A nonprofit whistleblower watchdog group is calling on the inspector general for the Department of Justice (DOJ) to release the findings of an investigation into an FBI retaliation case settled last week.
On Friday, the FBI reinstated the security clearance of whistleblower Marcus Allen, a Marine combat veteran who was suspended without pay for more than two years. Allen’s clearance was revoked over making protected disclosures related to FBI Director Christopher Wray’s testimony following the turmoil on Jan. 6, 2021. The FBI walked back its retaliation against Allen before the DOJ inspector general released a final report on the improper suspension.
The whistleblower protection group Empower Oversight sent a letter to DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz on Tuesday calling on investigators to release their findings despite Allen’s settlement with the FBI.
“For 27 months, Mr. Allen and his family had to survive on early withdrawals from their retirement accounts in order to continue administratively challenging the FBI’s improper revocation of his security clearance,” Empower Oversight President Tristan Leavitt wrote. “For 13 of those months Mr. Allen also waited on your office to complete and report on its investigation into the FBI’s abuse of the security clearance process to retaliate against him.”
While Allen waited for the inspector general’s office to review his case, the FBI denied his requests to seek other employment or accept public charity. Despite no pay and no duties from the Bureau for more than two years, Allen remained subject to gift rules for public officials under his suspension status.
According to Leavitt, Allen has since “voluntarily resigned, pursuant to a settlement agreement with the FBI that includes full restoration of his pay and benefits for the entire 27 months of his suspension.”
“Although he also agreed to withdraw his complaints to your office and is no longer employed with the Bureau,” Leavitt wrote, “Allen believes that the public and the FBI’s oversight committees in Congress must learn the facts discovered during your extensive inquiry.”
“The FBI’s decision to reinstate his clearance occurred before your office reported on the findings of its investigation, but that should not be an excuse to sweep it all under the rug,” Leavitt added.
House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, characterized Allen’s clearance reinstatement as “a total vindication for a great patriot” in a Tuesday statement.
“Marcus bravely stood up to expose misconduct at the FBI, despite attacks from FBI bureaucrats and congressional Democrats,” Jordan said. The Ohio lawmaker went on to demand the Bureau “also reinstate the security clearances of whistleblowers Garret O’Boyle and Stephen Friend.”
O’Boyle and Friend similarly suffered agency retaliation for blowing the whistle on the weaponization of the FBI by far-left ideologues. O’Boyle told Congress the federal intelligence agency moved him from the Great Plains to Washington, D.C., where he was suspended on his first day following protected disclosures to lawmakers on Capitol Hill. O’Boyle said the FBI had been designating white supremacy as a top national security threat in order to justify broad surveillance.
Friend also suffered agency retaliation for objections made to the FBI’s response to suspects from the Capitol riot on Jan. 6. Friend told lawmakers the FBI deployed a SWAT team to arrest such an individual in the Orlando area.
“I’ve arrested over 150 violent criminals in my career, I’ve never required a SWAT team to do it,” Friend said during a congressional hearing.
“I think that Garrett and myself and Marcus Allen, we brought the information, certainly the Republicans on the committee were very receptive to that information. And we sort of laid the groundwork for people to feel that they can be protected as whistleblowers,” Friend said on Fox News.
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