Whistleblowers within the bureau—one of whom has expressed a desire to reveal additional details about his experience working under disgraced FBI official Peter Strzok—are urging the agency, now led by Kash Patel, to investigate and address their allegations of retaliation by Biden’s FBI.
Empower Oversight sent an early March letter to FBI General Counsel Samuel Ramer, requesting the bureau’s assistance concerning the mistreatment of FBI agents and employees, including Garret O’Boyle, Marcus Allen, Stephen Friend, Zach Schofftsall, Monica Shillingburg, and Michael Zummer. The letter also contains new information on four redacted clients, at least one of whom is prepared to share accounts of FBI abuses during his time working under Strzok, the fired supervisory special agent deeply involved in Crossfire Hurricane.
Some FBI whistleblowers have been engaged in a longstanding legal battle with the bureau, claiming that their security clearances were revoked and their livelihoods put at risk. Now, with a new FBI chief in charge, these whistleblowers and their attorneys are urging the agency to re-examine their concerns, Just the News reported.
FBI staff operations specialist Marcus Allen had his security clearance suspended “for questioning whether Director Wray had testified truthfully to Congress and other allegations based on SOS Allen’s political beliefs and concerns about the COVID-19 vaccine,” his lawyers argued in a filing. Allen, who had been assigned to the FBI’s Charlotte Division, “was suspended indefinitely without pay” as a result of this and other disclosures.
Empower Oversight stated that while the FBI reached a settlement with Allen, it has only partially met the terms of the agreement. His legal team contends that the FBI still needs to correct his W-2 tax forms and pay him the proper amount of accrued leave.
“While I feel vindicated now in getting back my security clearance, it is sad that in the country I fought for as a Marine, the FBI was allowed to lie about my loyalty to the U.S. for two years,” Allen said. “Unless there is accountability, it will keep happening to others. Better oversight and changes to security clearance laws are key to stop abuses suffered by whistleblowers like me.”
“The actions taken against our clients were in reprisal for protected whistleblowing and/or improper targeting because of their political beliefs,” Jason Foster, the chair and founder of Empower Oversight, noted in a letter to the agency. “The common theme among most of our clients who had their security clearances suspended and or revoked is the FBI’s ability to indefinitely delay the process and financially pressure FBI employees by suspending their pay and blocking their ability to earn a living any other way. Most facing that dilemma simply resign with no prospect of a fair process to challenge it, which allows the pattern to repeat without remedy.”
“A lot of our work has to remain confidential because some clients do not wish to become public figures. Sometimes though, it takes public scrutiny to move the needle,” Foster told the outlet. “These FBI clients have waited a very long time on a system that, as of today, is still failing to keep its promises to protect whistleblowers from retaliation. It’s past time to make good on those promises and give them real meaning in these cases.”
The yet-unnamed FBI agent who wants to share information about Strzok served in the bureau’s Counterintelligence Division for thirteen years, his lawyers said, and he “primarily focused on China and was active in collaborating with other China experts” in Washington, D.C. Part of this FBI agent’s grievance appears to stem from the alleged improper suspension of his security clearance following a 2020 Axios story that revealed Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell had been targeted by and had a relationship with Christine Fang.
Empower Oversight’s attorneys for the FBI agent emphasize that he never disclosed sensitive or case-related details about Swalwell to the reporter, yet he was still indefinitely suspended without pay.