An FBI agent has been suspended for allegedly leaking sensitive information to the press, including video journalism organization Project Veritas.
Democratic members of the House Judiciary Committee are accusing FBI agent Garret O’Boyle of lying to the committee about leaking information to the media in a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland obtained by NBC News. Their colleagues across the aisle cast the situation differently.
“Democrats are so desperate to distract from Justice Department wrongdoing that they’re willing to embarrass themselves with frivolous attacks on brave FBI whistleblowers,” said Russell Dye, a spokesperson for the House Judiciary Committee Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government chairman, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), as reported by NBC News.
“Garret O’Boyle is a proud veteran and experienced law enforcement officer who has served our nation with honor and distinction,” said Dye, per NBC News. “His only crime was speaking out about FBI abuses, and because he exercised his conscience, shameless Democrats now seek to smear his name.”
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, O’Boyle testified before the weaponization subcommittee that the FBI had become politicized and targeted the anti-abortion movement.
Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) and Delegate Stacey Plaskett (D-Virgin Islands) claimed in the letter to Garland that O’Boyle leaked information to the press several times prior to this testimony. O’Boyle was suspended by the agency for these alleged leaks.
FBI Executive Assistant Director for Human Resources Jennifer Moore claimed in her own testimony that O’Boyle lied about his suspension to the weaponization subcommittee.
O’Boyle testified, however, that he informed subcommittee chairman Jordan of his suspension in the letter. He noted that the claim leading to his suspension is merely an allegation and maintained that he did not give nonpublic information to anyone outside the FBI.
Nadler and Plaskett noted in their letter to Garland that O’Boyle’s and Moore’s statements contradict one another. Nadler and Plaskett also claim that Moore described multiple examples of nonpublic information being leaked and that an internal investigation determined O’Boyle was to blame.
One of these examples was a Project Veritas interview from May last year with an anonymous “FBI whistleblower.”
Moore claimed the FBI determined that O’Boyle was the whistleblower in question and that he provided sensitive information, some of which was part of an active investigation, to Project Veritas after taking it from FBI computers.
Nadler and Plaskett said in their letter that Moore testified there was “a level of urgency” to identifying the leaker because “it appeared that he was still accessing case files and information that he wasn’t authorized to have access to disclosing it because we had seen information obviously in public forums.”
The lawmakers asked Garland to investigate whether O’Boyle is guilty of perjury.
A spokesperson for O’Boyle told NBC that he denies leaking sensitive information or lying to the subcommittee about his suspension.
The Dallas Express contacted the FBI for comment but received no response by press time.
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