New whistleblower testimony from several current and former FBI employees reveals the bureau allegedly retaliated against employees who spoke out against “politicized rot” within the agency by suspending the employees or revoking their security clearances, a House committee and subcommittee said.
The House Judiciary Committee and Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government released an interim report on Thursday that includes testimony about “abuses and misconduct in the FBI.”
Former FBI special agent Steve Friend had his security clearance revoked and was suspended without pay after he voiced concerns about the bureau’s handling of Domestic Violent Extremism and cases related to the Capitol riot.
In protected disclosures, Friend said the FBI’s handling of the January 6 Capitol riot-related investigations “deviated from standard practice and created a false impression with respect to the threat of DVE nationwide.”
FBI staff operations specialist Marcus Allen also had his security clearance suspended after he conducted Capitol riot case-related research using open-source news articles and videos and sent those results to his colleagues for what he called “situational awareness.”
“Because these open-source articles questioned the FBI’s handling of the violence at the Capitol, the FBI suspended Allen for ‘conspiratorial views in regard to the events of January 6th,'” the report says.
The pair are set to testify before the Weaponization Subcommittee on Thursday.
The report said the FBI is “broken” under the leadership of FBI director Christopher Wray and attorney general Merrick Garland. It adds that leadership at the FBI and DOJ have “weaponized federal law enforcement against everyday Americans, seeking to silence those who dare to have a different viewpoint.”
“Meanwhile, whistleblower testimony highlights that the FBI’s partisan leadership is currently engaging in a ‘purge’ of agents who hold conservative beliefs,” the committees added.
In a letter to members of the Judiciary Committee ahead of the hearing, the FBI offered a different account of the suspensions of Friend and Allen.
The FBI said it revoked Friend’s top security clearance on May 16 for several reasons, including his alleged refusal to participate in the execution of a “court authorized, search and arrest of a criminal subject” in August 2022, according to the letter obtained by Fox News.
“During his communications with his management about his refusal to participate, he espoused an alternative narrative about the events at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021,” the FBI said. “On September 3, 2022, Mr. Friend entered FBI space and downloaded documents from FBI computer systems to an unauthorized removable flash drive. The FBI then required Mr. Friend to attend a Security Awareness Briefing (SAB) regarding his actions, but he refused to do so.”
The FBI also said Friend participated in “multiple, unapproved media interviews,” including with a Russian government news agency.
“Mr. Friend alleges he obtained approval from the FBI’s Office of Public Affairs (OPA) to participate in these interviews, but OPA did not provide such authorization,” the letter adds. “Mr. Friend’s failure to follow FBI policies relating to social media contacts and his lack of candor poses a security concern.”
The FBI goes on to explain that Allen had his top secret security clearance revoked on May 3 after his security clearance was previously suspended in January 2022 based on security concerns. The bureau opened a security investigation into Allen in October 2021 because of a referral from the FBI’s Charlotte Field Office.
“Specifically, the Security Division found Mr. Allen espoused alternative theories to coworkers verbally and in emails and instant messages sent on the FBI systems, in apparent attempts to hinder investigative activity,” the FBI said.
The bureau said he was told multiple times by a supervisor to “stop circulating these materials” but Allen “continued.”
“As one example, on September 29, 2021, Mr. Allen sent an email using his FBI email account to multiple colleagues that contained links to websites and urged recipients to ‘exercise extreme caution and discretion in pursuit of any investigative inquiries or leads pertaining to the events of’ January 6,” the FBI said. “Another example included an email containing a link to a website that stated, among other things, ‘By now it’s clear that federal law enforcement had some degree of infiltration among the crowds gathered at the Capitol on January 6,’ to which Mr. Allen commented, ‘brings up serious concerns about USG participation.’”
The FBI said it “concluded that, in totality, Mr. Allen obstructed the FBI’s lawful investigation of a subject, and this behavior raised concerns about Mr. Allen’s judgment, trustworthiness, and reliability which indicates that Mr. Allen may not properly safeguard classified or sensitive information.”
The hearing on Thursday comes days after special prosecutor John Durham released a report on Monday that found the DOJ and FBI did not have “any actual evidence of collusion” between Russian officials and Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and began their Crossfire Hurricane investigation into Trump’s campaign based on “raw, unanalyzed, and uncorroborated intelligence.” The findings in Durham’s report have only increased existing concerns about politicization within the DOJ and FBI.