WASHINGTON – In two new Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Empower Oversight is seeking additional information about the FBI’s retaliation against various FBI employees. Some of the information may demonstrate that a high-ranking FBI official provided more false or misleading information to Congress than previously known.
The FBI’s Security Division (SecD) suspended Special Agent (SA) Garret O’Boyle’s security clearance because it believed he was the masked whistleblower in a video released by the nonprofit Project Veritas, which included documents showing the FBI considered Project Veritas a media group despite Department of Justice (DOJ) court filings to the contrary. But in the process of preparing a retaliation complaint for O’Boyle with the DOJ Office of Inspector General (OIG) earlier this year, Empower Oversight learned from another of its clients that the FBI had learned its basis for suspending O’Boyle’s clearance had been proven false. As Empower Oversight notified House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan on July 23, 2024, FBI Executive Assistant Director Jennifer Leigh Moore failed to disclose this information in two transcribed interviews with the Judiciary Committee on April 24 and June 2, 2023.
As O’Boyle movingly testified before the House Weaponization Subcommittee on May 18, 2023, SecD’s decision to wait to suspend O’Boyle’s clearance until after he moved resulted in his family, including his newborn baby, becoming homeless. Yet Moore provided conflicting information in her congressional interviews about whether SecD knew about O’Boyle’s plans to move his family across the country. Moore also claimed she was unaware that O’Boyle had made protected whistleblower disclosures to his chain of command, and that the FBI was unaware he had made protected disclosures to Congress. Thus, the two FOIAs to the FBI request communications about O’Boyle from his Kansas City Field Office management and from FBI headquarters and SecD leadership that would demonstrate knowledge of these issues.
O’Boyle is just one of several Empower Oversight clients SecD has retaliated against for making protected whistleblower disclosures. The FBI suspended whistleblower Marcus Allen for 27 months without pay before reinstating his security clearance and agreeing to pay him back pay for the period. Empower Oversight has also filed a whistleblower retaliation complaint with the DOJ OIG regarding a Supervisory Special Agent in SecD, and is preparing to file an additional complaint on behalf of another former SecD employee. The DOJ OIG is also investigating political bias in the FBI security clearance process.
To read the FOIA request regarding O’Boyle’s Kansas City Field Office management, which also describes more about his case, click here.
To read the FOIA regarding SecD and FBI headquarters, click here.