House lawmakers will scrutinize this week how a senior FBI official now leading the investigation of the Trump assassination attempt in Florida was promoted despite allegations he retaliated against FBI personnel for their conservative political views.
FBI Miami field office Special Agent in Charge Jeffrey Veltri will be among several senior bureau personnel that Republicans want to know more about when Justice Department Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz testifies Wednesday before the House Judiciary Committee’s Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government.
Mr. Veltri came under scrutiny when his office took the lead in investigating the foiled Sept. 15 assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump at his golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida.
The Washington Times exclusively reported in November 2023 that FBI whistleblowers said Mr. Veltri, while serving as deputy assistant director of the FBI’s security division, expressed strong anti-Trump views and retaliated against FBI personnel who supported the former president.
The FBI has disputed these whistleblower claims and 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.”
At Wednesday’s hearing, Mr. Horowitz is expected to discuss his May 14 report that flagged the FBI over stripping whistleblower agents of security clearances and pay without a timely appeals process.
Also testifying before the panel will be whistleblower attorney Tristan Leavitt, president of the watchdog group Empower Oversight, and one of his clients, Marcus Allen, a former FBI employee and whistleblower whose security clearance was reinstated after the agency suspended it for 27 months.
Mr. Leavitt wrote in a letter to the committee that he submitted to the Department of Justice Inspector General a detailed 29-page complaint with evidence that the FBI retaliated against at least four Security Division (SecD) employees after they made internal protected whistleblower disclosures.
These SecD whistleblowers reported FBI abuses of the security clearance process involving Mr. Allen, Special Agent Garret O’Boyle and several other cases, some of which remain confidential.
Mr. Allen, Mr. O’Boyle and former Special Agent Steven Friend testified before the committee on May 18, 2023, alongside Mr. Leavitt.
“Empower Oversight is now representing several of the SecD employees who worked on the Allen case and has spoken to a number of other witnesses from inside the FBI,” Mr. Leavitt wrote. “Through their disclosures, as well as the documents provided by the FBI, we have uncovered a more complete picture of the disturbing scope and breadth of the FBI’s illegal retaliation.”
According to Mr. Leavitt’s letter, Mr. Veltri’s promotion to Miami SAC was delayed because of an investigation into his retaliation against whistleblowers.
Additionally, Mr. Veltri revoked the security clearance of an FBI employee who questioned the outcome of the 2020 election, suggesting the employee wasn’t entitled to a clearance because they didn’t believe in the U.S. Constitution.
Under Mr. Veltri’s leadership at SecD, “the so-called ’Trump Questionnaire’ was used.”
The FBI contractors used the printed questionnaire with inappropriate questions about FBI employees’ political and religious views, according to Mr. Leavitt.
His letter describes how the FBI knew that Mr. O’Boyle made protected disclosures to Congress when the agency decided to suspend his security clearance, and FBI senior officials urged for the revocation of his clearance to retroactively remedy a false statement a former FBI executive made to Congress.
The FBI, in a statement to The Times, said the bureau has “full confidence in [Mr.] Veltri’s leadership of the Miami Field Office and the investigation of the attempted assassination of former President Trump.”
“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,” the FBI said.
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.