DOJ inspector general confirms Just the News reporting on FBI bias in employee investigation

The Justice Department inspector general is confirming Just the News reporting on an FBI investigation that sought to unmask an employee's support for President Trump.

On Wednesday, DOJ acting Inspector General Don Berthiaume announced the release of a Management Advisory Memorandum to FBI Director Kash Patel that identified concerns regarding a June 2024 complaint about interview questions that were asked in an investigation by the bureau's Security Division of an employee who had entered a restricted area near the Capitol on the day of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the complex and whose security clearance was revoked. 

In the Security Division's investigation, some witnesses were asked if the FBI employee being investigated had “[v]ocalize[d] support for President Trump.” The OIG also found that Security Division investigators, in other investigations, either asked or prepared questions about FBI employees’ political activities, religious expression, and other potentially constitutionally protected activities.

Berthiaume's memo additionally found that Security Division investigators in some investigations asked or prepared vague and overly broad interview questions that "were not sufficiently tailored to address legitimate security concerns and unnecessarily intruded into potentially constitutionally protected activities." The FBI's watchdog didn't find evidence of these questions being routinely asked in investigations of employees holding security clearances.

"While the issue of concerning questions may not be widespread, it poses significant risk to DOJ and the FBI because of the potential impact on employees’ and witnesses’ perceptions of the criteria used to adjudicate security clearances, and the potential effect on the public’s perception of the FBI’s objectivity," according to the OIG.

Berthiaume also noted that the Security Division lacked "training and guidance on the sensitivity in" its "investigations of intruding into employees’ potentially constitutionally protected activities," had inadequate supervision of its investigators’ preparation for interviews, and didn't receive adequate legal consultation regarding the propriety of potential interview questions.

The OIG recommended that the FBI train Security Division supervisors and investigators to recognize "potentially constitutionally protected activity" and include "guidance on conducting interviews without unnecessarily intruding into such activity."

The watchdog also recommended that the FBI establish protocols that require "a heightened approval process for opening [Security Division] investigations of employees with security clearances when these investigations are likely to concern potentially constitutionally protected activity," and notify division leadership when those investigations are opened.

Lastly, Berthiaume recommended that the FBI ensure there is "heightened supervision" of division "investigations of employees with security clearances when these investigations are likely to concern potentially constitutionally protected activity," which includes consulting with the OIG "regarding the propriety of interview questions in such investigations."

The FBI concurred with the OIG's recommendations, according to Berthiaume.

The memo comes after a June 2024 complaint was sent to the OIG about an FBI employee's security clearance that was revoked months after interviews with the Security Division, which confirmed his support for Trump and gun rights and his concerns about the COVID vaccine.

The agents also asked witnesses whether the FBI worker had “attended the Richmond Lobby Day event” in January 2021, a rally for supporters of the Second Amendment in Virginia. The agents’ notes referred to the colleague they were vetting as a “gun nut” who engaged in “no promotion of violence.”