According to new information from the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, FBI officials are allegedly pressuring agents to “reclassify” cases as “domestic violent extremism”.
Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan sent a letter to FBI Director Chris Wray, saying “brave whistleblowers” have come forward with information about “disturbing conduct” at the agency.
“From recent protected disclosures, we have learned that FBI officials are pressuring agents to reclassify cases as ‘domestic violent extremism’ even if the cases do not meet the criteria for such a classification,” Jordan said.
“Given the narrative pushed by the Biden administration that domestic violent extremism is the ‘greatest threat’ facing our country, revelation that the FBI may be artificially padding domestic terrorism data is scandalous,” he added.
Jordan noted that, last year, Wray testified that investigations into domestic violence extremism have increased “significantly” and the FBI had “doubled the amount of domestic terrorism investigations”.
According to Fox News, the Biden administration announced a strategy for countering domestic terrorism last year, saying White supremacy and “militia violent extremists” currently present the “most persistent and lethal threats”.
Attorney General Merrick Garland had said the number of open terrorism investigations “has increased significantly”.
Garland also said the “top domestic violence extremist threat comes from racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists, specifically those who advocated for the superiority of the White race”.
Jordan claimed the administration’s narrative is “misleading” due to the new information from whistleblowers.
“We have received accusations that FBI agents are bolstering the number of cases of DVEs to satisfy their superiors,” he said.
“For example, one whistleblower explained that because agents are not finding enough DVE cases, they are encouraged and incentivized to reclassify cases as DVE cases even though there is minimal, circumstantial evidence to support the reclassification,” Jordan continued.
“Another whistleblower—who led at least one high profile domestic terrorism investigation—stated that a field office Counterterrorism Assistant Special Agent in Charge and the FBI’s Director of the Counterterrorism Division have pressured agents to move cases into the DVE category to hit self-created performance metrics,” he added.
“According to whistleblowers, the FBI uses these metrics to dispense awards and promotions. Every whistleblower has called it an environment of ‘pressure’ within the FBI,” the letter said.
Jordan said the allegation “cheapens” actual instances of domestic violent extremism and emphasizes concerns about the politicization of the FBI.
“It appears instead that the FBI is more focused on classifying investigations to meet a woke left-wing agenda,” the congressman concluded.