FBI whistleblowers testify that Biden admin retaliated against them for expressing concern over weaponization of government against Jan 6 defendants

Garret O’Boyle, a US Army veteran and former FBI special agent, testified to Congress that he was "wrongfully suspended from the FBI."

O’Boyle said of his four years as a special agent with the FBI, "I received the highest annual review an employee can receive. I volunteered for, tried out for, and was selected for an FBI SWAT team; I also volunteered for, tried out for, and was selected for a new unit the FBI created and I received an award for my work on an anti-abortion extremism case."

"I’ve been smeared as a malcontent and subpar FBI employee. This smear stands in stark contrast to my life in public service," O’Boyle added.

He said that the smear campaign "is unsurprising," adding that depsite the oath to uphold the Constitution, "too many in the FBI aren’t willing to sacrifice for the hard right over the easy wrong."

"They see what becomes of whistleblowers; how the FBI destroys their careers, suspends them under false pretenses, takes their security clearances and pay with no true options for real recourse or remedy. This is by design; it creates an Orwellian atmosphere that silences opposition and discussion. We know what is right to do, yet we too often refuse to do what is right because of the difficulty and suffering it incurs," he added.

O’Boyle said he couldn’t continue on the path without "speaking out agianst the weaponization I witnessed even if it meant losing my job, my career, my livelihood, my family’s home, and now, even my anonymity."

He later added, "I’ve sworn to defend this country from enemies both foreign and domestic, even if that means sacrificing my life."

O’Boyle stated that the FBI had allowed him to accept new orders to a position across the country, sell his family’s home, and he reported to the new unit just two weeks after his youngest daughter was born.

"Then, on my first day on the new assignment, they suspended me; rendering my family homeless and refused to release our household goods, including our clothes, for weeks," he said.

"All I wanted to do was serve my country by stopping bad guys and protecting the innocent. To my chagrin, bad guys have begun running parts of the government making it difficult to continue to serve this Nation and protect the innocent. But I for one, will never stop trying. And I’ll never forget my oath," he concluded.

During questioning, Rep. Kelly Armstrong asked O’Boyle what advice he would give to a fellow FBI colleague who may also come forward with whistleblower information.

"I’d tell them first to pray about it long and hard," O’Boyle responded. "And I would tell them, I could take it to Congress for them, or I could put them in touch with Congress, but I would advise them not to do it."

When asked by Armstrong if he would try to protect a colleague from doing what he has done, O’Boyle said, "absolutely."

O’Boyle later added, "the FBI will crush you. This government will crush you and your family if you try to expose the truth about things that they are doing that are wrong, and we are all examples of that."

The committee then heard from former FBI special agent Stephen Friend, who was in that position for eight and a half years.

In August of 2022, Friend made protected whistleblower disclosures to his immediate supervisors, assistant special agents in charge, and the special agent in charge about my concerns regarding January 6th investigations assigned to my office."

"I believe our departures from case management rules established in the FBI’s Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide could have undermined potentially righteous prosecutions and may have been part of an effort to inflate the FBI’s statistics on domestic extremism," Friend said.

He said that he also raised concerns that the FBI’s usage of SWAT and large-scale arrest operations to arrest those accused of nonviolent crime and who pledged to cooperate with federal authorities "created an unnecessary risk to FBI personnel and public safety."

Leadership warned him that despite his exemplary work performance, the whistleblower disclosures would place his future with the FBI at risk, Friend said.

Despite an oath to protect the US Constitution and trainings that "hammer home" the dangers of federal law enforcement, "the FBI weaponized the security clearance processes to facilitate my removal from active duty within one month of my disclosures," he said.

In addition to being suspended without pay indefinitely, "the FBI initiated a campaign of humiliation and intimidation to punish and pressure me to resign," with Friend stating that people within the FBI leaked his medical information to a New York Times reporter, the FBI refused to furnish his training records, and have only provided a small portion of these records so far. These records, he said, are vital in obtaining private investigator and firearms licenses in Florida.

"The FBI denied my request to seek outside employment, in an obvious attempt to deprive me of the ability to support my family. Finally, the FBI Inspection Division imposed an illegal gag order in an attempt to prevent me from communicating with my family and attorneys," he added.

Friend spoke in reference to a letter from ABI Acting Assistant Director Christopher Dunham sent to the committee on May 17, in which one section stated, "This concern is that criminal activity creates doubt about a person's judgement, reliability, and trustworthiness. By its very nature, it calls into question a person's ability or willingness to comply with laws, rules, and regulations. This includes evidence of criminal conduct, regardless of whether the individual was formally charged, prosecuted, or convicted."