Thread by @tristanleavitt

🚨 This afternoon I transmitted a 22-page letter to @Jim_Jordan putting the lie to the FBI's claim that "[t]he FBI has not and will not retaliate against individuals who make protected whistleblower disclosures."

As our press release on the letter outlines, one of the key retaliators pushing the politicization of the FBI was Jeffrey Veltri, now SAC of the FBI's Miami Field Office and running the investigation into the second Trump assassination attempt: .

Highlight thread of the letter below... 🧵

https://x.com/EMPOWR_us/status/1836903079100260536

Not only did Veltri improperly politicize the FBI's Security Division, we've now learned he was under investigation for retaliating against whistleblowers who objected to his heavy-handed tactics and disregard of the law surrounding security clearance adjudications.

This investigation delayed his appointment as the Miami SAC.

These issues will be the subject of hearing next Wednesday @JusticeOIG Michael Horowitz will testify at along with me and FBI whistleblower Marcus Allen.

Yesterday @EMPOWR_us submitted a detailed 29-page retaliation complaint to the @JusticeOIG on behalf of a second whistleblower from within the FBI's Security Division, who saw firsthand the FBI's improper actions against FBI whistleblowers--and then suffered them herself.

She is the second Security Division employee we've filed a retaliation complaint with the OIG about.

Last year we disclosed that when Paul Abbate became Deputy Director of the FBI the month after J6, he told a conference call of all field and headquarters leadership that anyone who questioned the FBI's response to J6, or his decisions regarding it, did not belong in the FBI.

A participant in the call wrote in an affidavit we submitted to the DOJ OIG last year: "I have witnessed hundreds of Director [secure video teleconferences] and have never seen a direct threat like that any other time. It was chilling and personal, communicating clearly that there would be consequences for anyone that questioned his direction."

(You can find that affidavit here: )empowr.us/empower-oversi…

Under Deputy Director Abbate, FBI leadership came to consist of:
- Acting EAD Jennifer Moore, who as SAC of the Washington Field Office’s Intelligence and Incident Response Division was intimately involved with the FBI's prep for J6 and its response;
- Acting AD Douglas Beidler, who was dedicated to Moore and would follow her to GE when she left the FBI;
- Acting DAD Jeffrey Veltri, referenced above; and
- Acting SC Dena Perkins.

Whistleblowers report Veltri made comments denigrating FBI employees with conservative viewpoints and repeating Abbate's talking point that such employees were unworthy to work at the FBI.

One FBI employee who said he wanted to see the outcome of voter fraud investigations had his clearance revoked because Veltri suggested that employee "did not believe in the Constitution."

Our client Marcus Allen was favorably recommended for a security clearance renewal the very day in September 2021 he made his protected whistleblower disclosure about Director Wray's congressional testimony regarding J6 possibly being inaccurate.

Veltri bypassed normal procedures by skipping the SecD intake unit and having an investigation opened directly into Allen--something Veltri's successor would call "an abortion of the process."

Then the casefile opening Allen's case falsely claimed it was a referral from his office's Chief Security Officer, and left out the part about Veltri bypassing normal protocols to open the case.

Still, the case only became a priority for SecD when one of Allen's supervisors in Charlotte disclosed that Allen was refusing the COVID-19 vaccine.

All of Marcus's coworkers said he'd "never given [them] cause to question his allegiance to the U.S." But his Charlotte supervisor said that:
1) Marcus's protected disclosure email about Wray and
2) his refusal to receive the vaccine
meant the Security Division should investigate him.

So the FBI's Insider Threat Office generated a bogus report on Marcus, saying his "increasingly hostile views towards...the current administration" suggested he might be an "insider threat."

But when the clearance investigator looked at the communications in question, they weren't an issue.

Potential for increased civil unrest in coming months? The month Marcus discussed this the FBI sent out two reports that said the exact same thing.

Inclusive of links from questionable sources? Sorry @RCPolitics and @RCInvestigates, but you got flagged by the Insider Threat Office. But in good news, the FBI also sends out your stories in its Daily News Bulletins. 😂

Shortages of firearms and ammunition, generators and gasoline, and alcohol? All subjects of local reports in the Charlotte area in the year preceding Marcus's comment. (Also, objectively true!!)

The clearance investigator was a serious guy--a former FBI SAC and executive in the FBI's Inspection Division who had come back to the FBI as a re-employed annuitant to do these kinds of investigations. But when he disclosed to FBI leadership that the facts didn't justify suspending Marcus's clearance, Veltri participated in retaliating against the investigator, with supervisors reporting Veltri and Perkins were "not about the pushback they were getting on the Marcus Allen case."

And what did the actual suspension of Marcus's clearance cite? His "questioning of the honesty of FBI leadership" 😱 and his "continued refusal to comply with the mandatory vaccine" 💉 -- a vaccine mandate which courts suspended 11 days after Marcus's clearance was suspended.

Veltri was DAD of the Security Division when they used the so-called "Trump questionnaire." As I've shared below, Director Wray's answer to Congress on this issue was misleading in a number of ways.

https://x.com/tristanleavitt/status/1816874849324741113

As noted above, the case we cited when we released the "Trump questionnaire" was only one of at least multiple cases in which it is documented these types of questions were asked (and probably many more where we don't have access to the documentation--something DOJ OIG is investigating).

‼️ But in contrast with Wray's testimony that these questions were a one-off from a rogue contractor, we've learned that the two contractors who sat in on the interviews with the "Trump questionnaire" talked regularly about their fear of being fired if they displeased SecD leadership.

🛒 They even had a name for the reprisal, talking about the "Kelly cart"--a reference to another contractor who pushed back against SecD leadership's wishes and was walked out of the building and fired while her coworkers saw an unknown FBI employee show up at her desk with a cart to box up her personal belongings.

🔥 Switching to the case of @GOBactual, we have now learned from SecD whistleblowers that the initial investigator on his case told SecD leadership that there was no actual evidence that Garret had leaked info to @Project_Veritas, and that Garret's computer usage made it look far more likely that he was a whistleblower to @JudiciaryGOP.

💣💣 Acting Section Chief Dena Perkins replied that she'd already told FBI executive leadership that Garret was a leaker, and didn't want to correct this misunderstanding.

(Also more Veltri garbage here--he thought that Marcus, who is one of the most devout people I've ever met, was delusional for saying religious beliefs motivated him to stand up for the truth. And after @Jim_Jordan wrote to the FBI about Marcus's case and the OIG got involved, there was even more pressure to revoke his clearance.)

This recent piece from @theblaze's @HanneBlaze64 did a wonderful job of telling @GOBactual's gut-wrenching story: .

💣 But behind the scenes it was even worse than we knew. Not only did Perkins not want to go back to FBI leadership to admit they had no evidence Garret leaked to the media, she came up with a scheme with Veltri to allow Garret to move his kids and pregnant wife across the country simply so that they could maybe STARTLE HIM INTO CONFESSING ON HIS FIRST DAY IN THE NEW JOB.

I am not a swearing person. But I have never seen such an OUTLANDISH DESIRE FOR A PERRY MASON MOMENT motivate so thoroughly ruining someone's life. 🤬🤬🤬theblaze.com/news/the-fbi-w…

🚨 It turns out Director Wray and Deputy Director Abbate selected Veltri for the Miami SAC position five months earlier than it was announced.

But then @Jim_Jordan, (not yet) @SpeakerJohnson, and @DarrellIssa sent a letter to Abbate's direct report, Jennifer Moore, about the whistleblower allegations that the FBI was purging conservative employees by revoking their clearances. (Which they were!)

🔦 This turned a spotlight on Veltri, who directly oversaw the unit responsible for this alleged purge. So what did FBI leadership find when they looked closer? Veltri was already under investigation for his role in retaliating against the first investigator on the Marcus Allen case.

Since those facts aren't bad enough, this also just happened to be the timeframe when Veltri went on an extended rant to the clearance adjudication team when they told him it wasn't proper to suspend the clearance of an SSA over his texts with his subordinate, who accompanied our "Trump questionnaire" client to the grounds outside the Capitol on J6 but saw no violence and broke no laws.

Because observers said they had never seen such rude and unprofessional behavior their entire careers as Veltri demonstrated, all of SecD's adjudications unit walked on eggshells after that.

When it subsequently became clear @HouseGOP would control the House in the next Congress and could actually force the FBI to answer all the requests it had been ignoring, FBI executive leadership asked SecD for a briefing on Marcus's case. It was clear to the clearance adjudicators SecD wanted Marcus's clearance gone, but the facts didn't support it, so they sent the case back to the clearance investigators.

👨‍⚖️ At first the investigator struck out--all she got was more reports that Marcus had "strong opinions on politics, religion, and Covid-19." (And those are protected by the... Ah yes--First Amendment to the Constitution!)

🪓 But one lead on a Special Agent who didn't like Marcus turned up pay dirt on an unverified allegation, and that got shared with the Assistant Director the very next day--who signed off then and there on revoking Marcus's clearance, even though the adjudicators opposed the move.

But when the investigator checked with another Charlotte employee (two days after the decision to revoke Marcus's clearance), he completely undercut the unverified allegation, telling the investigator Marcus was “extremely helpful and well versed in current events” and “was one of the best analysts on the JTTF.” He said he’d had a “great experience” working with Marcus, and didn't think Marcus would let any political views stop him from doing his job.

Interestingly, our story on Veltri ends here: When a permanent DAD arrived in late January 2023, he didn't want Veltri kicking around even as a Section Chief reporting to him. So Veltri had to slink off to another part of FBI headquarters to work until the FBI finally decided in late March 2023 to appoint him in the Miami SAC role notwithstanding the allegations against him. (What's a little whistleblower retaliation between friends, amirite? 🤷‍♂️)

fbi.gov/news/press-rel…

Although the FBI had already made the decision to revoke Marcus's clearance, it seems they didn't actually want to do the deed before EAD Moore was deposed by @JudiciaryGOP. (Because, you know, then she would have to answer questions about it.)

She completely obfuscated the cases in her testimony. However, when @mattgaetz asked her about @GOBactual's case, she claimed his adjudication was almost finished. This was false, since it was actually still in investigation and not even in adjudication yet.

🗓️ But after sitting on Marcus's revocation for months, SecD pushed in the 3 1/2 weeks between Moore's interview and @JudiciaryGOP's May 18, 2023 hearing with me, Marcus, @GOBactual, and @RealStevefriend to finalize revocations.

They finalized Marcus's and Steve's revocations, but the investigator on Garret's case refused to even send it to adjudication until he'd had a chance to interview Garret about the allegations against him. (The allegations the investigator had noted to his chain of command there was no evidence for.)

Of course, Marcus's revocation contained the new allegations he'd never even been interviewed about--both dug up days before the revocation decision (one THE DAY before).

That didn't stop the FBI from rushing the information into a letter on the eve of our hearing, which some press ate up--falsehoods and all. (@washingtonpost gets a dishonorable mention here for uncritically publishing the lies in the FBI letter before even hearing how the whistleblowers would respond the next day. Three and a half months after Marcus's clearance has been reinstated, they and @NBCNews have failed to give space to Marcus's vindication like they did for the revocation, despite Marcus writing both outlets letters requesting a correction of the record.)

🔥 The amount of information we know now (and @JusticeOIG knows) about all the cases involving improper clearance suspensions or revocations is insane. But most of that info isn't public, and people don't read even read 22-page letters, so that will probably have to wait for a report from Congress or the OIG.

💣 Suffice it to say, FBI leadership got so tired of getting pushback from the clearance adjudication office that it sent out the Kelly Cart. 🛒 As of September 30, 2023, all leadership had been removed from the adjudication unit, which sent a clear message of intimidation to the employees who were left in that unit.

That included one employee who @EMPOWR_us is now representing: the adjudicator assigned to Marcus's case.

One of the first things the adjudicator realized was that SecD had not given Marcus and @EMPOWR_us all the documents they were legally required to about how Marcus's case was opened.

Some of the records not produced were from Veltri (remember the "abortion of the process"?), Perkins, and Gibbs--who was giving SecD legal advice on which documents to produce. Trying to avoid the Kelly Cart 🛒, the adjudicator made several protected disclosures about the mishandling of the case.

She succeeded in explaining to SecD leadership how earlier SecD leadership had completely (and illegally) screwed Marcus for his whistleblower communication and his views on the vaccine. 💉

Veltri's successor realized, "We appear to be conflating a questioning of leadership with a lack of allegiance to the U.S." He encouraged the adjudicator to put all this info into her recommendation to reinstate Marcus.

But that didn't stop SecD from retaliating against her when she did. She was removed from the case, and ultimately told she would be forced to transfer to another unit.

The retaliation forced her out of the FBI, but the 29-page retaliation complaint we filed on her behalf with the @JusticeOIG is extremely detailed.

Despite the adjudicator's finding--and SecD leadership supposedly agreeing--that Marcus's clearance never should have been illegally revoked or suspended in the first place, the FBI refused to take him back when it reinstated his clearance.

They did agree to pay him his 27 months of back-pay.

That was three and a half months ago.

Marcus hasn't yet seen a penny of it.

@GOBactual @Project_Veritas @theblaze @HanneBlaze64 @Jim_Jordan @SpeakerJohnson @DarrellIssa @HouseGOP @JudiciaryGOP @RealStevefriend @JusticeOIG @EMPOWR_us empowr.us/new-evidence-o…