House Republicans say new allegations from FBI whistleblowers about corruption within the bureau’s management and executive ranks are “appalling” and will be investigated as more revelations about the agency surface.
Republicans, who are poised to take the majority in the lower chamber in November, say they will use their oversight power on the House Judiciary panel to hold accountable those responsible for the failings in the bureau first described in an exclusive report in Monday’s editions of The Washington Times.
“These new allegations are appalling, and continue to demonstrate that the FBI’s culture has gone off the rails,” Rep. Dan Bishop, North Carolina Republican, told The Washington Times. “New FBI whistleblowers are coming forward at a rapid pace, and my Republican colleagues and I on the Judiciary committee will leave no stone unturned.”
In a statement to The Washington Times, the bureau said its workers do their jobs well and that charges of misconduct are investigated and punished.
“All FBI employees are held to the highest standards of professional and ethical conduct. Allegations of misconduct are taken seriously and referred to the Inspection Division or the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General. Through the disciplinary process, the FBI will continue to hold employees accountable for any substantiated misconduct,” the statement said.
The statement did not substantively address any of the whistleblowers’ charges.
These new whistleblowers from the bureau are in addition to the 14 FBI whistleblowers House Judiciary Committee ranking member Rep. Jim Jordan, Ohio Republican, says he has already talked to.
The new group of insiders accuses FBI management in different field offices of corruption, cover-ups and retaliation against rank-and-file agents who attempted to expose it, The Washington Times has learned.
Current and former FBI leaders at the bureau’s offices in Miami; Salt Lake City; Buffalo, New York; and Newark, New Jersey, are facing whistleblower complaints that the supervisors forced or coerced agents to sign false affidavits and fabricated terrorism cases to pump up performance statistics.
There is also a report that a supervisor sexually harassed and stalked a female agent, engaged in sexual acts with a subordinate in a government vehicle and crashed the vehicle.
One of the whistleblowers, an FBI agent who claimed superiors, including FBI Director Christopher A. Wray, ignored her accusations of sexual harassment said the bureau suffers from a “mob-like mentality.”
“The FBI is completely out of control and its culture and structure need to change. Not only is the political bias completely out of control and disgustingly obvious, the FBI knows they will not be held accountable for their illegal behavior and misconduct,” she wrote in a letter to Rep. Louie Gohmert, a Texas Republican on the Judiciary Committee.
SEE ALSO: Whistleblowers describe ‘out of control’ culture of corruption at FBI field offices
Rep. Matt Gaetz, Florida Republican and member of the committee, told The Times that, since the GOP is currently in the minority, FBI and DOJ whistleblowers are going directly to members of Congress for protection and to find accountability.
“Right now, all of the flow is unidirectional to us from people who work at the FBI or DOJ, because we don’t have the investigative tools to go and demand the records and conduct depositions to get a lot of the follow-up evidence,” he said. He predicted the initial 14 FBI whistleblowers would offer up a wealth of evidence about political bias in the agency.
Mr. Gaetz cited one whistleblower as telling him that he’s coming forward to save the agency from implosion.
“The guy told me that he loves the bureau, that he doesn’t want to see the bureau defunded or destroyed, but that he really feels a need to come forward so that there’s a focus on the things they ought to be doing, not trying to affect political outcomes,” he said.
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.
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