OPINION:
Critics of the Biden-Harris administration are being silenced.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan wants to know whether this is happening because federal officials are again leaning on private companies to censor the political opposition.
In a letter Monday, the Ohio Republican asked Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai whether the companies he oversees — the search giant Google and the YouTube video platform — censored FBI whistleblower Marcus Allen at the request of the White House.
Last week, Mr. Allen appeared on the “Catholics for Catholics” show on YouTube. In the 90-minute video, which aired live, Mr. Allen prayed the rosary and discussed his experience at the FBI. Soon thereafter, however, the show’s host received a notice explaining the episode was removed for “violating YouTube’s Community Guidelines.”
It’s hard to see how spending 30 minutes praying the rosary violates community standards, and Mr. Allen’s whistleblower complaint can’t be described as “misinformation” because he has recently been vindicated. Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz backed Mr. Allen two days before the video was removed.
“The details of Mr. Allen’s case illustrate many of the concerns and systemic issues that we have seen with the security clearance process,” Mr. Horowitz told the House Weaponization Subcommittee.
Mr. Allen, an agent in the Charlotte, North Carolina, field office, says FBI officials retaliated against him by suspending his security clearance because he raised concern about agency overreach and because of his religious beliefs.
FBI managers ordered a review of his clearance after Mr. Allen said there was another side to the story about what happened at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
The words he used in an email to his superiors weren’t exactly shocking: “Recommendation: Exercise extreme caution and discretion in pursuit of any investigative inquires or leads pertaining to the events of the day.”
Payback was swift. Mr. Allen was sent to “counseling” sessions. Not long after, the FBI Security Division pulled his clearance, even though those reviewing his file said that “the investigation identified no derogatory information or any basis to question Mr. Allen’s ability to hold a Top Secret clearance.”
In fact, one of the Joint Terrorism Task Force supervisors described Mr. Allen as “a good employee who performed his job responsibilities well.”
After snooping through Mr. Allen’s electronic communications, the only thing the offended management could identify as problematic was a Skype message in the early days of the pandemic. He told a colleague he was “waiting until the opening rounds are finished and more data is available” before taking the COVID vaccine.
Mr. Allen spent nearly 2½ years on unpaid leave, prohibited from accepting any charity or taking an outside job. He was reinstated this year after going public with his story.
Mr. Jordan is particularly concerned about the First Amendment implications. “This censorship of religious and political speech is deeply troubling in light of YouTube’s previous collusion with the Biden-Harris Administration and Alphabet’s pattern of anti-conservative political bias,” he wrote.
Mr. Jordan’s request for documents is part of a subpoena compelling Google and YouTube to provide documents related to the administration’s involvement in directing censorship on social media platforms, something Elon Musk exposed in the Twitter Files.
Mr. Allen credited his faith with giving him the strength he needed to make it through a difficult period. That he succeeded in restoring his good name should embolden others to blow the whistle on misconduct.
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