FBI targeted agents over conservative political views: whistleblowers

Whistleblowers have accused senior officials at the Federal Bureau of Investigation of retaliating against agents who express conservative or Christian beliefs by conducting unnecessary security clearance investigations, and in some cases, revoking their privileges.

The allegations were made by at least three FBI agents in disclosures to the House Judiciary Committee earlier this month.

According to the Washington Times, among those targeted were current employees who had any association with former agents who were interviewed for Dinesh D'Souza and Dan Bongino's recent film, Police State, which attempts to prove that the Democrats worked with FBI, CIA, and Justice Department officials to censor and imprison their political opponents.

Whistleblowers alleged that officials in the FBI's security division, SecD, assigned agents to specifically target agents who they suspected had in any way participated in the making of the film. It was also claimed that SecD wanted to hire 100 to 300 temporary employees to investigate the security clearances of "whistleblowers, conservatives, and employees with an unacceptable political affiliation or belief."

Among those targeted was former agent Kyle Seraphin, who had his security clearance investigated after being confronted by an out-of-jurisdiction police officer about Seraphin practicing his shooting at a gun range. Whistleblowers, however, pointed out that this should have been a minor infraction, but was instead blown out of proportion because Seraphin had refused to receive the Covid-19 vaccine, and was thus clearly conservative.

Those who came forth with the allegations accused SecD Section Chief Section Matthew Nagle, Deputy Assistant Director Lawerence Buckley, and Assistant Section Chief Dena Perkins of violating the Security Executive Agent Directive 4, which outlines the justifications for security clearance investigations.
 

Whistleblowers claimed the agency was "intentionally misinterpreting the SEAD IV guidelines so that it can deny, suspend and revoke security clearances of FBI employees because of political affiliations and beliefs."

"The FBI does not target or take adverse action against employees for exercising their First Amendment rights or for their political views," the FBI said in a statement to the Times. "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."