DHS says Biden TSA was ‘weaponized’ against Americans and refers allegations to Trump DOJ

The Department of Homeland Security said announced Tuesday that an internal investigation has uncovered “widespread abuses” carried out by Biden administration officials, including the Transportation Security Administration having been “weaponized” against Americans.

The agency, in the joint announcement with the TSA, also said the findings are being referred to the Justice Department.

In the announcement, acting agency TSA Administrator Ha Nguyen McNeill, said the Biden-era officials “under the direction and leadership” of previous TSA Administrator David Pekoske had “systematically watch-listed and denied boarding to those who exercised their individual rights and resisted mask mandates on airplanes nearly six months after the CDC relaxed its indoor mask mandate.”

The TSA also said the Biden TSA used the Capitol riot of January 2021 “as an excuse to target several dozen U.S. citizens” and that “these Americans were watch-listed and harassed despite there being no evidence of wrongdoing or illegal behavior.” 

The TSA said that “this targeted campaign of harassment continued through June 2021, six months after the events in question, despite no clear or immediate threat to aviation security.”

“These Biden-era officials continued to target Americans even after career intelligence officials and even Biden’s TSA Chief Privacy Officer sounded the alarm over these abusive actions,” the TSA said. “The Biden-era TSA’s actions demonstrate clear political bias. For example, these officials chose NOT to flag individuals who attacked law enforcement, burned down cities, and destroyed property during the widespread and violent George Floyd protests in 2020. During this abuse of power, some TSA officials raised serious concerns about these privacy violations and political targeting. They were ignored.”

“Biden’s TSA Administrator Pekoske and his cronies abused their authority and weaponized the federal government against the very people they were charged with protecting,” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said on X on Tuesday. “Biden’s TSA wildly abused their authority, targeting Americans who posed no aviation security risk under the banner of political differences. President Trump promised to end the weaponization of government against the American people, and we are making good on that promise. I am referring this case to the Department of Justice and for Congressional investigation.”

Noem has directed TSA and DHS to refer the findings to DOJ’s Civil Rights Division and to Congress for further investigation, to remove “five senior leaders” who had “betrayed the trust of the American people” from their leadership positions, and to reorganize TSA’s Intelligence & Analysis office to hold senior officials accountable and to provide more extensive oversight on TSA’s watch-listing powers. TSA on Tuesday said that the removals included the executive assistant administrator for operations support and the deputy assistant administrator for intelligence and analysis.

The TSA said on Tuesday that “the TSA administrator has legal authority to prevent an individual from boarding an aircraft, task Federal Air Marshals with surveilling an individual, or place them on a watchlist, but it is only intended to be used to track and prevent dangerous criminals and terrorists from carrying out attacks on Americans” and that “clearly, those targeted by Administrator Pekoske posed no such threat.”

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., the chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, released a “flash report” this week “exposing how TSA’s Quiet Skies program, and related watch lists, were twisted into political surveillance tools under the Biden administration.” The senator’s report provided further details on how TSA watchlists were deployed against mask opponents and individuals who were sometimes only tangentially linked to the events of January 6, 2021.

Paul’s report stated that “at least 24 individuals were placed on a TSA Watch List due to their connection to a group that protested mask mandates.” The report argued that, in April 2022, twelve passengers were placed on a TSA Watch List “for simply removing their mask on an aircraft.”

The Senate report also said that, just over a week after the Capitol riot, TSA Intelligence & Analysis issued a memo formalizing a directive from the TSA Administrator to use TSA watchlists to mitigate “ongoing threats” following January 6. The report contended that, under this directive, “at least 234 individuals were added to TSA Watch Lists in connection with January 6” and that “many of these individuals were added without any specific evidence that they participated in any unlawful activity.”

The report contended that an internal TSA memo from mid-January 2021 “authorized watchlisting individuals suspected of traveling to Washington, D.C. in connection with January 6 protests, even if there was a lack of specific information that they had done anything wrong.”

“The wife of a Federal Air Marshal was labeled as a ‘domestic terrorist’ for allegedly entering the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021,” Paul’s report stated. “Despite no evidence that the Federal Air Marshal's wife had in fact ever entered the U.S. Capitol on January 6, she was added to the Terrorist Screening Database, an FBI-administered terrorist watch list which resulted in Federal Air Marshal coverage for two years, until she was removed due to a case of mistaken identity. Until her removal, she was surveilled by Federal Air Marshals who reported back, sometimes minute by minute, her behavior and interactions.”

The GOP Senate report also revealed that “dozens of individuals were either denied boarding or subjected to enhanced screening based solely on TSA research” conducted through the George Washington University Program on Extremism.

Noem had announced in June that DHS was “ending the Quiet Skies Program, which since its existence has failed to stop a single terrorist attack while costing US taxpayers $200 million a year.” DHS said this summer that “the program, under the guise of ‘national security,’ was used to target political opponents and benefit political allies.”

DHS said in June that William “Billy” Shaheen, the spouse of Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, was “given blanket exemptions from review, while non-politically aligned members like then-Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard received additional screening and monitoring by Federal Air Marshals.”

“Despite William Shaheen traveling with a known or suspected terrorist three times, then TSA Administrator Pekoske gave explicit direction to exclude Shaheen from the Silent Partner Quiet Skies list. After Senator Shaheen directly lobbied then former Administrator Pekoske, on her husband’s behalf, Pekoske granted Billy Shaheen a blanket Quiet Skies exemption,” DHS said this summer. “Shaheen was not the only high-profile individual that was placed on this exclusion list: this list also included members of foreign royal families, political elites, professional athletes, and favored journalists.”

Paul’s flash report this week also stated that now-Director of National Intelligence Gabbard — a former congresswoman, a combat veteran, and a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserve — “was monitored under the Quiet Skies program on at least five flights” in July and August 2024.

The GOP report said that “several individuals questioned whether Gabbard should be covered under a Quiet Skies mission and elevated their concern to colleagues or superiors” while Gabbard was being monitored, and that Gabbard was surveilled by Federal Air Marshals on an early August 2024 flight despite having been added to the "Quiet Skies Cleared List" the day before.

The Senate report also contended that “three current Republican members of Congress were matched to a Silent Partner Program rule” and that “while their international travels may have included stops in regions with higher terrorism risks, a cursory review would have revealed them to be a member of Congress, or a decorated U.S. military veteran or service member.”