GOP Sen claims Biden FBI placed 'innocent Americans' under surveillance, including Catholic teacher

Kentucky GOP Sen. Rand Paul alleged Tuesday that the Biden administration's FBI placed "innocent Americans" on terrorist watchlists by using "false tips," including a Catholic school teacher suspected of being at the Jan. 6 riot in 2021. 

The revelation comes on the fifth anniversary of the riot, which saw supporters of President Donald Trump march to Capitol Hill to protest the certification of the 2020 election without investigating the claims of the alternate electors. Trump pardoned approximately 1,500 protesters on his first day in office. 

Paul claimed that one of the Americans who was targeted by the Biden administration's FBI was Christine Crowder, a Catholic teacher who was not at the Capitol during the demonstration, but was in Washington, D.C., for a Trump rally earlier that day.

The FBI allegedly placed Crowder and her family under surveillance for nearly two years based on an unverified tip from someone who claimed they recognized her in news coverage of the riot, according to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

"A free society cannot tolerate a system in which programs and authorities intended to keep the public safe are instead weaponized against them due to mere suspicion," Paul told Fox News. "The records released today show how an unverified tip that the FBI failed to substantiate led to nearly two years of surveillance of an innocent American."

The committee claimed the FBI placed Crowder and her household under surveillance despite an initial negative match for her face and geolocation. The bureau also allegedly placed Crowder on a travel watchlist, secured a warrant for her Facebook account and prepared a prosecution case against her.

Crowder's case was eventually dropped in 2023 because the FBI could not "definitively" place the teacher at the Capitol.

FBI Director Kash Patel said Crowder's case was a misapplication of the bureau’s focus and resources in the aftermath of the riot.

"When a Catholic kindergarten teacher from Texas can be surveilled for more than two years simply for being in Washington, D.C., without entering the Capitol, without committing a crime, we have crossed from legitimate investigation into political overreach," Patel said in a statement released by the Senate committee. 

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.