New FBI and Justice Department leadership is facing blowback from conservative activists for slow-walking a Freedom of Information Act request about Biden-era retaliation against agents with conservative views.
FBI Director Kash Patel and his team are also being criticized for promoting an FBI official who led the hunt for Jan. 6, 2021, offenders.
The conservative activists at Judicial Watch filed a FOIA lawsuit against the Justice Department for FBI section chief Dena Perkins’ emails about whistleblower retaliation.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck E. Grassley identified Ms. Perkins as an official who retaliated against FBI agents for their conservative political beliefs, support for President Trump and refusal to take the COVID-19 vaccine.
According to the April 9 complaint, Judicial Watch started filing the FOIA for Ms. Perkins’ emails on May 10, 2024.
The complaint also called for all SF-50’s and SF-52’s, which are documents recording personnel actions such as promotions.
The watchdog organization filed a subsequent FOIA appeal on May 28, 2024, after the Justice Department denied the request, citing a personal privacy exemption.
The DOJ denied the FOIA request again on Jan. 21 and Feb. 4.
Ms. Perkins was among several FBI officials reportedly fired by the Trump administration.
“Our lawsuit shows elements of the FBI are still in cover-up mode about its mistreatment of agents who indicated support of Donald Trump or opposition to FBI abuses,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said. “Transparency and accountability can’t come soon enough.”
Mr. Grassley, Iowa Republican, called on the bureau, including Mr. Patel, to reinstate the security clearances or at least remedy the circumstances of almost a dozen FBI whistleblowers who were retaliated against by Biden-era FBI officials.
The Washington Times reached out to the Justice Department and the FBI for comment.
Mr. Patel is also being criticized by MAGA activists for promoting the bureau official who led the agency’s Jan. 6 investigation to the plum post of heading the Washington Field Office.
Mr. Fitton was not pleased about that revelation, either.
He appeared on Stephen Bannon’s War Room podcast on Monday, saying Steven Jensen, the new FBI Washington Field Office Assistant Director in Charge, was “one of the worse” in terms of hunting down people involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
He said Mr. Jensen was also involved in the Biden-era FBI’s targeting parents who were active at their children’s school board meetings.
“I guess the concern is from the FBI folks is that he’s really a good guy and not to worry about it, and it’s frustrating because I don’t know about you, but I’m still waiting for prosecutions,” Mr. Fitton said. “I want evidence that there’s a serious criminal investigation going on into these very people.”
He said Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been more aggressive in making personnel cuts at USAID than Mr. Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi have been with cleaning up the FBI.
Other conservative activists have weighed in with concerns about the promotion.
FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino did not directly respond to the issue concerning Mr. Jensen’s elevation, but posted on X that “nothing that is happening [at the FBI] is happening by accident” and that “not every result is going to please everyone.”
“Personnel is policy,” replied Cleta Mitchell, a senior fellow at the Conservative Partnership Institute. “We expect not to have people promoted who were at the top of the food chain leading the charge against J6 prisoners.”
The Heritage Foundation’s Mike Howell, who leads the conservative think tank’s oversight project, posted key excerpts on social media of Mr. Jensen’s responses to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan.
“Jensen claimed he was the strategic driver of J6 investigations. Jensen, the on-scene commander of J6, said the investigation was totally justified, and he would not do anything differently,” Mr. Howell wrote.
In another post, Mr. Howell highlighted an additional interview excerpt in which Mr. Jensen defended the FBI’s exhaustive pursuit of Jan. 6 targets.
Mr. Howell wrote, “Jensen thinks J6 was a ’domestic terrorism event’ and FBI tactics were ’proportional and scalable.’”
