Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) said during an interview Thursday night that he believes that there has been “retaliation” taken against FBI whistleblowers who have exposed alleged problems within the Bureau in recent weeks.
Jordan, the ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee, told Fox News in a report that was published Thursday afternoon that the FBI was allegedly conducting a “purge” of those with conservative political beliefs.
Jordan said that more than a dozen people within the FBI have come forward as whistleblowers to expose misconduct and that Republicans are investigating “serious allegations of abuse and misconduct within the senior leadership of the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”
Jordan said that he has received information indicating that the Bureau has retaliated against some of the whistleblowers, which could land the FBI in serious trouble.
“During the course of this investigation, we have received protected whistleblower disclosures that the FBI is engaging in a ‘purge’ of employees with conservative views by revoking their security clearances and indefinitely suspending these employees,” Jordan wrote in a letter to FBI executive assistant director of the Human Resources branch Jennifer Moore.
The FBI claimed that it does not target employees based on their political views and that they go through specific processes when “suspending or revoking a security clearance,” according to Fox News.
The Bureau also claimed that employees who became whistleblowers are protected from retaliation and that the Bureau takes the matter seriously.
During an interview with Fox News Thursday night, Jordan told host Sean Hannity that “the very next day” after he revealed the whistleblowers had come to his office Attorney General Merrick Garland sent out a memo outlining rules for if people wanted to speak to Congress.
“It was a memo designed to chill the speech of brave whistleblowers who want to come forward and tell us the truth,” Jordan said. “We also know that some of those whistleblowers have had their security clearance revoked, which is always the first step in terminating someone at the FBI, and now we think that there has been specific retaliation against a whistleblower who has been suspended and this is one of the very first whistleblowers we had who’s been suspended.”
“He came to us back last fall with the school boards issue,” Jordan continued. “We learn that memo randomly came from Attorney General Garland designed to say we’re going to use the counterterrorism measures against moms and dads and 20 some parents were investigated by the FBI for simple showing up at a school board meeting, so it continues to escalate and then when you view it in context of everything we are doing, this is frightening stuff.”