The FBI senior official atop the investigation in Florida of the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump has been called out by bureau whistleblowers for his rabid hatred of Mr. Trump and retaliation against FBI personnel who support the former president.
FBI Miami Field Office Special Agent in Charge Jeffrey Veltri was ordered by superiors to scrub his social media accounts of his anti-Trump vitriol before he was promoted to his current position, an FBI whistleblower reported to Congress last year.
The allegations were reported exclusively by The Washington Times in November 2023.
Tristan Leavitt, an FBI whistleblower attorney and president of the nonprofit watchdog group Empower Oversight, said Mr. Veltri held his position as deputy assistant director of the FBI’s Security Division when “the so-called ‘Trump Questionnaire’ was used.”
“His bias against conservatives and those of his deputy, Dena Perkins, permeated the unit,” Mr. Leavitt wrote recently on X.
In a statement to The Times, the FBI said the agency has “full confidence in SAC Veltri’s leadership of the Miami Field Office and the investigation of the attempted assassination of former President Trump.”
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“This investigation is of the highest priority of the FBI. We are working closely with our partners and have hundreds of personnel from FBI Headquarters, Quantico, and multiple field offices supporting these efforts. All of us in the FBI are committed to conducting this investigation by the book, following the facts where they lead.”
As The Times exclusively reported, the FBI whistleblower described Mr. Veltri as “adamantly and vocally anti-Trump” and said FBI Director Christopher A. Wray, Deputy Director Paul Abbate and then-Executive Assistant Director Jennifer Moore were involved in directing Mr. Veltri to scrub his social media accounts.
“The home of President Donald Trump is located in the area of responsibility of the Miami Field Office. It was well known that Veltri was adamantly and vocally Anti-Trump,” said the whistleblower disclosure to Congress, which The Times has obtained.
“Wray, Abbate and Moore wanted to ensure that Veltri appeared non-political, Veltri was ordered to remove all of his Facebook and Social media posts that were Anti-Trump.”
The whistleblower said the bureau leaders weren’t concerned about Mr. Veltri’s “bias against Trump” but whether “information related to Veltri’s political bias can be removed from the public domain.”
Mr. Veltri, who served as acting deputy assistant director of the bureau’s security division until March, also oversaw efforts to suspend agents’ security clearances if they seemed to be a “right-wing radical,” according to the disclosure.
The FBI said the whistleblower’s allegations about Mr. Veltri were false.
The FBI said Mr. Veltri was “selected through a competitive process to lead the Miami field office and is charged with carrying out the FBI mission in a fair and unbiased manner.”
The bureau added, “The reported allegations about political bias impacting decisions, the targeting of former military employees, and SAC Veltri’s social media accounts and posts are demonstrably false.”
When Mr. Veltri took the lead role in the FBI probe in Florida, his critics took note.
Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton referenced The Times’ report about Mr. Veltri and wrote on X: “CONFLICT OF INTEREST: The Biden-Harris FBI, which is right now trying to jail Trump, is investigating two attempts on his life.”
Beyond Mr. Veltri’s involvement, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis cast doubt and suspicion on federal authorities conducting the investigation and announced a state-run probe into the assassination attempt.
“I don’t think anyone can honestly claim that the federal government has been forthright and transparent about its past investigations,” said Mr. DeSantis, a Republican. “That’s just the reality. That’s just how these guys operate.”
The FBI announced Mr. Veltri’s promotion to head of the Miami field office in March 2023, which was more than a year after the bureau raided Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, looking for classified documents.
Mr. Veltri first came under congressional scrutiny after whistleblowers from the FBI’s Security Division said bureau officials were trying to purge agents with conservative political views, labeling them “radical” or “disloyal” to the U.S.
Suspect behavior included refusing to get a COVID-19 vaccination and participating in religious activities.
Mr. Veltri and Security Division Assistant Section Chief Dena Perkins were also accused in another whistleblower disclosure of trying to sideline agents — including military veterans — by stripping them of security clearances.
The FBI denied those allegations as well.
“Repeated reporting on these outrageous allegations does not change the facts,” the bureau said. “The FBI has not and will not retaliate against individuals who make protected whistleblower disclosures. We do not target or take adverse action against employees for exercising their First Amendment rights or political views. The FBI has many employees who are military veterans, and we thank them for their service.”
The assassination attempt at Mr. Trump’s golf club in West Palm Beach, Florida, happened just nine weeks after the GOP presidential nominee narrowly survived a sniper attack during a campaign rally in Butler County, Pennsylvania.
The would-be assassin in Pennsylvania fired several shots, one grazing Mr. Trump’s ear, before he was killed by a Secret Service counter sniper.
In Florida, the accused assassin was fired on by Secret Service agents before he had Mr. Trump in his line of sight. The suspect fled, according to the FBI.
Authorities later arrested Ryan Routh, 58, a pro-Ukraine activist who had previously described Mr. Trump as a threat to democracy on his social media account. He has been charged with two firearm charges and remains in custody.
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.