Whistleblower: FBI Threat Tag Created After Dobbs ‘Shifted’ Agencies Focus To Pro-Lifers

A whistleblower, FBI Special Agent Garret O’Boyle, told the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government that the bureau shifted its focus to pro-life individuals after creating a threat tag, “THREATSTOSCOTUS2022,” following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade in Dobbs. O’Boyle said the FBI instructed him to ask questions about threats to the Supreme Court and to investigate “pregnancy centers,” which he found confusing since pro-choice individuals were the ones protesting or threatening violence in front of Supreme Court justices’ houses. He felt that the FBI was using and creating threat tags in a politicized way.

“When this threat tag came out, it was like, why are you focusing on pro-life people?” O’Boyle told the panel, according to a transcripts. “It’s pro-choice people who are the ones protesting or otherwise threatening violence in front of Supreme Court justices’ houses.”

Additionally, O’Boyle said the FBI made him divide one domestic terrorism case into four different cases to show Congress an influx of domestic terrorism cases. He felt that the FBI was being weaponized against agents or anyone who talked about malfeasance inside the agency, and he claimed that the FBI retaliated against him for making protected disclosures to Congress.

The FBI denied retaliating against individuals who made protected whistleblower disclosures, and the House Select Subcommittee is investigating alleged misuse of domestic violent extremism resources for political purposes. The panel’s chairman, Rep. Jim Jordan, wrote a letter to the FBI after a leaked internal memo revealed the bureau had efforts underway to identify and treat some Catholics as violent extremists, saying that the panel has been investigating “startling allegations that the FBI is misusing DVE resources for apparent political purposes.”

David Foster