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May 19, 2023 - Sean Hannity Show
31:30
FBI Retaliation - May 18th, Hour 1
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Wow, what explosive hearings in the House Judiciary Committee today as they had very at times contentious exchanges over whistleblower testimony.
And, you know, it's amazing Democrats all of a sudden they don't like whistleblowers anymore.
They don't trust whistleblowers.
They want punitive actions against whistleblowers.
And what these guys are saying, this is the weaponization hearings run by Jim Jordan.
And they had four specific whistleblowers today.
Garrett O'Boyle, special agent.
Steve Friend, who will join us on this program a little later in the program today.
Whistleblower, former FBI special agent.
Marcus Allen whistleblower, FBI operations specialist.
Tristan Levitt, a president in power oversight, former member of the U.S. Merit System Protection Board testimony.
And more importantly, the methods under which the FBI took, you know, we have whistleblower law protections in this country.
Apparently, they don't matter anymore.
They don't seem to matter at all.
And all the Democrats wanted to do was grill FBI agents over a tweet that might show that they have a political point of view that might not be theirs.
And this is what we have.
Anyway, the subcommittee investigating all of this.
Witnesses saying the FBI is a double standard for what merits investigation.
And one of the agents said that the FBI departed from the standard procedures, put a heavy focus on investigating cases involving January 6, 2021.
By the way, where are all the arrests with all the video evidence that we have of the 574 riots in the summer of 2020 that injured thousands of cops, killed dozens of Americans, and created billions of dollars in property damage?
Where's the intensity from the FBI there?
They also claim that FBI leadership told them to inflate statistics dealing with domestic and violent extremism.
And now explains a lot.
Explains how they handled Supreme Court justices.
It explains how they handled tiger moms like Linda that go to school board meetings and dare to question the age appropriateness of some of the materials being taught their kids and the priorities of varying school districts.
It's pretty unbelievable.
I'll go through some of these whistleblowers.
One guy named Marcus Allen, he said, quote, alternative analysis and different viewpoints should be welcomed even though they are not, but ultimately acted upon by actual makers.
He said, groupthink should not be an ethos champion in an investigative organization.
To shut down differing viewpoints is the end of any analytical or investigative body, and it sends a chilling effect across the workforce.
It does not allow for intellectual freedom, which is vital.
Any investigative body seeking out truth, it is possible the ire towards my perspective could have been due to folks wanting to maintain invincible arrogance instead of consciously, mentally transferring over to willful ignorance.
My treatment, without a doubt, as an FBI whistleblower, has sent a chilling effect through what semblance remains of an analytical cadre.
This was not a thorough investigation in my regard.
I have not been afforded an opportunity to properly defend myself or confront claims made against me.
Now, in light of the Durham report coming out this week about how Crossfire Hurricane never should have ever begun, and then all of the actions taken and how they treated one candidate, their favorite candidate, Hillary Clinton, with kid gloves, and they used the full power might of the FBI and all their subpoena tools available to them, including lying on FISA applications, as a means of going after these people.
You have one guy, Garrett Boyle, FBI whistleblower, suspended.
You know, it's up to members of this committee, current and former FBI employees, and indeed all Americans to ensure that the weaponization of our own government against the people comes to an end, no matter what the personal cost.
And by the way, the cost for all of these whistleblowers is that's it.
Their careers are over.
Many have been suspended.
Many have been put, you know, iced out.
Many will no longer have a career in the FBI.
He said the safeguards currently in place at the FBI clearly are inadequate and must be reworked to protect whistleblowers and others who are inappropriately targeted.
He says that he was transferred across the country only to be suspended on his first day.
The FBI's actions forced his family to beg, borrow warm coats for their kids because their family's belongings were locked in an FBI-controlled storage facility.
Quote, so one of the examples given in congressional letter included an example where a neighbor or someone or somehow someone knew a parent that they believe was extreme, and so they called the FBI and reported that parent to the FBI.
He said, when the citizens in this country get to a point that they can call the most powerful law enforcement agency in the world on their neighbor just because they disagree with them, that is a chilling, that is chilling to the First Amendment rights of the people who are getting the FBI called on them.
And then he had the question.
And what you've done is exactly what the federal law requires you to do, right?
And isn't it true that once the FBI found out you spoke to Congress, your security clearance was suspended?
Yes, I believe that's what happened.
I'm going to play some of this testimony later.
I'm just telling you some of the highlights here.
Question, what was the effect?
What effect is this had on your ability to provide for your young family?
Answer, I've since had to rely on charity because the FBI stopped paying me and there's no other way for me to make a living.
He says, I know from other whistleblowers that they routinely deny them the ability to get outside employment and then as a special, you can only make $7,500 a year outside of your government's salary.
So they can't even live their lives anymore.
You know, another one, Gates played the video of George Hill, who worked at the Boston Field Office.
He alleges that there were confidential human sources and FBI informants in the Capitol on January 6th.
Show us where inside the Capitol.
We'll look into it.
To which the Washington Field Office says, well, we can't show you those videos unless you tell us the exact time and place those individuals were inside the Capitol, to which they responded back.
And I was privy to those conversations firsthand.
Why can't you show us?
Why can't you just send us back?
Give us access to 11,000 hours of video that's available because there may be undercover officers or see confidential human sources on those videos whose identity we need to protect.
Wow.
Stephen Friend, he'll be a guest on this show.
He's been suspended.
Says the FBI retaliated against him after how he exposed the Bureau was working with numbers on domestic violent extremist cases.
So the FBI decided it was more important to have you in the parking lot of a school board meeting than getting the worst of the worst from people that they could harm.
Correct.
That got into the whole January 6th issue, too.
You know, remember, you can go back, and we covered it on this show.
And by the way, the former Capitol Police Chief Sunday is going to be on at the top of the next hour.
But remember, all of the times that he personally in the days leading up to January 6th was requesting the National Guard.
That story never got told.
Why not?
Why didn't they listen to the Capitol Police Chief?
You know, there's only been 10 in total Capitol Police chiefs in the history of this country.
That's it.
And if the Capitol Police chief says that they have intelligence that indicates that this day may be a problem and they want to be prepared for it, and he gets totally, completely, and utterly ignored and then basically pushed out and retired, or the fact that, you know, we have on tape January 3rd, President Trump said it to me.
His chief of staff, Mark Meadows, said it to me.
The Secretary of Defense Chris Miller said it to me.
His chief of staff, Kash Patel, said it to me, that they all talked about on January 3rd the need for National Guard troops in coming days leading up to January 6th.
And then, of course, finally this year in January, Lester Holt, I mean, a little late, better late than ever, I guess, but reported that federal law enforcement could have prevented January 6th because they had actionable intelligence.
And the police chief himself talking about the delay in getting the National Guard to the Capitol for help.
Now, this, do you understand?
And then what do Democrats do?
They start smearing and slandering the whistleblowers.
Aren't these the same people that love whistleblowers, hearsay whistleblowers, non-hearsay whistleblowers?
They all love whistleblowers.
Only whistleblowers that are going after Donald Trump are going after a Republican.
Because Debbie Wasserman Schultz and others on the committee butted heads with Jim Jordan over the testimony of witnesses.
You know, I'm not aware that you're able to withhold information from the minority that we need to use, she said, before being cut off by Jordan.
When it comes to whistleblowers, you are not entitled, Jordan said.
This is a pretty good exchange.
We've got some of this on tape.
We'll play it later.
And then having to remind her, and I told you that when it comes to whistleblowers, you're not entitled.
It is the discretion of Mr. Allen, Jordan said, and the law decides.
Did you not listen to the testimony?
I mean, pretty amazing moments that took place here.
One whistleblower details the FBI's attempt to punish him for speaking out.
This is Garrett O'Boyle saying, targeted by the FBI in their smear campaign, made it impossible for him to do his job, devastated his family financially.
I couldn't knowingly and silently continue on this path without speaking out against all the weaponization that I witnessed.
All I wanted to do was serve my country by stopping bad guys and protecting the innocent.
And to my chagrin, bad guys have begun running parts of the government, making it difficult to continue to serve this nation.
And he says many in the FBI see what becomes of whistleblowers, how the FBI destroys their careers, suspends them under false pretenses, takes their security clearance and pay with no true options for real recourse or remedy.
This is by design.
It creates an Orwellian atmosphere and it silences all opposition and discussion.
He said that the Bureau's retaliation left his family destitute.
He said the FBI will crush you.
The government will crush you and your family if you try to expose the truth about things that they are doing wrong.
Wow.
The FBI targeted these pro-life groups.
They targeted tiger moms at school board meetings, you know, in particular, the Catholics and parents attending these meetings with investigators and investigations into an effort to infiltrate, you know, with the sense that they were a domestic terrorism threat.
Okay, they're begging, keep your gender identity classes away from my first, second, and third grader.
And we think you should focus on reading, writing, math, science, and arithmetic and computers, and not on gender identity, human sexuality, and CRT.
That's what parents, by and large, have been saying.
Do some get a little heated?
Yeah.
Is this an FBI issue?
No.
That would be an issue for local law enforcement if it got out of hand.
Jordan said, if you're a parent attending a school board meeting and you're pro-life, praying at a clinic, or you're a Catholic simply going to mass, you're a target of this government, a target of this FBI, adding that officials attempted to inflate their investigations to treat them as domestic and violent extremist cases.
Jordan says his committee spoke with over two dozen whistleblowers in compiling his report.
Matt Gates detailed whistleblower claims of the Washington, D.C. field office as the source of much of the rot within the organization.
Quote, a lot of the rot the committee has learned emerges out of the headquarters from the Washington Field Office.
A whistleblower described the conflict that existed at the Washington Field Office, and they put pressure on other field offices around the country to engage in law enforcement work without predication.
Wow.
Many agencies now, it's an Orwellian atmosphere that silences opposition.
Okay.
Do you think anyone cares?
The FBI, by the way, illegally obtained, we learned today, bank records to search for anybody that attended the January 6th rally.
Oh, why follow the rule of law?
What about Miranda rights?
What about giving somebody the right to remain silent?
You just now get free access to their bank accounts.
Okay.
I've been smeared as a malcontent and subpar FBI employee.
This smear stands in stark contrast to my life in public service.
This smear campaign, disgusting as it is, is unsurprising.
Despite our oath to uphold the Constitution, too many in the FBI aren't willing to sacrifice for the hard right over the easy wrong.
They see what becomes of whistleblowers, how the FBI destroys their careers, suspends them under false pretenses, takes their security clearances and pay with no true options for real recourse or remedy.
This is by design.
It creates an Orwellian atmosphere that silences opposition and discussion.
We know what is right to do, yet we too often refuse to do what is right because of the difficulty and suffering it incurs.
I couldn't knowingly continue on this path silently without speaking out against the weaponization I witnessed, even if it meant losing my job, my career, my livelihood, my family's home, and now my anonymity.
It's up to members of this committee, current and former FBI employees, and indeed all Americans to ensure that the weaponization of our own government against the people comes to an end, no matter the personal cost.
That was Garrett Boyle, him being an FBI.
I'm sorry, what's that?
Garrett O'Boyle, sorry.
Oh, boy.
O Boyle.
Anyway, he was testifying, one of the whistleblowers today about the smear campaign.
We'll come back.
We have the other news of the day as well.
We'll hit this hard with others as the show progresses today.
One of the whistleblowers joins us.
Hi, 25 to the top of the hour.
Thank you for being with us.
Let me play for you a cut here of Steve Friend, who's going to join us later in the program.
Now, at the top of the next hour, we have the former Capitol Police Chief.
January 6th came up a lot and how those hearings and everything involved in the investigation was politicized.
Now, this is information that we have told you repeatedly.
And, you know, for example, I understand Liz Cheney and company wanted to get their pound of flesh on Donald Trump and blame Donald Trump.
And we got plenty of that in all of this.
But we also had other, there's a lot more texture context to that story that nobody ever wanted to talk about.
You know, if Donald Trump wanted an insurrection, you have to ask the question, then why was he, according to five people in the Oval Office, you know, days before January 6th, talking about calling up the guard and having them available with so many people coming to town?
That doesn't make sense that he would do that.
Let me play the Lester Holt report because, you know, this was not highlighted during the January 6th committee hearings.
What did I say about those hearings?
They had a predetermined outcome.
Okay, politically, you want to go after Trump?
Fine.
Here's what the opportunity, though, that was missed here.
This is a very important point.
The opportunity was we cannot have, just like in the summer of 2020, that we did nothing to prosecute, and we have all the videotape evidence in the world, the 574 people, the 574 riots where we have video of people involved and, you know, hurling rocks and bottles and Molotov cocktails and bricks of police officers.
You know, we have video of people, you know, rummaging through and robbing stores and setting them on fire.
Those people have not been held accountable.
Or the dozen, two dozen Americans that died in the summer of 2020.
Now, there wasn't a committee looking into those riots, but the sad opportunity that was missed here is that we've got to make sure something like that never happens again.
And that means in our cities in the summer of 2020, and that means our capital.
Got to protect our institutions.
You've got to protect our elected officials.
You can't have something like that happen ever again, period.
End of sentence.
You know, it took NBC News until January of this year to figure out we had known a long time because, you know, again, the Capitol Police Chief, they never asked for the Capitol Police Chiefs.
They didn't want his, they spoke with him briefly.
They minimized his testimony.
He was the one asking for the National Guard in the days leading up to January 6th and that day and denied.
They didn't look into the head of security for the House, Nancy Pelosi, her text messages, her emails, her phone records.
No, they didn't do any of that.
They didn't talk to Muriel Bowser, the mayor of Washington, D.C., why in writing she denied guard troops if anybody wanted to call them up.
Why did all that happen?
And then, of course, we learn that, in fact, there was actionable intelligence that had it been followed up on with law enforcement, likely would have prevented this day from ever happening.
It's not me reporting this.
This is NBC and Lester Holt.
Now, to our NBC News exclusive, the January 6th Committee's final report was more than 800 pages, but some material did not make the cut, including much of its findings on the failures of federal law enforcement leading up to the attack.
The chief investigator of the January 6th Committee says the government could have prevented it.
Had law enforcement agencies acted on the available intelligence, do you believe the attack on the Capitol could have been successfully repelled?
I think it would have been a lot different had law enforcement taken a more assertive, protective posture.
The intel in advance was pretty specific, and it was enough, in our view, for law enforcement to have done a better job operationalizing a secure perimeter.
Law enforcement had a very direct role in contributing to sort of the failures, the security failures that led to the violence.
People familiar with the committee's work tell NBC News members downplayed that finding because they wanted to keep the focus on former President Trump.
Committee members dispute that.
HAFE would not discuss internal deliberations.
Was this an intelligence failure?
It was not an intelligence failure.
Witness that process.
Peace circle breached the lies.
We need value.
HAFE says the committee found the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and other agencies did not act on the intelligence they had, including this online threat forwarded to Capitol Police January 5th, calling on thousands to go to Washington and help storm the Capitol.
In a statement to NBC News, the FBI said it sent all the intelligence it had to the Capitol Police.
Oh, okay.
You don't think that's a big part of the story?
Now, let me tell you what I would have looked into if I was on that committee, but of course they kicked off Jim Jordan and Jim Banks on the committee and replaced them with, what, Elizabeth Cheney, Liz Cheney, and I forget the other person, you know, the other idiot that lost.
It's just sad because they could have prevented it.
Now, Steve Prend was one of the whistleblowers.
He'll join us later in the program today, you know, talking about the FBI's campaign of intimidation after he became a whistleblower and then talking about the FBI working against you, the American people, and is in need of drastic reform.
Listen.
In August 2022, I made protected whistleblower disclosures to my immediate supervisor, assistant special agents in charge, and special agent in charge about my concerns regarding January 6th investigations assigned to my office.
I believed our departures from case management rules established in the FBI's domestic investigations and operations guide could have undermined potentially righteous prosecutions and may have been part of an effort to inflate the FBI's statistics on domestic extremism.
I also voice concerns that the FBI's use of SWAT and large-scale arrest operations to apprehend suspects who are accused of nonviolent crimes and misdemeanors represented by counsel and who pledged to cooperate with the federal authorities in the event of criminal charges created an unnecessary risk to FBI personnel and public safety.
At each level of my chain of command, leadership cautioned that despite my exemplary work performance, whistleblowing placed my otherwise bright future with the FBI at risk.
Special agents take an oath to protect the U.S. Constitution.
The dangers of federal law enforcement overreach were hammered home to me when I was required to attend trainings at the Holocaust Memorial Museum and MLK Memorial.
I cited my oath and training in my conversations with my FBI supervisors.
Nevertheless, the FBI weaponized the security clearance processes to facilitate my removal from active duty within one month of my disclosures.
In addition to an indefinite unpaid suspension, the FBI initiated a campaign of humiliation and intimidation to punish and pressure me to resign.
In violation of HIPAA, individuals at the FBI leaked my private medical information to a reporter at the New York Times.
In violation of the Privacy Act, the FBI refused to furnish my training records for several months.
To date, they only provide a portion of the records, which are essential to obtaining private investigator and firearms licenses in the state of Florida.
Even after releasing some of the records, the FBI refuses to confirm their legitimacy to the Florida Department of Agriculture, rendering the few documents they had provided practically useless.
The FBI denied my request to seek outside employment in an obvious attempt to deprive me of the ability to support my family.
Finally, the FBI Inspection Division imposed an illegal gag order in an attempt to prevent me from communicating with my family and attorneys.
The FBI is incentivized to work against the American people and in dire need of drastic reform, particularly in these areas.
The integrated program management system incentivizes the use of inappropriate investigatory processes and tools to achieve arbitrary statistical accomplishments.
Mission Creep within the National Security Branch has refocused counterterrorism from legitimate foreign actors to political opponents within our borders.
The FBI weaponizes process crimes and reinterprets laws to initiate pretextual prosecutions and persecute its political enemies.
Bureau intelligence analysis capability increasingly dictates operations, turning the FBI into an intelligence agency with a law enforcement capability.
FBI collusion with big tech to gather intelligence on Americans, censor political speech, and target citizens for malicious prosecution.
A dysfunctional promotion process fosters a revolving door of inexperienced, ambitious FBI supervisors ascending the management ladder within the agency.
FBI informant protocols that are broken and abusive.
The FBI skirts the Whistleblower Protection Act and exploits a security clearance revocation process to expel employees who make legally protected disclosures.
I mean, this is devastating.
This is what we've been telling you: how the FBI has been politicized.
It has been weaponized.
The DOJ has been politicized.
It has been weaponized.
Let's go to another FBI whistleblower, this one, Marcus Allen, saying he's been retaliated against by having his security clearance revoked.
FBI claims he's being disloyal because of his January 6th views.
Now, by the way, then he says the FBI retaliated against him after he filed the complaint against them.
Listen.
As the holder of a top-secret security clearance since 2001, I've been trusted with the nation's greatest secrets.
So why am I here today?
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.
This outrageous and insulting accusation is based on unsubstantiated accusations that I hold conspiratorial views regarding the events of January 6, 2021, and that I allegedly sympathize with criminal conduct.
I do not.
I was not in Washington, D.C. on January 6th, played no part in the events of January 6th, and I condemn all criminal activity that occurred.
Instead, it appears that I was retaliated against because I forwarded information to my superiors and others that questioned the official narrative of the events of January 6th.
As a result, I was accused of promoting conspiratorial views and unreliable information.
Because I did this, the FBI questioned my allegiance to the United States.
Throughout this ordeal, I and my counsel have responded quickly, whereas the FBI has only stonewalled.
I have filed a federal civil rights lawsuit, which is pending, seeking to recover my livelihood and restore my good name.
Recently, my counsel filed a whistleblower complaint with the Justice Department's Office of Inspector General.
The complaint set forth retaliation through misuse of the security clearance process, as well as reprisal against me for making a protected disclosure.
Interestingly enough, in the wake of the filing, the complaint I in the wake of filing the complaint, I received correspondence from the FBI indicating that my clearance had now been formally revoked.
This occurred after filing my complaint with the IEG.
The new and baseless claims made in the letter had never been brought up prior to the issuance of the security clearance revocation letter.
I have never had the opportunity to defend myself.
I only had one interview with the FBI, which occurred a year ago, after apparent prompting from Congress.
In that interview, the investigators towards the end of the interview uttered in response to my exasperation, don't sue us.
Let me play one more cut of that same whistleblower, Marcus Allen.
He's testifying to Matt Gates that the FBI retaliated against him because he thought Director Wray was lying to the Senate in testimony regarding January 6th.
And, Mr. Allen, is it your belief that you were retaliated against because you shared an email that questioned the truthfulness of FBI Director Christopher Wray?
Yes, sir.
And you believed that he wasn't truthful based on testimony he'd given to the United States Senate, isn't that right?
Yes, sir.
And in that testimony to the Senate, you believe that Christopher Wray indicated that there were no confidential informants and no FBI assets that were present at the Capitol on January 6th that were part of the violent riot.
Isn't that right?
Yes, sir.
Unbelievable.
I mean, what else do you need to know?
Your FBI has now been weaponized.
It's now politicized.
It now has a political agenda.
I mean, and that's, you know, it's not a guess anymore.
We're not guessing here.
You've got these whistleblowers testifying with the select subcommittee on the weaponization of our federal government.
It has been weaponized.
And now we are paying a price for it.
And nothing seems to happen.
You know, now the Republicans rightly have gotten to the point where they only see one solution, and that is they're going to have to use the power of the purse not to defund, dismantle the FBI, but restructure the FBI, reorganize the FBI,
put, you know, get its focus back on the purpose of law enforcement and not being involved in presidential elections the way they have for two presidential elections, or having an agenda that only fits one party, but not another.
You know, or their priorities, really, we're going to go after, let's see, you know, tiger moms that speak out at, like Linda, that speak out at school board meetings.
And we're going to go after churches because of their pro-life views and pro-life centers, because that's what the testimony has been.
That's what we've now learned about this FBI.
This is not the same FBI that it was five years ago or even 10 years ago.
And the fact is they've gotten away with it with impunity.
They literally put their Cindablox on the scales of the 2016 election, and they did it again in the 2020 election.
Really?
You had Hunter Biden's laptop in December of 2019, 11 months before the November 2020 election.
Okay, how long would it take the FBI to authenticate that?
Not long.
They are very sophisticated computer analysts.
They can figure this stuff out, you know, in lickety split.
No time at all.
You know, what about the case of the, you know, now they're telling big tech, oh, be on the lookout.
You may be the victim of a misinformation campaign.
By the way, Twitter, here's $3.5 million.
Why are we giving $3.5 million taxpayer FBI dollars to Twitter?
How much do they give other big tech companies?
And then the laptop story that they knew was real comes out, but they had already pre-bunked it.
They've been telling the big tech companies, oh, there might be, you know, misinformation about Hunter or about Joe Biden.
Got to be on the lookout for that so you're not a victim of misinformation.
All right, because January 6th came up so often today in these hearings on the weaponization of our Justice Department and DOJ.
And man, this was devastating.
These people that are whistleblowers putting everything on the line.
And what happens?
They get penalized.
They get punished.
They get ostracized.
They lose their jobs, their pensions, and just their entire career blows up.
But they put it all on the line today.
Now, on the issue of January 6th, we're going to talk with the former Capitol Police Chief's son.
He'll join us next.
Then one of the whistleblowers that testified today will join us as well.
800-941-Sean, our number if you want to be a part of the program.
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