Why the FBI And Democrats Are Attacking Whistleblowers

FBI says it won’t release Jan 6 surveillance video because it would show too many undercover government agents and informants

Rep. Linda Sanchez, D-Calif., of the House Judiciary Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, asked a FBI whistleblower whether or not he agreed with a tweet he hadn’t written. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

The FBI whistleblowers who testified before Congress today are not actually whistleblowers, say the FBI and Democrats. Rather, they are disloyal Americans who undermined investigations into the January 6, 2021 riot at the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.

“My [Republican] colleagues have brought in these former agents, men who lost their security clearances because they were a threat to our national security,” said Del. Stacey Plaskett (D-V.I.), the ranking member of the House weaponization subcommittee. “Who out of malice or ignorance or both have put partisan agenda above the oath they swore to serve this country.”

But there is no evidence that any of the FBI whistleblowers are or were ever a threat to national security. One of them, Marcus Allen, won two medals fighting in Iraq and Kuwait. Another, Garret O’Boyle, served in the Army in Iraq, worked as a police officer, and graduated with honors in criminology and law.

Democrats pointed out that the FBI had revoked the security clearances of two whistleblowers, Allen, and Steve Friend, earlier this month. That news came in a letter that Christopher Dunham, the acting assistant director of the FBI, sent to the House Judiciary Committee last night.

The FBI claimed that Allen “expressed sympathy for persons or organizations that advocate, threaten, or use force or violence, or use any other illegal or unconstitutional means, in an effort to prevent federal government personnel from performing their official duties.”

But neither FBI nor Democrats presented evidence that Allen, Friend, or the other FBI whistleblowers who testified participated or even sympathized with the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol Building. “I was not in Washington D.C on January 6, played no part in the events of January 6, and I condemn all criminal activity that occurred,” said Allen.

Others suggested the FBI agents were exaggerating. “You all have employment grievances,” said Rep. Gerald Connolly. “That doesn’t make you whistleblowers. We’re listening to sad tales of certain individuals.” Said Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, “These individuals have been determined not to be whistleblowers.”

But the FBI agents testifying followed the legally required whistleblower protocols within the FBI and were not fringe agents. Allen, for example, was the 2019 Employee of the Year for the Charlotte Field Office.

Friend, a Special Agent at the FBI for eight and half years, O’Boyle, and Allen all said they made protected whistleblower disclosures and yet were retaliated against by the FBI. Allen was suspended without pay in January 2022. O’Boyle was transferred to a new unit, moved his family across the country, and was placed on an unpaid suspension the first day he arrived.

For decades after the FBI was caught spying on Martin Luther King, Jr. and abusing its powers for political ends, Democrats emphasized strong constraints on domestic spying and the importance of whistleblowers. Now, Democrats are savaging these former public servants as threats to national security. Why is that?

Bad Behavior By Government, Before And After January 6

From right, FBI whistleblowers Marcus Allen, Steve Friend, and Garret O'Boyle testify during the House Judiciary Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government to "examine abuses seen at the Bureau and how the FBI has retaliated against whistleblowers" ((Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)