The House Judiciary Committee’s ranking Republican, Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, released a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray on Wednesday that accused the bureau of politicization to a shocking degree — from the highest levels down to agents working out of state and regional offices.
The letter referred to whistleblower disclosures made by “multiple FBI employees from different field offices” that allege that President Joe Biden’s political objectives influence the day-to-day operations of the nation’s highest law-enforcement agency, deliberately skewing the bureau’s investigations of what it considers “Domestic Violence Extremism.”
It comes only days after the senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, went public with similar charges of FBI politicization related to its treatment of former President Donald Trump’s administration and potential investigations of President Je Biden’s son, Hunter Biden.
Jordan’s letter centers more on the bureau’s potential interactions with American citizens outside the Washington Beltway.
“From recent protected disclosures, we have learned that FBI officials are pressuring agents to reclassify cases as ‘domestic violence extremism’ even if the cases do not meet the criteria for such a classification,” the letter states.
“Given the narrative pushed by the Biden Administration that domestic violence extremism is the ‘greatest’ threat facing our country, the revelation that the FBI may be artificially padding domestic terrorism data is scandalous.”
The greater implications are extreme and the individual assertions, even if taken by themselves, show a disturbing level of partisan politics driving every part of the bureau’s processes, from the inception of an investigation to its indictment and prosecutorial recommendations to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
? #BREAKING ?
Whistleblowers: FBI Leadership Pressuring Agents to Artificially Pad Domestic Terrorism Data pic.twitter.com/fGuQbUbjX3
— House Judiciary GOP (@JudiciaryGOP) July 27, 2022
According to Jordan’s letter, published on Twitter on Wednesday, the information leaked to the GOP members reveals that:
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“FBI officials are pressuring agents to reclassify cases as ‘domestic violent extremism’ (DVE) despite lacking the criteria to meet such a classification. Whistleblower disclosures have also detailed the agency’s effort to exaggerate DVE data to satisfy the Bureau’s leadership.”
In the letter, Jordan lays out the GOP representatives’ concerns.
“We have received accusations that FBI agents are bolstering the number of cases of DVEs to satisfy their superiors. For example, one whistle-blower explained that because agents are not finding enough DVE cases, they are encouraged and incentivized to reclassify cases as DVE cases even though there is minimal, circumstantial evidence to support the reclassification,” the letter stated.
“Another whistleblower — who led at least one high-profile domestic terrorism investigation — stated that a field office Counterterrorism Assistant Special Agent in Charge and the FBI’s Director of the Counterterrorism Division have pressured agents to move cases into the DVE category to hit self-created performance metrics. According to whistleblowers, the FBI uses these metrics to dispense awards and promotions. Every whistleblower has called it an environment of ‘pressure’ within the FBI.”
Jordan goes on to detail that the whistleblowers allege the bureau is “padding its domestic violent extremist data” a practice that “cheapens actual examples of violent extremism.”
He further reiterates that the GOP committee members’ concerns, such as the FBI’s politicization under Wray’s leadership as well as allegations revealed in June of the Biden FBI conducting a “purge” of bureau employees holding conservative views.
Jordan wrote that these are all concerns that Republicans have already raised, but Wray has “ignored.”
“It appears instead that the FBI is more focused on classifying investigations to meet a woke left-wing agenda,” Jordan wrote.
Finally, Jordan’s letter called for the FBI to provide to the committee:
“1. All documents and communications referring or relating to eGuardians [a counterterrorism tracking system used by the FBI], preliminary investigations, and full investigations classified as domestic violent extremism, including by type of case, for the period of January 1, 2020, to the present;
“2. All documents and communications between or among employees of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Justice, and the Executive Office of the President referring or relating to classifying or reclassifying domestic violent extremism cases, for the period of January 1, 2020, to the present;
“3. The total number of preliminary investigations and full investigations of domestic violent extremism, including by type of case, for the period of January 1, 2020, to the present; and
“4. The total number of Confidential Human Sources that contributed to any reports of domestic violent extremism cases, for the period of January 1, 2020, to the present.”
The Biden administration has continued to press the narrative that the single “greatest threat” to the United States is domestic violent extremism.
And in Rep. Jordan’s report of the whistleblower’s disclosures, it is heavily implied that the FBI is being tasked with manufacturing evidence to support that narrative.
