National Security

The FBI Is ‘Revoking’ Conservative Agents’ Security Clearances, GOP Lawmakers Allege

FBI Director Wray Testifies At Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing Examining Oversight At The FBI

(Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Michael Ginsberg Congressional Correspondent
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The FBI is revoking the security clearances of conservative agents and retaliating against suspected whistleblowers, three House Republicans alleged in a Thursday letter.

Republicans in both chambers of Congress have alleged widespread politicized misconduct in the FBI, most notably by a Washington, D.C., agent who investigated Hunter Biden. That agent, Timothy Thibault, resigned in August rather than face an internal review. Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has said that whistleblowers have approached his office to report internal misconduct in the bureau’s investigations into former President Donald Trump.

The FBI is cracking down on suspected whistleblowers in response, Republican Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio, Darrell Issa of California, and Mike Johnson of Louisiana alleged in a letter to FBI Executive Assistant Director Jennifer Leigh Moore. Moore signed “many” clearance revocation orders and “retaliated against at least one whistleblower,” the lawmakers claimed.

“Once a whistleblower makes a protected disclosure, an agency is prohibited from retaliating against the employee for that disclosure by taking or failing to take a personnel action,” the Republicans wrote. “Your efforts to interfere with FBI employees who seek to expose the Bureau’s misconduct by communicating directly with Congress cannot be condoned.”

FBI agent Steve Friend was reportedly suspended and escorted from a Florida field office after he declined to participate in an arrest operation targeting a Jan. 6 Capitol riot suspect. Friend filed a whistleblower report detailing his experience, according to the New York Post. (RELATED: Jim Jordan: FBI Whistleblowers Say Agency Is Purging Conservatives From Its Ranks)

Other whistleblowers have reportedly alleged that the FBI is pulling agents off of child sexual abuse cases to investigate the Capitol riot and that bureau superiors told agents not to look into Hunter Biden’s laptop.

Some Republicans, like Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert, have called on Congress to defund the FBI. Others within the party, including former Vice President Mike Pence and Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw, have compared those comments to Democrats’ attempts to defund the police.

The FBI denied wrongdoing in a statement to the Daily Caller.
“The FBI does not target or take adverse action against employees for exercising their First Amendment rights or for their political views; to allege otherwise is false and misleading.The FBI is required to follow established policies and procedures, to include a thorough investigation, when suspending or revoking a security clearance. The FBI takes very seriously its responsibility to FBI employees who may make protected disclosures under the whistleblower regulations.  FBI employees who report evidence of wrongdoing through a protected disclosure are protected from retaliation,” a spokesperson said.