FBI accused of politicizing

 DC Daily Journal:

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The FBI is reportedly abusing its security clearance process to “purge” political conservatives from the bureau, according to recent whistleblower disclosures reviewed by the New York Post.

The federal law enforcement agency’s Security Division has been allegedly suspending or revoking clearances for employees whose political affiliation or COVID-19 vaccination status are suspect. A supervisory special agent who formerly worked in the division alleges this is the case.

The unnamed agent, described as “a registered Democrat” and represented by the nonprofit Empower Oversight, claims that high-ranking officials in the division believed “if an FBI employee fit a certain profile as a political conservative, they were viewed as security concerns and unworthy to work at the FBI.”

In Marcus Allen’s case, a former FBI staff operations specialist (SOS) suspended without pay for more than two years, officials ignored “possibly exculpatory information” and overruled investigators who “concluded SOS Allen’s ‘Allegiance to the United States’ was not in question and that the suspension of his security clearance was not warranted.” This decision came after Allen informed his supervisors at the FBI’s Charlotte Field Office that he did not intend to take the COVID-19 vaccine.

Empower Oversight submitted the agent’s full whistleblower disclosure and retaliation complaint to the Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General (DOJ OIG) and Office of Professional Responsibility on June 28.

Leavitt wrote to leading members on the House and Senate Judiciary Committees, as well as the Whistleblower Protection Caucus, stating, “The outcomes of clearance investigations and adjudications were often pre-determined by the Division’s acting Deputy Assistant Director and the acting Section Chief responsible for security clearance investigations and adjudications, who often overruled line staff and even dictated the wording of documents in the clearance process.”

He further claimed, “Over the last few years, the FBI has used the clearance process as a means to force employees out of the FBI by inflicting severe financial distress: suspending their clearance, suspending them from duty without pay, requiring them to obtain permission to take any other job while stuck in this unpaid limbo, and delaying their final clearance adjudication indefinitely — even years.”
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This should be seen as unacceptable conduct by FBI officials.  It is not a crime to be a conservative Republican or Democrat.  While I was fully vaccinated with the COVID vaccine I still came down with the disease and subsequently recovered.  Some who took the vaccine came down with side effects.  It did not prevent the disease for many like me and apparently did not prevent the transmission of the disease to others.