On November 25, 2022, the Justice
Department and FBI purported to respond to six of my oversight letters in a
single letter. Whenever I see one letter that aims to answer six, I know the
government’s letter will most likely be hogwash at best.
The FBI’s
November 25 letter doesn’t even meet the hogwash standard.
My May 31, 2022,
letter
was about then-Assistant Special Agent in Charge Thibault’s political bias. The FBI’s letter failed to provide any
requested records.
The July 18, 2022,
letter
was about Thibault and then-Election Crimes Branch Chief Richard Pilger being
involved in opening a criminal investigation into former President Trump. That
letter was based on whistleblower allegations about the defective opening of
the investigation. The FBI’s letter failed to address the concerns raised in my
letter.
The July 25, 2022,
letter
was about Thibault and others at the FBI shutting down investigative avenues
into Hunter Biden separate from the ongoing U.S Attorney Weiss investigation. That
letter also noted that the investigative avenues were based on verified and
verifiable information. That, too, was
based on whistleblower allegations. The FBI failed to provide any requested
records.
The August 17, 2022,
letter
built off the July 25 letter and requested an organizational chart for the
FBI’s Washington Field Office. It also
posed a series of questions about the Hunter Biden investigation, including:
How can the Hunter Biden criminal
investigation be full and complete if the FBI improperly shut down verified and
verifiable information and sourcing relating to potential criminal
activity?
No
answer from the FBI.
The
FBI did produce to me an organizational document for their Washington Field
Office. However, it’s a failed
production because it wasn’t what I asked for.
For
example, out of the entire Washington Field Office, the FBI only included six
names in the document. There’s dozens of subunits and squads within the
Washington Field Office. And they only
provided six names and even redacted some information.
Congress
and the American people have every right to know how taxpayer dollars are used
to support the Washington Field Office.
The September 26,
2022, letter
related to the FBI’s retaliation against whistleblower Stephen Friend. Mr.
Friend raised concerns to his superiors about breaches of FBI policy and
procedure in domestic terrorism assessments and investigations. As part of their retaliation, the FBI placed
Mr. Friend on Absent Without Leave status, took away Mr. Friend’s badge, gun
and suspended his clearance. The FBI’s letter didn’t even mention Mr. Friend by
name, yet purported to respond to my and Senator Johnson’s letter about him.
The October 13, 2022,
letter
– and this is the sixth letter – related to the Hunter Biden criminal
investigation. My letter noted that allegations from whistleblowers indicated
that the information provided by Tony Bobulinski to the FBI about Hunter Biden
formed a sufficient basis to open a full field investigation on pay-to-play
grounds. However, it’s unclear if the
FBI did so.
The
letter also noted that records within the FBI’s possession and reviewed by my
investigative staff indicate that Joe Biden was aware of Hunter Biden’s
business arrangements and may have been involved in some. The FBI failed to produce
any requested records.
The
FBI is zero for six.
Now,
there are a couple elements to the FBI’s response letter I’d like to highlight. And I call it the FBI’s response because the
Justice Department proper failed to send their own.
The
letter said, in part, when an employee or employees miss the mark or make a
mistake, it’s critically important that we learn from those instances. This
means not only holding people accountable, but also taking a close look at the
larger organization so that we can make necessary changes to policies and
training to ensure mistakes aren’t repeated.
I provided
six letters to the Justice Department and FBI relating to their mistakes. The letters provided concrete facts, evidence
and highly credible whistleblower allegations. Not a single admission of
wrongdoing or some mistake was mentioned in the FBI letter.
How
can the FBI learn from its mistakes if it refuses to even admit and acknowledge
them?
Importantly,
with respect to all the whistleblower allegations that I’ve made public –
neither the Justice Department nor the FBI have disputed their accuracy. That ought to tell you something.
To the
whistleblowers who have approached my office: you are patriots.
Now,
there’s one more part of the FBI letter I’d like to highlight.
On
the third page of this non-responsive letter, the FBI says this about
whistleblowers, Employees should feel they can raise their concerns about
wrongdoing and if those concerns aren’t addressed within their chain of command
take them to an appropriate place without retaliation.
The
FBI failed to mention Congress. And the
FBI failed to make clear that employees can immediately go to Congress to
disclose wrongdoing.
That
legal right to blow the whistle should’ve been made explicitly clear in this
letter.
Director
Wray personally assured me that whistleblowers approaching my office with
allegations won’t face retaliation.
Simply
put, the Justice Department and FBI need to get over themselves.
Show
some respect to Congress and the American people. Answer the questions, admit
to the mistakes, show us the corrective actions and let’s move on together to
fix our institutions for future generations of Americans.
The
letters I wrote provide a roadmap for the FBI to root out political infection
within their ranks and field offices.
They highlight existential problems deep within the FBI.
Based
on the response letter, the FBI has done nothing to root it out.
The
Justice Department’s and FBI’s continued failure to do so will lead them on a
long, slow and painful walk to losing more credibility and trust with the
American people - a result that’s entirely avoidable.
