Former FBI Special Agent Garret O’Boyle told Congress that he and his family were forced into homelessness after he reported “illegal activity” within the agency.
This shocking revelation came from a report issued Thursday by the House Judiciary Committee and Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. The former agent gave a harrowing account to representatives investigating government misdeeds.
After O’Boyle disclosed possibly illicit activities to his Supervisory Special Agent, the bureau transferred him to a different department. This necessitated the relocation of himself and his family across the country. Then it got worse.
On the first day at the new location, O’Boyle testified that the FBI placed him on “unpaid, indefinite suspension.” He said that not only was his family rendered homeless, but the FBI kept their personal belongings in storage.
FBI Special Agent Garret O'Boyle was transferred across the country only to be suspended on his first day.
The FBI’s actions forced his family to beg and borrow warm coats for their children because the family’s belongings were locked in an FBI-controlled storage facility. pic.twitter.com/T7BseKr0cf
— House Judiciary GOP (@JudiciaryGOP) May 18, 2023
This took away many personal items, including his young children’s clothing.
O’Boyle spent a year in both Iraq and Afghanistan as an infantryman in the U.S. Army, he testified to the committee. He received the Combat Infantryman Badge.
The veteran joined others in providing detailed examples of what they believe were retaliatory measures taken by the bureau. This despite federal whistleblower protection statutes specifically designed to prevent these actions.
In the report, they accuse leadership of going to extremes “to hamstring the brave agents who exercise their right to make protected disclosures to Congress or who dared to question agency leadership.”
Interview notes from the committee show that former FBI agents also alleged that leadership pressured them to pursue “domestic violent extremism.” Additionally, basic protocols were ignored while investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol incident.
Jan. 6 was even given priority over crimes against children, to the dismay of the testifying agents.
Domestic extremism was a hot button issue for the bureau, former agents recalled. They said the FBI inflated the numbers to fit the Biden administration narrative that extremism was rampant across the U.S.
The committee’s report summed up the testimony of whistleblowers by asserting the bureau is in the clutches of partisan leadership. This, House members allege, led to a “purge” of conservative agents.
Combined with this week’s release of the Durham Report, the committee’s report concluded that “the FBI has become politically weaponized.”
