'VINDICATION': FBI reinstates Jan. 6 whistleblower's top secret security clearance

[Editor's note: This story originally was published by The Daily Signal.]

By Fred Lucas
The Daily Signal

The FBI has reinstated the security clearance of a whistleblower who questioned the narrative about confidential informants and the Capitol riot, and who said that Director Christopher Wray was not truthful.

Marcus Allen, an FBI staff operations specialist who was suspended without pay for two years, dropped his retaliation complaint against the FBI in a letter Tuesday to Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz.

But Allen asked Horowitz to release additional information for Congress to review.

Allen testified in May 2023 before the House Judiciary Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government.

The news comes days after a settlement in which Allen resigned and the FBI agreed to reinstate his security clearance and allow back pay during his suspension.

During the suspension, the FBI had refused to provide him with the documentation necessary for other employment, Allen testified to House lawmakers.

“This is a total vindication for Marcus [Allen]. In what appears to be an unprecedented move, the FBI has completely backed down and provided everything that we had asked for on behalf of Marcus,” Tristan Leavitt, president of Empower Oversight, a whistleblower advocacy group that representsAllen, said in a written statement.

Empower Oversight filed Allen’s appeal in October 2023 based on evidence contradicting the FBI’s claims from its own files.

“Right finally won one, and we couldn’t be happier for Marcus and his family,” Leavitt said. “They have seen the worst side of our federal government and have come out on the other side. It’s a testament to Marcus, his belief that right would eventually prevail, and the unwavering support of his family and friends.”

In a letter Tuesday to the DOJ’s Horowitz, Leavitt called the bureau’s May 31 decision to reinstate Allen’s security clearance a vindication.

“However, some members of Congress uncritically repeated those accusations, and the press widely amplified them at the time,” Leavitt’s letter says. “Your inquiry has undoubtedly gathered additional important context to help set the record straight, so Mr. Allen respectfully requests that you release that information in the interests of transparency and accountability.”

Allen said he is grateful to friends and family who helped him.

“While I feel vindicated now in getting back my security clearance, it is sad that in the country I fought for as a Marine, the FBI was allowed to lie about my loyalty to the U.S. for two years,” Allen said in a public statement.

“Unless there is accountability, it will keep happening to others,” he said. “Better oversight and changes to security clearance laws are key to stop abuses suffered by whistleblowers like me.”

In a report made public last month, the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General determined that the FBI doesn’t provide a way for employees to appeal a suspended security clearance that complies with an updated 2022 regulation and failed to give employees a means to remain on the payroll.

“Existing DOJ practice is inconsistent with the intent of the federal statute,” the inspector general’s office announced. It also said it received complaints from “employees alleging that their security clearances were suspended in retaliation for protected whistleblowing activity.”

The House panel investigating weaponization of federal government agencies released a report last year that notes: “The FBI retaliated against Marcus Allen, a decorated Marine and former FBI staff operations specialist in the Charlotte Field Office, for simply performing the duties of his job.”

The report further details:

While reading open-source news articles and watching open-source opinion videos concerning the events at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Allen testified that he sent around links to these articles for his squad’s ‘situational awareness’ related to the FBI’s investigation. Because these open-source articles questioned the FBI’s handling of the violence at the Capitol, the FBI suspended Allen for ‘conspiratorial views in regards to the events of Jan. 6 … .’ However, Allen testified that passing along such articles was ‘part of [his] job.’

The FBI’s website describes a staff operations specialist as “an entry-level position that provides direct support to special agents and intelligence analysts.” 

Allen was the 2019 employee of the year in the FBI’s field office in Charlotte, North Carolina.

During congressional testimony in 2022, Wray was less than clear about whether confidential informants mingled with rioters who breached the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

“I was not in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, I played no part in the events of Jan. 6, and I condemn all criminal activity that occurred,” Allen testified to the House weaponization of government panel last year. “Instead, it appears that I was retaliated against because I forwarded information to my superiors that questioned the official narrative of the events of Jan. 6. As a result, I was accused of promoting conspiratorial views and unreliable information.”

During the hearing, Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., asked Allen: “Is it your belief that you were retaliated against because you shared an email that questioned the truthfulness of FBI Director Christopher Wray?”

Allen replied, “Yes, sir.”

Leavitt’s letter Tuesday to DOJ’s inspector general details the hardship created for Allen when the FBI blocked other employment.

“For 27 months, Mr. Allen and his family had to survive on early withdrawals from their retirement accounts in order to continue administratively challenging the FBI’s improper revocation of his security clearance,” Leavitt wrote.

“For 13 of those months Mr. Allen also waited on your office to complete and report on its investigation into the FBI’s abuse of the security clearance process to retaliate against him,” he continued, adding:

While waiting for your office to complete its work and for the FBI to consider our appeal of his clearance revocation, the bureau denied Mr. Allen’s request to accept other employment and even argued that his family could not accept charitable donations from the public because he was technically still subject to gift rules—although he had no pay and no official duties for more than two years.

On May 31, FBI Assistant Director for Human Resources Timothy Dunham wrote to Allen, saying: “I am reinstating your top secret (TS) security clearance effective upon the receipt of this letter.”

“My decision to reinstate your security clearance is based upon a determination that the original security concerns have been investigated and have been sufficiently mitigated,” Dunham wrote to Allen.

The FBI did not immediately respond to The Daily Signal’s request to comment on this report.

[Editor's note: This story originally was published by The Daily Signal.]

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