interactions, sometimes on a minute-by-minute basis. Her name was finally cleared only after the FBI closed its case due to mistaken identity,” Senate Homeland Security Chairman Rand Paul (R-Ky.) stated in a press release, Monday.
The Transportation Security Administration’s Quiet Skies initiative was launched in 2010 to monitor air travelers exhibiting suspicious behaviors or travel patterns, even if they were not on official watchlists. The now canceled program reportedly failed to prevent a single act of terrorism.
Tulsi Gabbard, a combat veteran and former congresswoman, now serving as Director of National Intelligence, was also surveilled on at least five flights in 2024, according to the report.
That surveillance reportedly began just one day after Gabbard publicly criticized Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
Senator Paul opened an investigation into the Quiet Skies program in 2024 after hearing it was being abused to harass law-abiding dissidents of the Biden administration.
Paul’s investigation got off to a slow start due to the Biden administration’s stonewalling and refusal to provide records, but once the Trump administration came to office, those sought after documents were quickly shaken loose.
On June 5, Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem announced the termination of the politicized Quiet Skies program.
Senator Paul on Monday released a “flash report” of his investigation into “the Weaponization of Quiet Skies and TSA Watch Lists”
In addition to Gabbard and the air marshal’s wife, others who were put on TSA watch lists include three Republican lawmakers after engaging in lawful political activity, at least two dozen Americans for protesting or violating mask mandates, and hundreds of Americans who traveled to Washington D.C. ahead of the January 6 protest in 2021.
“Quiet Skies was an unconstitutional dystopian nightmare masquerading as a security tool costing the American taxpayers $200 million a year. And what did we get for it? According to DHS, the Quiet Skies program failed to stop a single terrorist attack since it was created. Instead, taxpayers are footing the bill for a surveillance program that turned its watchful eye inward—targeting Americans who had committed no crimes, violated no laws, and in many cases were government officials themselves,” said Dr. Paul.
On Tuesday, the Senate Homeland Security Committee held a hearing, titled, “Examining the Weaponization of the Quiet Skies Program.”
Witnesses included whistleblower Mark Crowder, Senior Federal Air Marshal U.S. Transportation Security Administration; Tristan Leavitt, President Empower Oversight; Matt Taibbi, Editor Racket News; Jim Harper, Senior Nonresident Fellow American Enterprise Institute; Abed Ayoub, National Executive Director American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.
In his opening statement, Paul stated that the internal TSA records reveal how the agency “authorized First Amendment activity to be used to justify the surveillance of Americans with no evidence and no recourse.
“Using broad and vague authorities, TSA deemed hundreds of Americans as threats to national security simply for holding opposing political views,” he said.
Crowder, who remains an active Air Marshal with over 20 years of experience, said in his opening statement that he answered the call to serve after the devastating attacks of 9/11/2001, “driven by an unshakeable resolve to ensure such a tragedy would never happen again.”
He said the Air Marshal program at is peak, “embodied the highest standards of law enforcement,” but those standards over time was eroded by “career bureaucrats and political appointees who prioritize personal advancement over the safety of our citizens.”
Crowder lamented how “a federal law enforcement agency sworn to protect American citizens had been weaponized to target the very people it serves.”
The whistleblower said he was working at the Houston Field Office in July 2021, when he was shocked to discover that his own wife had been flagged as a domestic terrorist, falsely accused of entering the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Crowder said he was horrified, knowing with absolute certainty that his wife, Christine, had been nowhere near the Capitol that day because she has a physical disability that prevents her from being able to walk long distances.
The lawman said Christine had simply exercised her First Amendment right “to attend a rally for President Trump before returning to her hotel.”
He said he immediately reported the alarming error to his supervisor, noting that according to the TSA’s system, he was living with a terrorist. The special agent in charge, Crowder continued, instructed him to remain silent and let the investigation run its course. He noted that the special agent later advanced to a senior position within the agency.
“From July 2021 to April 2023, Christine was subjected to approximately 13 special mission coverages,” he testified. “Each time she flew, federal marshals surveilled her, she was barred from checking in at the airport kiosk, online, and forced to wait in long lines at airport ticket counters for TSA verification of her identification, and to take control of her luggage.”
Crowder said his wife was also subjected to invasive secondary screenings at TSA checkpoints and then searched again at the jetway “by the TSA’s advance threat local allocation strategy team, also known as ATLAS.”
He testified that this harassing treatment also applied to anyone who was traveling with her, “including her elderly mother and their daughter, putting them both in significant distress.”
Crowder pointed out that he was able to find out his wife was erroneously placed on the domestic terrorist list because of his insider access to the information.
“How many other innocent Americans have been falsely labeled as terrorists and surveilled without their knowledge,” he fretted.
Crowder said for a time, politically motivated missions like the one he described dominated the air marshals’ work, diverting critical resources away from “genuine security threats.” He said the TSA’s weaponization against law-abiding Americans forced them to “betray the solemn promises we made after 9/11: Never Again.”
Crowder concluded that this “betrayal of American values, the weaponization of federal law enforcement to harass and intimidate citizens exercising their constitutional rights was unconscionable.”