FBI Director Christopher A. Wray is facing the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday and is expected to respond to a slew of questions about whistleblower claims of politically motivated disciplinary action by the bureau’s security division.
Some of the problems at the security division, known as “SecD” in the bureau, were recently exposed in a searing report by Department of Justice Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz, who is set to testify to Congress next week.
Mr. Wray on Wednesday is being grilled about the IG report that flagged how employees’ security clearances were suspended, revoked or denied without a chance for a timely appeal, leaving FBI workers destitute and unable to return to their jobs or find alternative employment.
“This lack of appeal process is especially problematic at DOJ components that indefinitely suspend employees without pay for the duration of the security investigation and review process, which can sometimes last years,” Mr. Horowitz wrote in the May report.
Over the last two years, a cascade of FBI whistleblowers came forward to tell congressional lawmakers how the bureau’s security division targeted them unfairly for reasons including whether they served in the military, had alleged conservative political or religious views or refused COVID-19 vaccination.
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Among those claiming mistreatment by the bureau are former FBI agents Marcus Allen and Garrett O’Boyle.
The FBI last June reinstated Mr. Allen’s security clearance — and authorized 27 months of back pay after he was once accused of misconduct related to investigations of Jan. 6 defendants.
Mr. O’Boyle’s security clearance, though, has yet to be reinstated. He has been at the center of a whistleblower saga since his security clearance was suspended in September 2022 for allegedly leaking information about a criminal investigation into Project Veritas.
He was suspended without pay by the FBI after he, Mr. Allen and former FBI Agent Stephen Friend testified before the House Judiciary Committee’s panel on weaponization of the federal government.
The suspension left him and his family financially ruined and homeless when the bureau yanked his security clearance and suspended him without pay.
However, on Tuesday, Mr. O’Boyle’s attorneys filed a new disclosure and retaliation complaint for another client who works as an FBI Supervisory Special Agent at SecD.
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This new disclosure bolsters a previous whistleblower disclosure to Congress, which was reported exclusively by The Washington Times, that said Mr. O’Boyle should have his clearance reinstated.
In a letter Tuesday to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, whistleblower attorney Tristan Leavitt of Empower Oversight said their client “wishes to disclose exculpatory information regarding Special Agent (SA) Garret O’Boyle that the FBI withheld from the Committee.”
“In two separate transcribed interviews, then-Executive Assistant Director (“EAD”) Jennifer Leigh Moore withheld exculpatory information about SA O’Boyle. Specifically, she failed to inform the Committee that the FBI was aware SA O’Boyle was not the anonymous agent masked in a May 11, 2022 Project Veritas interview,” he wrote. “As you know, that false allegation was the FBI’s key pretext to suspend and ultimately revoke SA O’Boyle’s security clearance.”
Mr. Leavitt said that Ms. Moore’s failure to disclose this “exculpatory information and her misleading testimony” prompted Democratic lawmakers to refer him to the Department of Justice for allegedly committing perjury.
The Justice Department recently closed this inquiry, he wrote, “essentially exonerating SA O’Boyle with no prosecution.”
“Despite being aware of the exculpatory information that SA O’Boyle was not the agent behind the Project Veritas video, the FBI waited 22 months before adjudicating SA O’Boyle’s clearance,” he said.
Throughout this process, SA O’Boyle has remained in an unpaid limbo with no legal deadline for any required FBI action, while the delay of his clearance adjudication prevented SA O’Boyle from either being (1) reinstated or (2) obtaining SecD’s investigative file providing the basis for a clearance revocation.”
The FBI declined to comment.
Mr. O’Boyle began making protected whistleblower disclosures in the fall of 2021. These disclosures were about FBI policies on COVID-19 that Mr. O’Boyle believed to violate constitutional and statutory law and FBI regulations and policies.
He first made his disclosures through his FBI chain of command.
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.
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