Ex-FBI assistant director torches Jordan's "whistleblower" hearing: The FBI just "called his bluff"

[marmar]

(Salon) House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan's, R-Ohio, Thursday hearing with purported FBI "whistleblowers" backfired before it even began, according to former FBI Assistant Director for Counterintelligence Frank Figliuizzi.

Jordan's subcommittee on the alleged "weaponization of the federal government" held a hearing with current and former FBI agents who accused the bureau of bias against conservatives. But shortly before the hearing, the FBI revealed that former FBI agent Stephen Friend and suspended agent Marcus Allen had their security clearances revoked over security concerns.

Friend's clearance was revoked after he refused to participate in an arrest of a Jan. 6 suspect and "espoused an alternative narrative about the events at the U.S. Capitol," according to the FBI's letter. Allen's clearance was stripped after he "expressed sympathy for persons or organizations that advocate, threaten or use force or violence."

Figliuzzi told MSNBC that the revelation shows "Jordan wasn't ready for this."

"The FBI has called his bluff with this letter," he said. "It means the FBI has about had it with the myth that they're retaliating against employees for merely expressing conservative opinions. I lost the date, but apparently, we're to believe the FBI is a left-wing liberal organization. That's absolutely nonsense." ............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2023/05/19/ex-fbi-assistant-director-torches-jordans-whistleblower-hearing-the-fbi-just-called-his-bluff/

[cilla4progress]

1. That's how you deal

with bullies!

[TheBlackAdder]

11. Is there a pie chart of the percentages of political affiliation in the FBI? This should be public.

.

What parties are the FBI employees registered with?

.

[Bayard]

2. Jordan's committee should be renamed:

The Grasping At Straws Committee.

[thucythucy]

3. Are FBI agents entitled to decline making arrests because it offends their politics?

Last edited Fri May 19, 2023, 04:36 PM - Edit history (1)

Will yanking their security clearance be the end of the matter? Or will there be other consequences for clearly siding with people who use violence in an attempted coup?

[oldsoftie]

5. I would think not. Maybe someone here knows.

I just watched an episode of FBI on CBS Tuesday evening. One of the agents is a Muslim. he & his partner were working with a new guy; also a devout Muslim. The new guy was an insider, wired & trying to make a deal. The bad guy poured him a drink & the agent didnt want to drink it (devout muslim). Later the veteran agent, also Muslim, explained how he wasnt violating his faith if he took the drink.
Now, thats religion not Politics but still kinda similar.

[spooky3]

7. A big difference is that religion, but not politics, has federal

Discrimination protection.

[Hekate]

12. When you take a job like that, you follow orders. If the orders strike you as wrong, you quit.

And as Figliuzzi pointed out, when you lose your security clearance, that means you have been fired.

These guys all took an oath to, among other things, uphold the US Constitution. They are not whistleblowers by any stretch of the imagination — instead they are foresworn, they broke their oaths, and they tried to overthrow the US government.

Aside from being fired for cause, there are doubtless other penalties for screwing up on the job as badly as they did. And then, they are subject to the same legal penalties as the rest of the insurrectionists.

[gratuitous]

4. Artist's rendering of Jordan Committee investigation

[CrispyQ]

18. LOL

I have family who have all hopes pinned on the repub house. My reaction vacillates between &

[barbtries]

6. these are not conservative.

they are magats

i hate republicans

[raging moderate]

14. Yes, these are not conservatives. They are reactionaries.

They want to take this country back to what it was when I was a small child, seventy years ago. They think white supremacist men should be the kings of the Earth, and the white females who win their favor should be the queens of the Earth.

[barbtries]

15. barefoot and pregnant

queens of the earth.

i hate republicans.

[TxGuitar]

19. They ARE conservatives.

Conservatives have been this way all along, they just say the quiet parts out loud now.

[barbtries]

20. i don't think so.

they used to believe in democracy. Here's a tell: Nixon was drummed out of office; trump is the frontrunner.

conservative is not the word for what today's republicans have become.

[stopdiggin]

21. +1. they are NOT the same

I thought a lot of GOP ideas and agenda were deeply misguided and deplorable, during a great deal of my adult life. But I would not have expected them to be enemies of public order, due process, and a democratic state. And I won't be convinced otherwise. Gerald Ford and Bob Dole - were cut out of entirely different cloth than Boebert, DeSantis and Taylor -Greene. Not up for debate.

[barbtries]

22. thank you.

nixon was gawdawful. reagan was worse. today's republicans would call them rinos, but today's republicans are radical, hateful, worse than useless. they refuse to govern; they're full-time shit stirrers sowing hate.

I've been a liberal Democrat all my life. These people are not the same as the republicans i grew up despising.

[stopdiggin]

23. we throw around the 'F' word

a good deal here on DU (and should maybe be a little cautious in our labeling?)

but, yes - sh*t-stirrers, arsonists, and fascists.
and stepping over one another in an apparent race to the absolute bottom.

[ellisonz]

8. They are simply trying to create a false narrative.

[jaxexpat]

9. Obviously the FBI has pulled out the stops in its effort to hide the MAGAs in its midst.

They've infiltrated an actual congressional committee where they testify that the FBI is actually an organization of rabid liberals. Their proof is that the witnesses, former FBI, lost their security clearance because they supported the Jan 6th coup. Republicans hold this as evidence the FBI is dedicated to enforcing denial of Trumps heroic victory over socialist tyranny. The committee is expected to close (or at least change its name) as soon as this "wisdom" is embraced by just enough voters to sink the ship of state indefinitely (or keep them out of jail, whichever is most expedient).

mostly

[Hekate]

10. Figliuzzi almost never smiles, and he smiled while commenting on this

[Cha]

13. Fuckhead Gym pervert is "Weaponizing"

his GD asshole position in the House with LIES.

[Martin Eden]

16. "conservative opinions"

In the Trump era the term "conservative" has come to represent seditious conspiracy and violent insurrection against our government. Embracing those "opinions" is wholly incompatable with employment in any government agency sworn to uphold the law and protect our Constitution.

[plimsoll]

17. I think it's important to remember what the GOP thinks the police are for.

The GOP don't want equal protection, and abhor equal enforcement. In GOPWorld the law must protect the GOP, but not bind them. It must bind but not protect all others. When you accept that basic premise of GOP "thought" you understand that the FBI has been failing to perform its "duty."

What the GOP wants is la Milice.