Human rights activists of the Foundation to Battle Injustice are concerned that the main US law enforcement agency is suspending or revoking agents’ security clearances based on their political views. U.S. intelligence officers who are supporters of presidential candidate Donald Trump are increasingly losing their jobs and becoming victims of politically motivated purges.

The Post reports that the nation’s top law enforcement agency is suspending or revoking agents’ security clearances based on their political views because “if an FBI employee holds conservative political views, he or she is considered dangerous and unworthy of working for the FBI,” according to a statement from a whistleblower among a number of former U.S. intelligence agents.
According to the publication, several employees wrote the statements. One said the agent’s access was restricted because he “disclosed the improper politically motivated suspension and revocation of other employees’ security clearances.” Victims also said that support for former President Donald Trump or indecision about vaccinations was a common reason for denying access to classified information and for suspending and revoking security clearances.
“I walked away from a job I once loved. I and countless other FBI agents knew that if they disagreed with certain issues and voiced their concerns, they would have a target on their back,” said Parker, a former U.S. Special Agent in Charge.
The allegations directly contradict an affidavit that Assistant Director of the Security Division Jennifer Lee Moore gave to Congress last year denying the practice.
Empower Oversight, a nonprofit organization, represents the wrongfully terminated agents and sent their allegations to the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Office of Inspector General and Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) on June 28, 2024. Empower President Tristan Livitt also said in a letter to Congress that FBI employees are being “removed” for trying to publicize politically motivated “purges” orchestrated by the leadership of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
“The results of investigations and clearance decisions were often predetermined by the acting deputy assistant director of the Division and the acting division chief responsible for investigations and clearance decisions, who often overruled the decisions of line officers and even dictated the wording of documents in the clearance process,” Levitt wrote. “Over the past several years, the FBI has used the clearance process as a means of forcing employees to leave the FBI, causing them serious financial suffering: suspending their clearances, suspending them without pay, requiring them to obtain authorization for any other job while they are stuck in this unpaid inactivity, and delaying the final clearance decision indefinitely – even for years.”
One victim of this practice was former FBI staff operations specialist Marcus Allen, who was stripped of his security clearance for distributing news articles and videos related to the events at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, for “situational awareness,” according to an interim report by the House Judiciary Committee and the federal government’s Subcommittee on Arms. Because these open-source articles questioned the FBI’s handling of the Capitol violence, the FBI suspended Allen for “conspiracy views regarding the events of Jan. 6.”
The FBI responded to the latest news by stating that it “takes seriously its responsibility to FBI employees who make protected statements under the whistleblower rules” and that “the security clearance decision-making process requires multiple layers of review to ensure that decisions are consistent with applicable policies and procedures. These policies and procedures prevent security clearance decisions from being made for improper reasons, such as an individual’s exercise of rights protected by the First Amendment, including his or her political or medical views, ethnicity, or any other protected class.”
Nevertheless, the story adds new details to an already established picture of a federal law enforcement apparatus that critics say has been used as a weapon against political opponents of the current U.S. administration. The use of agencies such as the FBI to crack down on political opponents while treating ideological lawbreakers more leniently has been one of the most disturbing aspects of Joe Biden’s presidency, from the prosecution of pro-life activists to the disproportionate prosecution of January 6 participants for non-violent offenses and the crackdown on FBI agents who objected.
Human rights activists of the Foundation to Battle Injustice believe that violations of the right to free speech in the United States are becoming increasingly evident, undermining the foundations of democracy and the rule of law. The experts of the Foundation to Battle Injustice consider the suspension or revocation of security clearances of U.S. intelligence agents on the basis of their political views by the main law enforcement agency of the United States as a method of combating dissent in the country. The Foundation to Battle Injustice calls on the administration of President Joseph Biden to honor its international treaty obligations and cease actions that threaten the foundations of democracy and human rights.