The FBI reportedly used a "threat tag" to focus on pro-lifers following the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
FBI Special Agent Garret O'Boyle said that agency used the tag "THREATSTOSCOTUS2022" to track down pro-lifers last summer, adding that it was "legitimate" because "threatening a Supreme Court official is a violation of a federal crime."
O'Boyle, who worked out of the Wichita Resident Agency in the Kansas City Field Office, told the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government that the FBI also made him divide one domestic terrorism case into "four different cases," which he says was a way the agency could show Congress an influx of domestic terrorism cases and say "look at all the domestic terrorism we've investigated."
"When this threat tag came out, it was like, why are you focusing on pro-life people?" he told the panel, according to a transcript obtained by Fox News Digital. "It's pro-choice people who are the ones protesting or otherwise threatening violence in front of Supreme Court justices' houses."
O'Boyle admitted to being confused when FBI agents said they wanted to "look into" pro-life pregnancy centers because pregnancy resource centers were more likely to receive threats. He said he was instructed to ask a pro-life confidential source a "bunch of questions about the threats to the Supreme Court."
"If somebody is going to be getting threatened, it would be them because people thought that abortion was suddenly outlawed, which wasn't the case either; it was just remanded back to the states. Why would this person know about those threats? He's pro-life, like, he's not the one going and threatening the Supreme Court justices," O'Boyle said, adding that the assignment "struck me as odd at the time."
When asked if he thought the FBI was using and creating threat tags in a politicized way, O'Boyle replied, "I do."
The FBI suspended O'Boyle for making protected disclosures to Congress, suggesting that the FBI was being weaponized against agents who wanted to come forward and talk about misconduct inside the agency.
He also claimed the agency prevented him from retrieving his personal belongings that were in storage with a company contracted by the FBI in Virginia, which O'Boyle said he spent about $10,000 to get his items back.
In a statement, the FBI denied O'Boyle's allegations saying their "focus has been and remains on violence and threats of violence," leaving no comment on the use of threat tags.
This comes after U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland admitted that the FBI prosecutes more pro-lifers because they usually commit their "crimes" in the "daylight," compared to pro-choice activists who attack at night.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member