House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan on Wednesday called upon a high-ranking FBI official to testify behind closed doors about his alleged involvement in retaliating against whistleblowers.
Mr. Jordan, Ohio Republican, who leads the panel’s Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, requested Jeffrey B. Veltri, special-agent-in-charge of the Miami field office, to talk to the committee about the FBI’s “misuse of the security clearance suspension and revocation process.”
Mr. Veltri previously served as a section chief and an acting deputy assistant director of the FBI’s Security Division (SecD) between May 2021 and March 2023.
“The Committee has learned that in this role, you were involved in key decisions with respect to the FBI’s adjudication of security clearance matters,” Mr. Jordan wrote. “As such, we believe that you have information critical to our oversight and request that you appear for a transcribed interview.”
The letter comes one day after the Department of Justice Office of Inspector General reported that the FBI and other federal law enforcement agencies stripped whistleblower agents of security clearances and pay without providing an opportunity to appeal the decision within a reasonable time frame.
The FBI refused to comment.
The Security Division at FBI headquarters investigates allegations of misconduct that may require suspension or revocation of security clearance through the adjudication process.
According to Mr. Jordan, the committee received specific information from multiple sources that Mr. Veltri was involved in the security clearance adjudication investigations and recommendations for several FBI whistleblowers, including Staff Operations Specialist Marcus Allen and Special Agent Garret O’Boyle.
“The Committee and Select Subcommittee have also been informed that in these and other cases, you were warned the FBI was not providing these employees with due process in the security clearance suspension determinations and during revocation investigations,” he wrote. “Instead of heeding these warnings, you allowed SecD to move forward with the recommendations to suspend or revoke the whistleblowers’ security clearances.”
Mr. Jordan told Mr. Veltri that Mr. Allen and Mr. O’Boyle are “two specific employees” he “failed to provide with sufficient due process.”
The congressman said FBI whistleblowers provided evidence that the charges against Mr. Allen and Mr. O’Boyle were “tenuous at best and later determined to be unfounded.”
“Notwithstanding the weaknesses of these allegations, you approved the suspension and/or revocation of their security clearances,” Mr. Jordan said.
In the O’Boyle case, the Times reported this month that an adjudicator investigating misconduct within the FBI said superiors retaliated against him when he recommended ending Mr. O’Boyle’s suspension.
The adjudicator said the FBI lacked specific information to support the suspended Mr. O’Boyle.
Mr. O’Boyle 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.
In November, FBI whistleblowers accused FBI supervisors of scheming to punish Mr. O’Boyle. They allegedly transferred him across the country with the intent to suspend him and without pay, strip him of his security clearance and financially ruin him.
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.
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