A key Republican witness in a recent House subcommittee hearing may have lied to Congress about his ties to far right propaganda group Project Veritas in a recent testimony dubiously accusing the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of being biased against the right, potentially constituting a breach of federal law, Democrats are saying.
Republicans had presented suspended FBI agent Garret O’Boyle as a whistleblower in their House Weaponization of the Federal Government subcommittee hearing last month, inviting O’Boyle to testify alongside three other FBI agents who have also been suspended — the latter group having been suspended by the agency for their alleged participation in or remarks about the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
O’Boyle had told the committee that he hasn’t been in touch with any form of media and that he never provided anyone outside of the agency with sensitive information before his suspension.
However, Democrats have obtained testimony from the FBI’s executive assistant director for human resources that directly contradicts those claims, with documents to back up the testimony. The Democrats say that the testimony shows that O’Boyle was indeed leaking sensitive FBI information — and that, as previously unreported, he was leaking it to Project Veritas, an organization dedicated to disguising right-wing propaganda as journalism and which has ties to far right militia groups.
In the testimony, the FBI’s Jennifer Moore points out that Project Veritas posted an interview online last year with an anonymous “FBI whistleblower,” and says that the agency was able to identify that person as O’Boyle. Moore said that some of the information that O’Boyle was allegedly leaking was part of ongoing investigations and that he was still accessing files that he didn’t have access to when the FBI began looking into the leak.
In a letter sent to Attorney General Merrick Garland, top Judiciary and Weaponization Democrats Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-New York) and Del. Stacey Plaskett (D-Virgin Islands) ask Garland to further investigate the matter, detail multiple times that O’Boyle appeared to have lied to the committee, and urge him to investigate whether O’Boyle lied to Congress, which is illegal, and committed perjury under oath. The letter was first reported on by NBC.
Republicans characterized Democrats’ letter as a “frivolous attack” on O’Boyle, claiming that Democrats are “desperate to distract from Justice Department wrongdoing.”
However, if Moore’s testimony is true, it reveals yet another instance of federal law enforcement officers who have ties to far right groups — and it shows that Republicans aren’t afraid to give these individuals a national platform.
O’Boyle is already facing scrutiny over the same testimony for allegedly receiving financial aid from Kash Patel, a former top official in multiple roles under the Trump administration.
In May, O’Boyle said that, if he’s receiving financial aid from Patel, he isn’t “aware of” it — but he had previously disclosed that his legal fees were being paid by a nonprofit run by Patel during an interview with the subcommittee in February. Subcommittee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) has defended O’Boyle, saying the Democrats “distorted the facts” on O’Boyle’s testimony. Government watchdogs have said that his connection to Patel “is already enough to call any of his testimony into question.”
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
After the election, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy