Ben Weingarten on the FBI "purge" (02-14-2025--Hour3)

[00:00:04] What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to 3 on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to thepetekalinershow.com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button, get every episode for free, right to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support.

[00:00:28] All right, let me welcome to the program Benjamin Weingarten. He is the author of a book called American In Great, Ilhan Omar and the Progressive Islamic or Islamist takeover of the Democrat Party. He is also a writer. His work appears at The Federalist, The New York Post, and this at realclearinvestigations.com as well. Benjamin, welcome to the program, sir. How are you? Thanks for having me. Doing well.

[00:00:54] Good, good. So you've got a piece at realclearinvestigations.com titled A Weaponized FBI. It's Real, Say Whistleblowers, Boasting Scars to Prove It. It's a pretty lengthy piece. You detail a lot of the stories here. So first off, let's start with the quote-unquote purge that the evil orange man has been doing at the FBI. What is this purge?

[00:01:21] Well, we know that at DOJ, you've seen a lot of these prosecutors who worked on the get-Trump lawfare prosecutions pretty much immediately removed at the outset of the Trump administration. And then as well, of course, FBI weaponization has been something that the administration has said. It wants to reverse. It wants to hold people accountable for.

[00:01:48] And that really started with a memo that came out of the DOJ 11 days into the Trump presidency, a calling for the ouster of eight senior officials, some of them running several of the branches within the FBI and in the heads of a couple field offices as well, including Miami and Washington, D.C. And apparently eight top officials, many of them promoted by Christopher Wray out of those positions, were forced out.

[00:02:16] And this was as part of a memo which also called for the FBI to provide the DOJ information regarding all of the agents and all of the FBI officials who had anything to do with January 6th prosecutions.

[00:02:31] And this is all in line, again, with the president's executive order calling for ending the weaponization of the federal government, which starts with, of course, probing for weaponization of those currently in office and then looking to ultimately remedy when they engage in weaponized acts.

[00:02:50] So there was an uproar among senior Democrats, for example, on the Senate Judiciary Committee, from the vice chairman of the Intelligence Committee, Senate Intelligence Committee, Mark Warner, and others basically saying, you know, Donald Trump is purging the senior ranks of the FBI. Our national security is going to be threatened. This is retribution. This is injustice, et cetera.

[00:03:14] And what we dug into was the fact that at least three of the eight ousted senior FBI officials themselves had been involved in allegedly weaponized acts. And we walked through the story of what they did.

[00:03:29] And that story tells the trials and tribulations of FBI officials who were whistleblowers, who came forward some internally and then others to Congress when those doors were closed with reports of misconduct within the FBI, including pertaining to the January 6th prosecutions and other issues as well. And they faced severe reprisals for serving as whistleblowers.

[00:03:56] And then those who championed them, those who defended them internally and said these people are being railroaded, they themselves were retaliated against as well. And we tell what that retaliation looks like in this story at RealClear. So the three people that seemed to be among the worst of the worst, and they were in that, quote, purge, Jeffrey Veltry, Dina Perkins and Timothy Dunham.

[00:04:23] And there's a story that you tell about a Charlotte connection here in North Carolina. One case that the inspector general highlighted involved Marcus Allen. You also included this clip from a House Committee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government from back in September with Congressman, then Congressman Dan Bishop, who is from our area. And he's talking with Marcus Allen, not the not the football player guy.

[00:04:50] But he's a decorated Marine Corps vet and a former FBI guy. And he suffered some of these repercussions that you're talking about. Now, can you kind of go over, because I think it's instructive and it's indicative of like the common tactic that I saw play out in the stories you were telling about how they basically just like slow walk these guys and starve them of finances. Yep. So it's your point.

[00:05:19] Marcus Allen, decorated veteran, was posted to the Charlotte field office, did work with the Joint Terrorism Task Force folks there. And like a lot of these people who we profile, have stellar records. You know, they've been awarded for the jobs that they've done at the FBI.

[00:05:38] And Marcus Allen was in part responsible for helping gather intelligence and work with the Joint Terrorism Task Force in connection with January 6th investigations. And was helpful in having certain people prosecuted in connection with those investigations. He came to his superiors after seeing a story in The New York Times and at Real Clear and elsewhere about the fact that there were FBI assets on the ground on January 6th.

[00:06:08] And said to them, look, you know, there's sort of a counter narrative that's forming about what transpired on January 6th. And I'm not sure that Washington, D.C., that is kind of headquarters, is being fully open, transparent, forthcoming about what happened that day and whether or not there were any ties to the FBI.

[00:06:26] And then he cited to his supervisors the fact that Christopher Wray was not forthcoming in testimony before Congress on this very issue, what didn't show full candor. And so this was sort of an FYI. And he viewed it as it's part of my job to let people know who are dealing with these cases, what is coming out in reporting and disclosures. And is there potentially malfeasance occurring inside the bureau in connection with it?

[00:06:55] This kicked off 27 months of hell for Marcus Allen, where his emails to his supervisors were forwarded along to the security division at the FBI. And the security division holds a ton of power because if someone's security clearance, if there's some grounds for calling for investigating someone with respect to their ability to hold and maintain a security clearance, security clearance can get suspended.

[00:07:25] During this time, a person's investigated. They're twisting in the wind because their employment is suspended as well and they're left without pay because you need to have a security clearance, obviously, to do your job as an FBI agent. And only after, potentially, this investigation finishes, then you get finality. Are they going to revoke your security clearance? Are you going to be reinstated or not?

[00:07:49] If it's revoked, then you have to appeal it and you might have to wait months to get the information the security division was using to justify a revocation to then be able to even defend yourself and plead your case and try and get a reconsideration. And you might fail there, too. And basically, what we find is that Marcus Allen is targeted as a January 6th conspiracy theorist, essentially, as a consequence of these emails.

[00:08:18] As well, he's one of a couple people in the Charlotte office who won't attest to the fact of the time that he had gotten COVID-19 vaccine, as was mandated by the Biden administration.

[00:08:29] And the pattern that you see throughout these cases is that especially people who are skeptical of COVID-19 vaccine or resistant to it, especially people who are conservative, especially people ex-military in a lot of cases, they end up finding themselves where there are these predicates so-called for cases brought against them to investigate their security clearances. Security clearances get pulled, and they go through this horrific process where their finances are drained.

[00:08:58] Obviously, they're left distressed. And it's a Kafka-esque sort of process of trying to fight to get reinstated. And some of these people are still twisting in the wind. Even now. Yeah, and you can't get work. Like, they can't pick up a side job, right? You're not allowed to seek outside employment. You're not allowed to seek gifts to support yourself. So your life is ruined. And the process serves as the punishment.

[00:09:25] And a lot of people say, essentially, to hell with it. I'm going to leave my job. In many cases, they're dream jobs. And that's kind of the point, I suspect. Get them to quit. That appears to be the point of it is force people out who don't toe the line of the superiors. And so there was a rationale for forcing out at least three of the eight people who are either high level at SECD, the security division, or their overseer in the human resources branch of the FBI.

[00:09:54] And we thought it was worth telling that story because this has been presented as Trump is just purging the upper ranks of the FBI, and it's totally political. No, there's actually a rationale to it based upon this raft of allegations from a slew of whistleblowers like Marcus Allen who have been targeted accordingly. I highly recommend if people are interested in this topic to read the piece. It's at realclearinvestigations.com. Ben Weingarten is the author. You can also see his work.

[00:10:22] He's a senior contributor at The Federalist and The New York Post. He's got his book and also a substack, weingarten.substack.com. Benjamin, thanks so much for your time, sir. I appreciate it. Have a great weekend. Thanks for having me. You too. Absolutely. Take care. All right. If you're listening to this show, you know I try to keep up with all sorts of current events. And I know you do too, and you've probably heard me say, get your news from multiple sources. Why? Well, because it's how you detect media bias, which is why I've been so impressed with Ground News.

[00:10:51] It's an app, and it's a website, and it combines news from around the world in one place, so you can compare coverage and verify information. You can check it out at check.ground.news.com. I put the link in the podcast description too. I started using Ground News a few months ago and more recently chose to work with them as an affiliate because it lets me see clearly how stories get covered and by whom.

[00:11:16] The Blind Spot feature shows you which stories get ignored by the left and the right. See for yourself. Check.ground.news.com. Subscribe through that link, and you'll get 15% off any subscription. I use the Vantage plan to get unlimited access to every feature. Your subscription then not only helps my podcast, but it also supports Ground News as they make the media landscape more transparent. Thanks again to Ben Weingarten for making time for us today. I do appreciate it.

[00:11:45] There is a Charlotte connection. I mentioned in the interview with Mr. Weingarten there about this House subcommittee on the weaponization of the federal government. This was from September of 2024, so a few months ago, and you're going to hear Congressman Dan Bishop talking with the witness, Marcus Allen,

[00:12:08] who was stationed here in the Charlotte FBI office about the retribution that was exacted upon him as a whistleblower and what it did to him. As far as I'm concerned, you're the person I'm most interested in hearing from. I'm from Charlotte. I've been to the Charlotte field office. I know some people there. I was extraordinarily impressed by you and the other whistleblowers when you previously appeared before the subcommittee.

[00:12:37] I'm impressed by you again. I haven't been able to be here the whole time. I'm going to yield you some time just if you cared, if you have things that you wish to say in just a moment. But the first thing I'm going to say before I do that, and then I'm going to give Mr. Jordan the rest of my time, is I'm just overwhelmingly troubled by the fact that no one seems to be able to do much about what has happened to you. You've got the inspector general, very respectable person.

[00:13:06] You've done a lot of things that have been historic. But, you know, you issue a management alert. And to me, it sounds ridiculous to say you don't think these guys at the FBI, the senior managers, understand that they shouldn't retaliate against somebody by putting them under extreme personal hardship while they engage in a completely baseless persecution over their security clearance.

[00:13:32] And they leave them in limbo for 27 months and to this moment haven't paid what I understand to be the consideration under the settlement that's been reached. That is astonishing. And if that's not astonishing enough, that all you can do is issue an alert, Congress does absolutely nothing in the majority party, not one thing to impose on the Department of Justice or the FBI an appropriate sanction for what they've done. And we have a hearing about it.

[00:13:59] And everybody in the minority party, they're fearing what Donald Trump would do in the next administration while they sit here and they look at the guy who's been persecuted by the FBI. And everybody in the room understands it. Mr. Allen, do you have comments you wish to make? I'll give you about a minute, minute and a half, and then I want to turn over the rest of my time to Mr. Jordan. Yes, sir. I would just say that I considered the hearing today my last act of service as a public servant for the United States of America. And I'll give you my professional opinion.

[00:14:29] I was an intel professional for our country for many years, and I would give recommendations, and I'd also look at indications and warnings. So I would offer this to the American people as my warning to them. Since this is a warning to the American people, I say, I personally have no confidence that the FBI will rein in its own conduct. I've been persecuted along with Garrett, Steve and Kyle, and countless other whistleblowers.

[00:14:57] It is my opinion that the Bureau used reprisal and fear to control the workforce. It has been a seemingly effective tactic. I personally believe that there are no current effective checks and balances against them conducting lawless action with any type of correction in a legitimate time frame. I welcome the work of the IG, but I think any type of lawless action, there's no legitimate time frame to rein them back in.

[00:15:25] Their ability to overclassify information can allow them to stonewall forever. To the American people, you have a duty as a citizen to vote, and I strongly urge you to do so. It's how you participate in the American experience. I know people have doubts about election integrity, but you must vote. It is your claim. State your claim and don't forfeit it willingly. Have your voice heard. My other recommendations are in the natural order. First, vote.

[00:15:54] The second is the Second Amendment. Arm yourself and know how to defend yourself. Make three to four friends in your neighborhood and promise to come to each other's mutual aid in times of hardship. And during the Great Depression, people stocked up a pantry. So I think that's a good practice, especially in our economic times, and make sure you have three to four months of food. As a person of faith, I'd say pray the rosary. Go to the First Friday devotions. That's for everybody, all my brothers and sisters of all faiths, and I know I'm Catholic.

[00:16:25] And read the gospel of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and live it every day. And that's all I have to say. Thank you for the time. You know, Mr. Allen, the fact that there are servants like you who have been born up under persecution that a lot of political leaders in this country do not care about is the thing that heartens the American people. And I'm confident the American people will resolve the situation no matter how weak Washington is in response.

[00:16:50] So if you are confused by what you're seeing at the FBI, hopefully this sheds some light on it. The American people are, through Donald Trump and now Cash Patel, are attempting to fix a broken agency. Me personally, I'd say take it all apart.

[00:17:15] That's my personal view on, I mean, I don't think you get to come back after the corruption that we have seen at the highest levels for a decade. But it goes back beyond that. I don't see how you reform it. But maybe Cash Patel will be able to make some headway there. And Marcus Allen, he is just one of the whistleblowers. You've heard several other. He mentioned a couple other names there.

[00:17:43] There are many of them inside the rank and file that have been targeted by the leadership of the FBI. And that's who was, quote, purged. Those leaders that weaponized their agency against its own employees. Here's a great idea. How about making an escape to a really special and secluded getaway in western North Carolina, just a quick drive up the mountain. And Cabins of Asheville is your connection.

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[00:19:01] And they have pet-friendly accommodations. Call or text 828-367-7068. Or check out all there is to offer at cabinsofashville.com and make memories that'll last a lifetime. So the whistleblower aspect of the FBI corruption, the way they have targeted their own for traditional views, conservative views, not getting the vaccine, raising a question,

[00:19:30] hey, did we actually have informants and maybe the D.C. headquarters is lying to us here in the field office as they have us track down all these J6ers? And for simply asking that question, now you get targeted. They yank your security clearance. They slow roll the investigation for over two years. So you can't work. You have no income. You can't do a GoFundMe. Nothing. Nothing.

[00:19:52] This whistleblower stuff was raised at the nomination hearing for Kash Patel. And yesterday they took the vote. The Senate took the vote. Charles Grassley, the chairman of this committee, Senate Intelligence Committee, he referenced these very things in his opening statement.

[00:20:15] Because the FBI has been affected by political bias and weaponized against the American people, Mr. Patel knows it. Mr. Patel exposed it. And Mr. Patel has targeted for it. And I've got plenty of examples to show what's wrong with the FBI.

[00:20:39] Mr. Patel was instrumental in exposing Crossfire Hurricane. He showed during that investigation that the Democratic National Committee funded false allegations against President Trump, that the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation

[00:21:02] hid information from the FISA court to wiretap a presidential campaign, and that an FBI lawyer lied in the process. As reward for his efforts to uncover this truth, he was attacked by the media, and the Department of Justice secretly subpoenaed his records.

[00:21:31] Now, I and my staff know a thing or two about this kind of retaliation, because my staff received similar treatment during our investigation. Sadly, as I've said at Mr. Patel's hearing, Crossfire Hurricane is but one example. Yeah, people forget. By the way, I did not edit that. That's their automatic microphones going on and off.

[00:21:59] So when Grassley pauses too long, the mic shuts off and then it comes back on. So that was not me doing any editing. That was his comments. But people forget the FBI targeted the staff of Chuck Grassley. When he started looking into whistle, because Chuck Grassley has a long career, long history and track record of defending whistleblowers. And the FBI targeted him and his staff for that.

[00:22:29] The issue's been going on for a while. Whistleblowers are treated like a skunk at a picnic. And I hope my Democrat colleagues will learn a lesson about how the FBI has previously treated whistleblowers, both under Republican administrations and Democrat administrations, so that we don't have this happening again. One whistleblower said, quote,

[00:22:58] People like these have harmed the noble nation of the Bureau. They've created turmoil. And their personal agenda has spread throughout the Bureau over the last decade. In service of the country, We should insist on removing them from the FBI, not tomorrow, but right now, end of quote. Remember,

[00:23:24] he said the last decade that covers presidents of both parties. Indeed. The rot runs through the entire organization, and it has for decades. I'm not sure if it ever stopped. You know, people talk about J. Edgar Hoover and all of the corruption. There and targeting political enemies and everything. And see, we can talk about all of that because Hoover targeted some Democrats, right? Oh,

[00:23:53] but I guess if you're targeting Republicans, then it's different. It's okay. And that's the thing like these whistleblowers. I don't know their political affiliations. Marcus Allen. You just heard Ben Weingarten say Marcus Allen was involved in investigating the J sixers. But when presented with information, he then did what he is trained to do by the FBI,

[00:24:21] which is to ask some follow-up questions and simply asking those questions. Ended his career at the FBI. In Weingarten's piece at real clear investigations, he says, the terminations that we have seen so far, like this quote unquote purge of the people that, that did the targeting of the whistleblowers. These terminations may be only the beginning of efforts to remedy alleged malfeasance pertaining to whistleblowers.

[00:24:48] Attorney General Pam Bondi in establishing the Justice Department's weaponization working group shortly after her confirmation indicated that one of its focuses will be examining the retaliatory targeting and in some instances criminal prosecution of legitimate whistleblowers. And just think about the mindset that one would have being a top official at the FBI.

[00:25:19] Hearing somebody come forward with a whistleblower complaint and then retaliating against that person. In one of the, one of these cases, there is an allegation that the same people, the same purged FBI officials, that they timed their retaliation to freeze pay and, and, and access to security clearances and stuff of another FBI employee,

[00:25:48] that they timed it just as he and his pregnant wife had sold their home and were fixing to move to, I think the Virginia area. And they froze him out right after he sold the home. So now he couldn't buy the new home. They left the guy homeless. He and his wife, and I think two kids and a third on the way. Think about what kind of a mind does that.

[00:26:14] To a colleague at a law enforcement agency. All right. I hope you had a happy holiday season, but tell me if something like this happened at your house, your family and friends are gathered around. Maybe y'all are in the living room. You're laughing, swapping stories, reminiscing. And then somebody says, Hey dad, remember those old VHS tapes? Did you ever get them transferred? And then the room gets all quiet. All eyes are on dad who says, Oh, you know, well I've been meaning to,

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[00:27:12] to watch them together. Talk about a memorable gift. So do what I did. Trust the experts at create a video conveniently located in Mint Hill, right off I-485 and online at createavideo.com. Cash Patel was a staffer for Devin Nunes. And he was the guy who uncovered the crossfire hurricane plot, the conspiracy, and gave it to his boss,

[00:27:42] Devin Nunes. You'll recall Nunes then went over to the White House, told Trump all about it. And for that, he was punished. Cash Patel was punished. So he knows firsthand about the weaponization, as Chuck Grassley said. Something happened, though, at the confirmation hearing. They were waiting on Adam Schiff, for brains, to

[00:28:13] appear so he could cast his vote and make his speech or whatever. So they had a bunch of time to kill before he got there. And so they were just like sitting around, waiting around. And then Tom Tillis opened up the mic. Chuck Grassley had left. Tillis took over chairing the meeting. And he made some comments. And I pulled a portion of them here because I think they're pretty important to hear. I think Mr. Patel is going to come and fix an agency that I have great admiration for,

[00:28:43] that I still believe is the gold standard for law enforcement agencies in the world, in the history of the world. But to suggest that others should not be put under a microscope, I think is naive. I supported Chris Wray. And yet he disappointed me in that he is at the top of the agency and there were inappropriate investigations going along. I supported Merrick Garland when he was put forth by Senator Biden. And yet he's disappointed me with some investigations and activities in the DOJ

[00:29:12] that were absolutely inappropriate under his watch. Did he know about it? I don't know. But what I do know is he was the head of the organization and at some point you have to hold people in these organizations accountable. I trusted Mr. Comey until he gave me a reason not to. So for people to think that we should keep the FBI as it is and not question some of the politically motivated activities, whether a Democrat or a Republican is in power, are either being naive or just waiting for the opportunity

[00:29:41] when that slant is in the favor of their own, their worldview. I, for one, want the FBI to do the job it does very well and nothing more. Never to be motivated by political retribution. I said yesterday to a nominee, this needs to end. The political physics of for every action, there's an opposite and equal reaction, is what is tarnishing the reputation of the finest law enforcement agency

[00:30:09] recognized that way worldwide. And we can do better. There were other people that were saying that Mr. Patel condoned the January 6th attacks. I asked him when he was sitting right there, does he agree with me that people that attack Capitol Police officers are thugs? And he said that if he were asked by the president to have given pardons to those thugs that attack Capitol Police officers, that his recommendation would have been no. And yet people want to pretend that he was okay with that,

[00:30:39] coming in as the head of the FBI. So folks, let's just be honest here. There was someone else who said, there was a Republican that said, this is a shirts and skins exercise. I'm the one that said it. Because when you see Pam Bondi, who has personal relationships with people on the other side of the aisle, not get a single Democrat vote from this committee, then clearly we're in a shirts and skins posture. Not always, probably not even for the remainder of this Congress. But right now I stand by that characterization

[00:31:07] and we saw it play out again here today. Yeah. Hoover Institution senior fellow, Victor David Hanson, he went on Fox News a couple of days ago. He said that the FBI says there's a new administration now and there might be some exposure or culpability. So they're afraid that if they were Donald Trump and they had suffered what they did to him, they would be very frightened. That's the way that they think. Right?

[00:31:35] They expect there to be retribution because that's what they would do. So they think Donald Trump is going to re-examine a lot of this. And for me personally, I hope they do. I mean, now that they found all those extra JFK assassination files and stuff. All right, that'll do it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening.

[00:32:05] And tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to thepetecalendorshow.com. Again, thank you so much for listening and don't break anything while I'm gone.