An FBI whistleblower told a U.S. House subcommittee this week that the FBI retaliated against him for attempting to give the agency a complete picture of what occurred at the mostly peaceful protest at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Former staff operations specialist Marcus Allen told the Judiciary Committee’s Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government that he passed along open-source intelligence that did not align with the bureau’s narrative about the protest.
Accusing him of disloyalty to the United States, the bureau revoked Allen’s security clearance and suspended him for more than two years without pay.
Weaponized FBI
A former Marine who served in Iraq, Allen’s ordeal began on September 29, 2021, when he emailed colleagues at the bureau about confidential FBI informants being present at the January 6 protest, Empower Oversight’s Tristan Leavitt wrote to subcommittee chairman Jim Jordan on September 19.
The “email cautioned his colleagues about the testimony Director [Christopher] Wray had provided to Congress and expressed his concerns about its accuracy based on personal knowledge of cases Allen had supported in his field office,” Leavitt wrote.
The FBI immediately lowered the boom by starting a security clearance probe under the rubric of “allegiance to the United States.” The bureau concluded that Allen might be an “insider threat” not only because of the email and text messages in which he said the FBI is wrongfully prosecuting protesters, but also, of all things, for his China Virus “vaccine hesitancy.”
Only on May 31 did the bureau relent and reinstate Allen’s Top Secret clearance.
Allen testified before the subcommittee in June, and told his story again this week.
When he wrote the email to caution superiors about Wray’s possibly erroneous testimony, he testified, he was “simply doing my job.”
But “the FBI accused me of promoting ‘conspiratorial views’ and ‘unreliable information,’” and “questioned my allegiance to the United States, suspended my security clearance, suspended my pay, and refused to allow me to obtain outside employment or even accept charity.”
The suspension ultimately lasted for 27 months. During that time, the FBI held my family and me in indefinite limbo awaiting a final decision. Imagine the daily uncertainty about providing for your family, the emotional toll of explaining to your children why their father can’t work, or the stress of wondering how you’ll cover medical bills or keep a roof over your heads.
Determined to not lose our home, my wife and I took early withdrawals from our retirement accounts to survive.
Allen concluded that the “FBI, with endless resources, was trying to destroy me financially so that I would give up.”
“Delusional” for Being Catholic
Frighteningly, a top agent thought Allen’s Catholic faith was a reason to revoke his security clearance.
Finally interviewed about the email matter on May 26, 2022, Allen said that he sent the email to warn about Wray’s testimony because he felt morally obliged to do so. As well, the Holy Spirit had guided that decision, Leavitt’s letter to Jordan explained.
Alarm bells rang at the bureau. Acting Deputy Assistant Director Jeffrey Veltri said Allen was “delusional for referring to his religious belief instead of secular, moral or ethical reasons for disclosing wrongdoing,” Leavitt wrote. In other words, Allen’s Catholic beliefs “were a reason to revoke his access to classified information,” which meant “an FBI employee’s protected First Amendment religious beliefs unconstitutionally infected the security clearance process.”
Veltri, by the way, is leading the investigation into the second assassination attempt on the former president. In November, the Washington Times reported that a whistleblower told the House Judiciary Committee that Veltri was ordered to “scrub his Facebook page to delete anti-Trump vitriol before they would promote him to head the bureau’s Miami field office.” Veltri is “adamantly and vocally anti-Trump,” the whistleblower said.
Veltri, Leavitt wrote to Jordan, also revoked the clearance of an employee who questioned the 2020 election because the employee “did not believe in the U.S. Constitution.” The Times reported that Veltri “oversaw efforts to suspend agents’ security clearances if they seemed to be a “‘right-wing radical.’”
Allen addressed Veltri during his testimony, citing the Gospel of Matthew 12:31:
I recently learned about comments made by Mr. Jeffrey Veltri suggesting I was delusional for believing in and seeking guidance from the Holy Spirit. Mr. Veltri currently serves as Special Agent in Charge of the Miami field office, but at the time he was an executive at Security Division, overseeing security clearance decisions. I’d like to address Mr. Veltri. Sir, you may disparage and insult me if you wish, but you should not mock God. It is an insult to the infinite dignity of God Who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and bad for the health of your soul (Matthew 12:31)
Veltri aside, another FBI whistleblower, Allen noted, has not regained his clearance. Garret O’Boyle was falsely accused of leaking material to the media. In fact, Leavitt wrote to Jordan, O’Boyle disclosed whistleblower protected information to Congress. The bureau vindictively revoked the clearance the day O’Boyle began a new assignment after moving across the country.
Allen and O’Boyle are only two of the many FBI employees whose clearances were revoked. In May, a report from the Justice Department’s Inspector General revealed that the bureau routinely revoked security clearance to retaliate against whistleblowers. A top FBI official falsely told the House Judiciary Committee that the bureau did not do so, the New York Post reported.
Allen told the committee he has “no confidence the FBI will rein in its own conduct,” and the bureau used “reprisal and fear to control the workforce.”
He said Americans must prepare for a possibly grim future by stockpiling food, purchasing firearms, learning to defend themselves, and making friends who will come to one another’s aid.
Americans, he said, should pray the Rosary, attend First Friday Mass, and live the Gospel.
