Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) took another step in his investigation into numerous FBI whistleblower allegations by requesting testimony from 16 individuals who are current or recent employees at the bureau, according to a letter sent Friday to FBI Director Christopher Wray and obtained by Breitbart News.
Jordan, who chairs the Weaponization of the Federal Government Select Subcommittee, sought the testimonies after conducting closed-door interviews with three FBI witnesses who had contacted Jordan’s office during the past year and alleged misconduct of higher-ups at their jobs.
Jordan wrote to Wray:
From the documentary and testimonial information that we have obtained to date, we have identified several FBI employees who we believe possess information that is necessary for our oversight.
…
We anticipate that we may require testimony from additional FBI employees as our oversight continues, and we expect your cooperation in facilitating these future interviews as well.
Jordan named in the letter 16 individuals, all of whom are current or recent FBI employees and had been named by the three witnesses in the closed-door interviews, according to interview transcriptions and notes reviewed by Breitbart News.
FBI Director Christopher Wray testifies during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill June 10, 2021, in Washington, DC. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Several of the 16 individuals currently hold position titles of special agent in charge or assistant special agent in charge.
The witnesses questioned so far this year include George Hill, a retired national security intelligence supervisor in the FBI’s Boston Field Office; Steve Friend, a former Florida-based FBI special agent; and Garret O’Boyle, a suspended Kansas-based FBI special agent. They were questioned in closed-door transcribed interviews by Republican and Democrat members of the Judiciary Committee, under which the weaponization subcommittee is housed.
According to the interview transcriptions and notes, Hill and Friend testified in detail about how they felt certain leaders at the FBI had an abnormally heavy focus on cases related to the January 6 Capitol riot.
Hill and Friend, among their various allegations, said they worked in an environment where agents were pressured by their superiors to prioritize cases related to “domestic violent extremism” and inflate the number of such cases in the aftermath of the riot.
O’Boyle had a similar experience, according to portions of his testimony, which also included color about the FBI pursuing leads related to school board meetings, as well as leads related to responses to the Supreme Court Dobbs leak, which O’Boyle recalled had “shifted” to focus on pro-lifers.
Friend, whose security clearance the FBI suspended last September, and O’Boyle, who testified in his interview that his security clearance was suspended last September as well, also maintained during their testimonies that the FBI retaliated against them for whistleblowing, including by suspending their clearances.
Multiple left-leaning media outlets, including CNN, the New York Times, and Rolling Stone magazine, first provided glimpses of the three agents’ testimonies and backgrounds in reports on Thursday, which coincided with Democrats releasing a 316-page report that same day on their takeaways from the interviews with the three witnesses.
The Democrats claimed the three witnesses were “not, in fact, ‘whistleblowers,’” contending they had “put forward a wide range of conspiracy theories” but no “actual evidence of wrongdoing” by the FBI or Justice Department.
Jordan spokesman Russell Dye told Breitbart News the details in Thursday’s media reports and in the Democrat publication were based on “cherry-picked excerpts of testimony” designed “to attack brave whistleblowers who risked their careers to speak out.”
Jordan’s request to interview the 16 individuals comes as part of an expansive investigation by the newly created weaponization subcommittee into alleged civil liberties violations by executive branch agencies, including the FBI and Justice Department.
The subcommittee was created partly because of numerous allegations made by FBI whistleblowers — including Hill, Friend, and O’Boyle — whom Jordan has been vetting over the past year and a half.
Acknowledging in his letter Friday that he has received some pushback from the Justice Department on his investigative pursuits, Jordan wrote:
We are aware that the Justice Department has preemptively indicated that it intends to limit the scope and nature of information available to the Committee as part of our oversight.
You should know, however, that despite the Department’s assertions to the contrary, congressional committees have regularly received testimony from non-Senate-confirmed and line-level Justice Department employees, including FBI employes [sic], in the past. We expect this past precedent to apply to our oversight as well.
Jordan asked Wray’s staff to contact committee staff by March 8 to begin scheduling interviews, and as has been the standard in letters of requests that Jordan has been sending to various federal agencies, the chairman indicated he would resort to issuing subpoenas should the FBI not comply with his latest ask.
Write to Ashley Oliver at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter at @asholiver.
