WASHINGTON — A former one FBI employee who accused the agency of politicizing his work when he testified to Congress has seen his security clearance reinstated, his lawyers said Tuesday.
Marcus Allen was one of three men who alleged in May 2023 that the FBI committed excessive reprisals and retaliation in testimony before a special House committee investigating what Republicans call the ‘armament’ of the federal government against conservatives.
His security clearance was revoked over concerns about how his views on the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, affected his work, according to a letter the FBI sent to Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, the Republican chairman of the committee.
Allen’s clearance was reinstated after the concerns were investigated and “sufficiently mitigated,” according to a letter from the FBI’s HR department. He also reached a settlement with the agency under which he will receive back pay and benefit from the 27-month suspension, his lawyers said in a statement.
Allen, a former operations specialist at the FBI field office in Charlotte, North Carolina, formally resigned from the FBI on Monday.
He also filed a complaint with the Justice Department’s inspector general, alleging that his suspension was in retaliation against a whistleblower. The watchdog faulted the FBI for not having a process for employees to appeal a retaliatory suspension before it was formally revoked, a potentially lengthy process for workers without pay.
The FBI said the two sides agreed to resolve the case without either admitting wrongdoing. The agency said it takes seriously its “responsibility to FBI employees who make protected disclosures under the whistleblower policy.”