The Transportation Security Administration and federal air marshals retaliated against adversaries of President Biden by sticking them on secret scrutiny lists and tracking their air travels, Homeland Security said Tuesday, admitting to “widespread abuses” during the previous president’s term.
Several dozen people who were part of protests on Jan. 6, 2021, were put on the TSA’s watchlist “despite there being no evidence of wrongdoing or illegal behavior,” the department said.
Sen. Rand Paul, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, also revealed that three current members of Congress were flagged by scrutiny lists, as were at least two dozen Americans who were deemed threatening because they refused to comply with COVID-era mask mandates.
And Mr. Paul, Kentucky Republican, revealed new details on TSA’s surveillance of then-former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, which began the day after she delivered a high-profile critique last summer of Mr. Biden and then-Vice President Kamala Harris.
Ms. Gabbard, now the director of national intelligence under President Trump, was surveilled on at least five flights in 2024 under what was known as the “Quiet Skies” program.
“Quiet Skies was an unconstitutional dystopian nightmare masquerading as a security tool,” Mr. Paul said.
The Trump administration ended Quiet Skies and its $200 million annual budget, saying it failed to stop any terrorist attack but became “weaponized” by the Biden administration.
Homeland Security pinned blame for the program’s excesses on David Pekoske. He was first appointed to lead TSA in the first Trump administration and was reappointed by Mr. Biden.
Mr. Trump fired him in January.
Homeland Security said the listing of the Jan. 6 protesters who had no criminal entanglements was particularly egregious. Some remained on the watchlist through June 2021.
“The Biden-era TSA’s actions demonstrate clear political bias. For example, these officials chose NOT to flag individuals who attacked law enforcement, burned down cities, and destroyed property during the widespread and violent George Floyd protests in 2020,” the department said.
It said some TSA officials, including the agency’s chief privacy officer, complained about the listings but “they were ignored.”
