Do you support Trump? Do you have skepticism about the COVID vaccine? Have you been to a gun rights event? Inside the Strange FBI Questions to Get a Security Clearance
A longtime FBI employee’s top-secret security clearance was revoked after his pro-Trump, pro-gun and personal concerns about COVID vaccines came to light, his lawyer says.
During the background check to renew his clearance, friends and family confirmed that the 12-year FBI employee supported Trump and a Second Amendment and attended the Jan. 6 rally.
His security clearance was later revoked by the FBI, according to his attorney Tristan Leavitt, who provided internal Department of Justice (DOJ) documents revealing DailyMail.com’s political questions.
Leavitt, who has represented several government whistleblowers in the past, then sent a letter to the DOJ inspector general asking why such political questions were necessary for the security clearance — and whether that process is tainted.
“Rather than limit its investigation to legitimate issues, the FBI’s security division acted as if supporting President Trump, objecting to COVID-19 vaccinations, or lawfully attending a protest were the equivalent of being a member of Al Qaeda or the Chinese Communist Party. Party,” Leavitt said.
Tristan Leavitt, who represents the former FBI employee, said the agency asked questions about the employee’s political beliefs and stance on COVID vaccines and gun rights. The memo above shows the handwritten notes of FBI investigators investigating the former employee
The review reportedly came after the former employee told his bosses that he had been at the Jan. 6 meeting.
Leavitt runs Empower Oversight, a nonprofit organization that specializes in whistleblower cases, and he told the newspaper that the questions boil down to the FBI’s internal political bias against conservatives.
He also claimed that the former FBI employee he represented did nothing illegal on January 6.
Furthermore, memos revealed by Empower Oversight show that FBI Security Division officials conducted multiple interviews to determine the politics of the employee who self-announced his presence on January 6.
Those memos show that witnesses were asked whether the employee had ever expressed “support for President Trump” and whether he had “expressed objections to the Covid-19 vaccination.”
The documents also show that some employees were asked if the FBI employee was “attending the Richmond Lobby Day event,” a gun rights event.
The memos show notes FBI investigators took during multiple interviews with the employees’ former colleagues. They all asked about Trump, the COVID vaccines, and the employee’s presence at gun rallies and the January 6 protest
The former FBI employee proactively told his employers about his presence on January 6 and said he had not participated in any criminal activity. Yet his consent was withdrawn
“The FBI’s intentions are made clear by the questions it put in black and white on a government document,” Leavitt said.
He called the withdrawal of his client’s consent “shocking” and an “abuse of authority and a violation of our client’s rights under the First Amendment,” in his letter to DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz.
Sources familiar with the matter told Just The News that multiple instances of politically motivated approval ratings have occurred, indicating that Leavitt’s client is not the only one who has suffered consequences for his positions on Trump, vaccines and guns.
The letter to Horowitz describes how the former FBI employee received positive performance reviews and financial compensation for his work.
The witnesses interviewed for this former employee’s consent told investigators that although he expressed Republican views, he posed no threat.
The former FBI employee was an avid supporter of Donald Trump
The former employee also repeatedly expressed his skepticism about the COVID vaccines
During an interview, an investigator wrote to the former FBI employee: “Very strongly supported (Trump), would listen to talk shows. Trump did not lose. Dems stole it. Militant position. Never once suggested he do anything aggressive/physical.”
Another investigator noted in another witness interview that the former employee “had right-wing views” and added “nothing extreme.”
Those interviews also revealed that the FBI employee was against masking and vaccines.
Although at the time of these interviews in April 2022, mandatory vaccination requirements faced legal hurdles — and the federal government at the time was not allowed to impose such requirements on FBI employees.
And other interviews with witnesses revealed that while the former FBI employee was a “gun nut” who “went to all the Second Amendment rallies,” he showed no “encouragement of violence.”
FBI revoked employee’s security clearance after discovering he was a Trump supporter and had attended the January 6 protest
“I am writing to you today to formally disclose, on behalf of our client, shocking documents in the (FBI Security Division) investigative file that constitute evidence of an abuse of authority and a violation of our client’s rights under the First Amendment,” Leavitt’s letter said .
“The documents appear to demonstrate (the FBI Security Division’s) political bias and abuse of the security clearance process to purge the FBI of employees who have expressed unfavorable political views or concerns about the COVID-19 vaccine requirement.”
Leavitt concluded his letter by asking Horowitz to open an investigation into the matter, which would provide the public with insight into whether political affiliation and personal health decisions play a role in the security investigations of FBI agents.