Explosive testimonies from FBI whistleblowers before congressional lawmakers have exposed the staggering extent that the federal agency has been weaponized against the American people.
Several whistleblowers have testified before congressional hearings regarding corruption at the highest levels of law enforcement.
According to the whistleblowers’ testimony, the events that occurred at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, were instigated by “potential federal involvement.”
Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) held a press conference Thursday to confirm that the government was running several assets in the crowds during the Jan. 6 protests in Washington D.C.
During Gaetz’s House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government press conference today, the congressman showed videos from multiple depositions.
The depositions were conducted over the past few months with FBI whistleblowers.
The whistleblowers testified that the agency is targeting and retaliating against those who speak up.
In the whistleblowers’ depositions, there emerged a disturbing picture of “federal involvement” in the events of Jan. 6.
The testimonies raise critical questions about the Biden administration’s transparency over the incident.
Gaetz revealed the stunning testimony from three FBI whistleblowers in the Thursday morning press conference.
“The FBI has been victimized by political capture, and that politicization has manifested in the targeting of Americans who never deserve to have this government weaponized against them,” Gaetz said.
“Whistleblowers saw those bad acts, they stepped forward, and they were retaliated against and crushed as a consequence.
“And our work today will build on the work of special counsel Durham, who said recently that at the FBI, there is confirmation bias and over-willingness to rely on information from individuals connected to political opponents and action without appropriate objectivity.
“One of the whistleblowers we’ll hear from today served in the United States Marine Corps, served as a local cop, Garrett O’Boyle.
“And this is his testimony regarding that political capture.”
“Do you believe that the FBI has become political?” O’Boyle was asked.
“I do,” O’Boyle said.
“I think most people out in the field try to avoid that politicization of the agency, which is good.
“But it’s gotten to a point, it seems to me that, I don’t know, it’s like a cancerous point where the FBI has let itself become enveloped in this politicization and weaponization that I don’t know how to even begin to, to fix it.”
Gaetz explained how religious groups have been targeted by the radicalized FBI.
“One group that saw that weaponization works against them were Catholics,” Gaetz said.
“The FBI field office in Richmond put out a memo saying that violent extremists would find the Catholic ideology attractive and would attempt to connect with Catholic adherence.
“That extremists would show an interest in Catholic congregations over the next 12 to 24 months leading up to the presidential election.
“Isn’t that an interesting coincidence? And the memo calls for the FBI to develop sources within Catholic congregations to try to obtain information about those folks.
“Another group that saw weaponization turn against them: Parents who attended school board meetings.
“You’ll hear today from Steve Friend, who worked for the FBI and actually found himself ridiculed at his own FBI office because he too was a parent who attended a school board meeting.
“This is Steve Friend.
“Given your law enforcement background, is knowing that you could be investigated by the FBI for speaking up at your child’s school board meeting to chill parents from exercising their First Amendment rights,” the interviewer asked Friend.
“Yes,” Friend replied.
“And you said you had attended a school board meeting and you were nervous that you could be under federal investigation,” the interviewer continued.
“Is that correct?
“Yes,” he responded.
“My colleagues teased me about it.”
Gaetz then detailed how the FBI embedded itself in the crowds during Jan. 6 to target American citizens.
“Americans who were in Washington DC on January 6th, who committed no crimes, who simply attended a rally, also saw the FBI weaponized against them,” Gaetz continued.
“George Hill was an FBI employee working out of the Boston Field Office, and he talks about the pressure that the Washington Field Office was putting on Boston, and when they tried to get predicate evidence, they couldn’t get it for a very interesting reason.
“This is George Hill.”
“We’re not opening up cases on people who went to a rally (and I forgot a keyboard),” Hill said, citing FBI officials.
Hill then referred to a Supervisory Special Agent [SSA] who said, “Happy to do it. Show us where they were inside the capitol and we’ll look into it.”
Hill continues: “To which WFO [Washington Field Office] said, ‘We can’t show you those videos unless you can tell us the exact time and place those individuals were inside the capitol.’
“To which the SSA responded back — and I was privy to these conversations firsthand — ‘Why can’t you show us? Why can’t you just send us back, give us access to the 11,000 hours of video of this exhibit incident failure?’
“Because there may be, may be, UCs, undercover officers, or CHS, confidential human sources on those videos whose identity we need to protect.”
Gaetz said other FBI officials had major concerns about the agency’s involvement in Jan. 6.
“Marcus Allen, an FBI analyst who did work around evidence, sharing it with folks, he saw videos that concerned him about the federal government’s own involvement in January 6th,” Gaetz added.
“Here’s Marcus Allen.”
“Video to me indicated potential problems with the investigation as far as informants were concerned,” Allen said.
“And our organization’s potential forthrightness about utilization of informants there on that day that might have some impact on our cases.
“And the, you know, the subjects that we were looking up.
“And then just a general awareness overall for the investigation as a whole, that there might have been some kind of potential federal involvement with the activities on January 6th.
“And I thought it was important enough that it, like wanted our attention.”
The Florida REoublican continued by suggesting that Washington Field Office has been corrupted by “rot.”
“So much of the good work happening at the FBI is throughout this country, and a lot of the rot the committee has learned, emerges out of headquarters and out of the Washington Field Office,” Gaetz remarked.
“Garrett O’Boyle described the conflict that existed as the Washington Field Office put pressure on other field offices around the country to engage in law enforcement work without predication.
“This is Mr. O’Boyle.”
“Did the WFO pressure other field offices to keep January cases open or open cases?” the interviewer asked O’Boyle.
“I would say they pressured us to open cases to some degree,” O’Boyle said.
“One example that I have personally, I made this, this is one of my protective disclosures, so I’ll just touch on it a little bit.
“But I received a lead about someone based on an anonymous tip.
“And in law enforcement, anonymous tips don’t hold very much weight, especially without evidence that you can corroborate pretty easily.
“I wasn’t able to corroborate anything they said, even after speaking with the person.
“They alleged some potential criminal behavior,” O’Boyle revealed.
“While I’m trying to figure all that out, I get another lead from the same agent who sent me that meeting.
“And they essentially tried to get me to violate policy or law…”
Gaetz said that the evidence proves that federal law enforcement has become weaponized against the American people.
“Trying to get people to break the law without sufficient predication is a weaponization of our government and all Americans suffer when resources are misallocated and when stats are padded,” Gaetz said.
“Following 9/11, the FBI set up all of these terrorism entities to look outward at people abroad who might seek to harm our country, but a lot of those authorities were turned inward against our own people.
“And the result was stat-padding for the purpose of FBI officials trying to convince Congress that the violent extremism threat was more enhanced than it indeed was.
“And we got critical testimony on that point also from Mr. O’Boyle.”
“As a DT agent, I encountered similar stat padding or case bolstering,” O’Boyle said.
“Truth be told, that was one case like, but the FBI had me open up four different cases because they had me open a case for every individual that I had an articulable factual basis that there may have been potential federal law being violated.
“Or like on a criminal case, say you’re working like a gang, which in this case was, I guess like a militia.
“If you’re working with the gang, you have a case open on the gang and you have a subfile for each person in it.
“Like it, you know, you know, John Doe one, two, and three, they would all have their own subfile, where in my case, John Doe one, two, and three and four all had their own separate case because then the FBI could, from my perspective, the FBI can come back in Congress and say, ‘look at all the domestic terrorism we’ve investigated.’
“Or really, I was working one case.
“But the FBI can then say, ‘well, he actually had four, so we, you know, we need to give us more money because look at how big of a threat all this domestic terrorism is’.”
“Padding the stats to try to showcase a problem that is overemphasized, political capture and political infection of our law enforcement, these brave patriots spoke up about it,” Gaetz said.
“They’ll be testifying to our committee today, and my colleagues will now discuss some of the intense and depraved retaliation that they had to experience.”
WATCH:
BREAKING: At today’s @Weaponization press conference, I showed film from multiple depositions conducted over the past few months of FBI whistleblowers detailing how the agency is targeting and retaliating against those who speak up.
The footage is shocking. 👇 pic.twitter.com/rFJRvLu1yJ
— Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) May 18, 2023
The FBI has taken action against the whistleblowers by revoking the security clearances of three agents and suspending one of them, according to a letter from the bureau to congressional investigators.
According to the FBI, one of the agents was identified as being present at the Capitol riots, while the other two are accused of impeding investigative efforts.
Russell Dye, a spokesperson for committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH), said the letter smacked of FBI desperation.
“This is a last-minute Hail Mary from the FBI in a desperate attempt to salvage their reputation… before brave whistleblowers testify about the agency’s politicized behavior and retaliation against anyone who dares speak out,” he said.
