FBI WHISTLEBLOWER TESTIMONY HIGHLIGHTS GOVERNMENT ABUSE, MISALLOCATION OF RESOURCES, AND RETALIATION
Interim Staff Report of Committee on the Judiciary and the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government U.S. House of Representatives May 18, 2023
ATTENTION: All Justice Department and FBI Employees
You have a right to speak with Congress
Every federal employee of the Department of Justice and FBI has an unfettered right to communicate with Congress, without the approval, consent, or awareness of the Department or the FBI. Federal law protects these disclosures. Whistleblowers are an invaluable source for Congress in identifying, understanding, and remedying waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement. The Committee on the Judiciary is charged with conducting constitutional oversight of the Department of Justice and FBI. Any Justice Department or FBI personnel with information are encouraged to contact the Republican staff of the Judiciary Committee at (202) 225-6906.
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Executive Summary
The Committee on the Judiciary and the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government are charged by the House of Representatives with conducting oversight of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Whistleblower testimony from rank-and-file FBI employees is an essential part of this oversight. From accounts provided by these brave and dedicated law-enforcement officers, Congress can better understand, and ultimately address, the serious problems infesting the senior leadership ranks of the FBI. It is clear from these disclosures, and especially in wake of Special Counsel John Durham’s report, that the FBI has become politically weaponized. To date, the Committee and Select Subcommittee have received whistleblower testimony from several current and former FBI employees who chose to risk their careers to expose abuses and misconduct in the FBI. Some of these employees—Special Agents Garret O’Boyle and Stephen Friend, Supervisory Intelligence Analyst George Hill, and Staff Operations Specialist Marcus Allen—have chosen to speak on the record about their experiences.
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The disclosures from these FBI employees highlight egregious abuse, misallocation of law-enforcement resources, and misconduct with the leadership ranks of the FBI. Among other disclosures:
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The FBI’s Washington Field Office (WFO) pressured a field office in Boston, Massachusetts, to open investigations on 138 individuals who traveled to Washington, D.C., to exercise their First Amendment rights on January 6, 2021, with no specific indication that these people were involved in any way in criminal activity. The only basis for investigating these people was that they shared buses to Washington with two individuals who entered restricted areas of the Capitol that day. Rather than limiting the investigation to just the two people who entered restricted areas, the WFO instructed the Boston Field Office to open investigations on
all
140 individuals who attended the political rally.
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In response to the WFO’s pressure to open investigations into all 140 individuals, the Boston Field Office asked the WFO for more evidence, including video from the Capitol, to properly predicate the investigations. The WFO provided pictures of the two individuals inside the Capitol; however, the WFO refused to provide video evidence from the Capitol out of fear it would disclose undercover officers or confidential human sources inside the Capitol.
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Shortly after the events of January 6, 2021, Bank of America (BoA) provided the FBI with confidential customer data—voluntarily and without any legal process. BoA gave WFO a list of individuals who had made transactions in the Washington, D.C. area using a BoA product between January 5 and January 7, 2021. Individuals who had previously purchased a firearm with a BoA product were reportedly elevated to the top of the list.
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Because of the false and defamatory attacks that Democrats on the Committee and Select Subcommittee perpetrated against Friend, O’Boyle, and Hill, Allen initially only consented to speaking with the Committee’s majority.