FBI Whistleblower Appeals Security Clearance Retaliation, Seeking To End 30 Months of Unpaid Limbo

We just filed a formal request to the FBI to reconsider the revocation of Special Agent Garret O’Boyle’s security clearance – an action we argue was a retaliatory measure against a protected whistleblower. The ACLJ represents O’Boyle along with Empower Oversight and Binnall Law Group.

The legal request presents in excruciating detail a point-by-point rebuttal to a series of FBI abuses in its targeting of O’Boyle, a decorated Army veteran and former local law enforcement officer. O’Boyle was indefinitely suspended without pay following a surprise interview at his new duty station in Virginia in September 2022. He had just completed a cross-country move with his family – including a newborn child – when his security clearance was suddenly suspended, leaving the family homeless and without income.

O’Boyle’s ordeal is one in a long list of egregious retaliatory actions by FBI bureaucrats over the last several years. The politicization of the FBI’s Security Division is now well-documented thanks to numerous whistleblowers who have outlined abuses by leadership in retaliation for legally protected whistleblower disclosures that put the agency in a bad light.

As ACLJ Executive Director Jordan Sekulow put it:

On behalf of our client, we urge Director Patel to take this opportunity to right the unconscionable wrongs of the Biden Deep State and its politicized FBI by reinstating Garret O’Boyle’s security clearance and returning him to service. Garret has not only a demonstrated record of stellar performance but also of conviction, bravery, and courage. He is precisely the kind of hero we need in our FBI, and we hope Director Patel agrees.

In addition to this administrative appeal, Empower Oversight had submitted a letter to the FBI’s new General Counsel, Samuel Ramer, on March 5, 2025, seeking remedies for O’Boyle and nine other similarly situated FBI whistleblower clients.

Jason Foster, Founder and CEO of Empower Oversight, stated:

Our clients seek only fair and just treatment on the merits, but normal bureaucratic processes often fail to achieve that goal on any reasonable timeline. Our FBI whistleblower clients have suffered years of unjust and unchecked abuse, forced into indefinite limbo with no pay and no due process. As Treasury Secretary Bessent has shown, there are faster ways to get justice for those who have already waited far too long.

Foster referred to Secretary Bessent’s action on Tuesday to address retaliation against the IRS whistleblowers in the Hunter Biden case as a good example of exercising authority within his discretion rather than “waiting on permission from permanent DC bureaucrats to stop the retaliation.”

Foster added, “The President and the Attorney General have ordered agencies to find and fix exactly the kind of government weaponization our FBI clients have suffered, and they shouldn’t have to wait forever for more reviews. Regardless of the process or authority used – our clients deserve justice now, not months from now.”

Matt Dummermuth, on behalf of Binnall Law Group, stated:

It has been an honor assisting Garret O’Boyle in his fight for genuine justice from the FBI, but Garret has been waiting long enough. Garret, his family, our country, and the FBI will be much better off the sooner the FBI rights the injustices against him, reinstates his wrongly revoked security clearance, and puts him back to work as a special agent. The FBI wouldn’t be in the credibility predicament it is in today if FBI leadership had simply listened to and addressed his and other whistleblower concerns about FBI misconduct in the first place. But the FBI needs Garret back on the job as soon as possible to help return professionalism to the FBI and to make sure the FBI’s politically motivated wrongdoing never happens again.

The administrative appeal outlines a series of protected whistleblower disclosures made by O’Boyle from 2020 to 2022. These disclosures, delivered through internal FBI channels and directly to Members of Congress, included serious concerns regarding:

• FBI COVID-19 policies and violations of civil rights;
• Politicized investigations, including Project Veritas, January 6-related matters, and school board threat tagging;
• Misuse of resources, including inflated domestic terrorism case counts;
• Improper targeting of religious and pro-life individuals; and
• Retaliation against employees expressing constitutionally protected views.

We argue that the FBI’s Security Division (SecD) suspended and ultimately revoked O’Boyle’s clearance in direct violation of Presidential Policy Directive 19 (PPD-19) and federal whistleblower protections. We also explain how the revocation was based on misleading assumptions, incomplete context, and politically motivated retaliation rather than legitimate national security concerns.

The appeal relies on the FBI’s own documents in O’Boyle’s clearance file. It cites new internal FBI communications, congressional testimony, and corroborating whistleblower statements by other Empower Oversight clients from within SecD to demonstrate that FBI leadership was fully aware of O’Boyle’s disclosures and retaliated after he testified before Congress. O’Boyle’s ability to appeal was significantly delayed by the FBI refusing to make a final revocation decision for 22 months and withholding his clearance file for another six months, finally providing it on January 30, 2025.

Agent O’Boyle’s legal team had already filed a formal retaliation claim with the Justice Department Office of Inspector General (OIG), which has been pending since July 22, 2024. All of these actions are in addition to the case we had appealed, which is currently pending before the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Our merits brief is due in that case on April 4, 2025.

In today’s filing, the legal team is urging the FBI to immediately reinstate SA O’Boyle’s security clearance and restore his employment status and is calling on Congress and the Department of Justice Office of Inspector General to continue oversight into the misuse of the clearance process to punish whistleblowers.