Fact Check Team: New whistleblower report details abuses and misconduct by FBI

WASHINGTON (TND) — House Republicans on the Judiciary Committee and Weaponization Subcommittee released a report Thursday including new whistleblower testimony from current and former employees with the Federal Bureau of Investigation on the “abuses and misconduct” by the agency.

The 80-page report was released before three of the whistleblowers testified before the Weaponization Subcommittee.

It said that the FBI retaliated against whistleblowers for making “protected disclosures about what they believed in good faith to be wrong conduct.”

One whistleblower was allegedly suspended without pay after he made protected disclosures expressing concern about the agency’s handling of cases related to the Jan. 6 riot, according to the report.

Another allegedly sent news articles and videos related to the riot to his task force colleagues but because they “questioned the FBI’s handling of the violence at the Capitol,” he was suspended.

The report says that the “FBI, under Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland, is broken” and that the leadership at both the FBI and the Justice Department have “weaponized law enforcement against everyday Americans, seeking to silence those who dare to have a different viewpoint.”

This falls under the Whistleblower Protection Act, which protects federal employees from retaliation for making protected disclosures. In general, a federal employee may make a protected disclosure to anyone unless the information is classified or specifically prohibited by law from release.

With all this in mind, the big question is: do Americans trust the FBI?

A poll from Penn State’s McCourtney Institute for Democracy found half of Americans do “most of the time” or “just about always,” which is significantly higher than trust in the federal government in general — about one-fourth. Meanwhile, only about one in five say they trust the FBI “hardly ever.”

Additionally, trust in the FBI is significantly higher among Democrats than Republicans and Independents.

The Supreme Court just handed down some significant decisions this week and according to the General Social Survey — a poll that has been conducted by the University of Chicago since 1973 — just 18% of Americans say they have a great deal of confidence in the court. Meanwhile, 82% said they have only some or hardly any. This is the lowest that confidence has been in 50 years.