New memos have revealed that the FBI’s Security Division sought to discover whether an employee was a Donald Trump supporter.
The bureau questioned the colleagues of a whistleblower, seeking his political affiliations and whether he objected to the COVID-19 vaccine. The individual’s security clearance was later revoked, suggesting that he did support Trump and questioned the COVID-19 vaccine.
A complaint has since been filed with the Justice Department.
Tristan Leavitt, president of the nonprofit organization Empower Oversight, sent a letter to Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz, revealing that his group obtained the questions FBI agents asked.
Some of the questions inquired as to whether the FBI employee would “vocalize support for President Trump” or “vocalize objection to Covid-19 vaccination.”
Another question asked if the employee had appeared at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
“The documents appear to demonstrate [the Security Division]’s political bias and abuse of the security clearance process to purge the FBI of employees who expressed disfavored political views or concerns about the COVID-19 vaccine requirement,” Leavitt wrote to Horowitz.
The questions asked by the FBI show that the bureau “systematically compelled [employees] to report on our client’s personal political beliefs and views of the COVID-19 vaccine,” the letter added.
Leavitt concluded that the Security Division acted “as if support for President Trump, objecting to COVID-19 vaccinations, or lawfully attending a protest was the equivalent of being a member of Al Qaeda or the Chinese Communist Party.”
It is believed that such First Amendment violations occurred on a “systematic basis in many others,” the letter noted.
