Jordan to FBI Whistleblowers: 'Get Ready Because These Guys Are Going to Come After You' (May 18, 2023)

House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, had a warning for the three FBI whistleblowers sitting in front of him. “I just want to tell you guys. Get ready. Get ready because these guys are going to come after you. You know they are,” he said [1].

Jordan said the retaliation had already started inside Congress. “The retaliation isn’t limited to the FBI. Democrats on this Committee also engaged in it. They leaked parts of these guys’ interviews to the press,” he said [1].

The witnesses had already paid a price. “Mr. O’Boyle’s went 200-and-some days without getting paid. Mr. Allen’s went 450 days without getting paid,” Jordan said [1].

The video above shows Jordan’s opening at the May 18, 2023, hearing of the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. Quotes are from the official hearing record, Serial No. 118-21 [1].

”They Will Try to Crush You”

Jordan opened with the Durham report. “Here’s the key line from the Durham Report, ‘The FBI failed to uphold their mission of fidelity to the law,’” he said [1].

He said the targets had changed. “Parents attending a school board meeting, pro-lifers praying at a clinic, or Catholics simply attending mass, you could be a target,” Jordan said. “If you come forward and tell us about the radical, traditional Catholic memo, you come forward and tell us about this idea they’re going to create some snitch line to report on parents going to school board meetings, you do that, they will try to crush you” [1].

”His Clearance Is Suspended”

Jordan laid out what happened to each man. Special Agent Garret O’Boyle “was selected for a new unit, moved his family from Kansas to Quantico, Virginia. The first day he arrives here,” Jordan said, “they tell him his clearance is suspended. He can’t get his belongings for his family. Can’t get his clothes. Can’t get his children’s clothes, four kids and a two-week-old newborn” [1].

Former agent Steve Friend, Jordan said, “raised concerns about using the SWAT team to arrest someone who was willing to turn themselves in, and the FBI takes his clearance.” And staff operations specialist Marcus Allen “lost his clearance for simply doing his job” [1].

Jordan also pointed to the subcommittee’s prior hearing with journalist Matt Taibbi. “While Mr. Taibbi, one of those award-winning journalists, sitting right where you were sitting, was testifying, guess what else was happening? The IRS was knocking on his door. So, get ready,” he said [1].

”I Swore an Oath to the Constitution”

The whistleblowers spoke for themselves. “I am here today because, even though I am wrongfully suspended from the FBI, I remain duty bound to the American people to play my small role in rectifying these issues. After all, I never swore an oath to the FBI. I swore an oath to the Constitution,” said O’Boyle, an Army veteran who deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan [1].

He described what the suspension did to his wife and four daughters. “They ordered me to report to the new unit when our youngest daughter was two weeks old. Then on my first day on the new assignment, they suspended me, rendering my family homeless. They refused to release our goods, including our clothes, for weeks,” O’Boyle said [1].

“To my chagrin, bad guys have begun running parts of the government,” he added [1].

Friend, a former SWAT team member, said he had warned about the FBI’s handling of January 6 cases. He said the use of “SWAT and large-scale arrest operations to apprehend suspects who were accused of nonviolent crimes and misdemeanors represented by counsel and who pledged to cooperate” created “an unnecessary risk to FBI personnel and public safety” [1].

Allen, a Marine veteran of two tours in Iraq, said the FBI accused him of disloyalty. “Despite my history of unblemished service to the United States, the FBI suspended my security clearance, accusing me of actually being disloyal to my country,” he said. “I was not in Washington, DC, on January 6th, played no part in the events of January 6th, and I condemn all criminal activity that occurred” [1].

Democrats dismissed the hearing. “The reason we’re here today is because Chair Jordan wants to make America Trump again,” said Del. Stacey Plaskett of the Virgin Islands, the subcommittee’s top Democrat [1].

By the Numbers

• 3: FBI whistleblowers who testified [1].
• 450 days: how long Allen had gone without pay at the time, Jordan said [1].
• 200-plus days: how long O’Boyle had gone without pay, Jordan said [1].
• Two dozen-plus: whistleblowers Republicans had talked to, Jordan said [1].
• Nearly 2.5 years: how long Allen went without pay before his 2024 settlement, according to his lawyers [2].

What Happened Next

Allen was vindicated. In June 2024, the FBI restored Allen’s security clearance in a settlement, according to the American Center for Law and Justice, which represented him. “His security clearance has been reinstated, and he has received the back pay and benefits he was due. Marcus Allen has been vindicated,” the group said [2].

Under the deal, Allen agreed to end his complaints with the Justice Department’s inspector general and drop a First Amendment lawsuit “in exchange for the provision of his total back pay,” the ACLJ said [2].

O’Boyle kept fighting. At the time of Allen’s settlement, the ACLJ said its “ongoing representation of FBI whistleblower Garret O’Boyle continues in full force,” with his appeal pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit [2].

For Hawley’s questioning of the FBI over the Catholic memo, see HYGO News’ page on Hawley and judicial nominee Brandon Long.

Sources

1. GovInfo: Hearing on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, Serial No. 118-21 (May 18, 2023)
2. American Center for Law and Justice: ACLJ Wins Victory for Whistleblower Marcus Allen, FBI Reinstates His Security Clearance in Full (June 4, 2024)