An FBI whistleblower has told the House Judiciary Committee that he witnessed the bureau’s deputy director violate security policies, putting classified information at risk.
The special agent told lawmakers that Paul Abbate, who oversees all FBI domestic and international investigative and intelligence activities, use his smartphone in an FBI sensitive compartmented information facility or SCIF, which is a violation of bureau security protocols.
Bringing a phone into the SCIF is a security breach.
The senior agent accused Mr. Abbate of walking around in the SCIF while talking on the smartphone and sending text messages and emails.
Another FBI whistleblower claimed that senior FBI officials routinely break the no-cellphone rule in SCIFs.
The Washington Times viewed a letter the whistleblowers’ lawyer sent to Judiciary Committee Republicans that described the allegations against Mr. Abbate. It is part of a recent flood of FBI whistleblower complaints about politicized investigations and misconduct at the bureau. But this time, the subject of the complaint is in the top tier of FBI leadership.
The FBI bristled when asked about the whistleblowers’ allegations. “This reporting is categorically false,” the FBI said in a statement to The Times.
The FBI also said the whistleblower complaints were not properly submitted to the FBI’s Office of General Counsel.
The whistleblowers’ lawyer, Kurt Siuzdak, who is also a former FBI agent, said he sent the disclosures to the OGC but it was rebuffed.
“The technical and operational secrets in the United States lie within SCIFS There they are the place where the most important information regarding the security of the US. And the fact that this number of executives would just violate the requirements is outrageous,” Mr. Siuzdak said.
The disclosure SCIF security breach was presented to Congress just weeks after the FBI raided former President Donald Trump’s residence in Florida to investigate his alleged mishandling of classified material.
The search warrant said the agents were investigating an alleged violation of the Espionage Act. This World War I-era law covers crimes beyond spying, including the refusal to return national security documents upon request or mishandling or destroying classified government documents.
The complaint against Mr. Abbate is not the first time a high-ranking FBI official allegedly used a cell phone inside a SCIF. In 2018, The Daily Caller reported Peter Strzok, the FBI agent who ran the investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s email server, texted his then-lover, FBI lawyer Lisa Page, from inside a SCIF.
The reckless practice is widespread, another senior FBI agent told Congress members in a separate whistleblower complaint.
The second agent claimed that executive-level FBI officials have been bringing cell phones into the SCIFs at field offices across the country and at a facility in McLean, Virginia, known as LX1, an X-shaped building that houses the National Counterterrorism Center and the National Counterproliferation Center.
Although all FBI personnel are prohibited from bringing electronic devices into SCIFs, FBI senior executives wore cell phones in the SCIFs in front of their subordinates, the second whistleblower says.
According to the agent, some executives would walk in and out of the SCIFs numerous times wearing their cell phones on their belts, and although some would leave the SCIF to answer their phones, others would not.
Some executives wore multiple cell phone belt holders indicating they were also wearing their cell phones in the SCIFs, according to the agent.
Additionally, the agent said that FBI executives who prepare daily briefings for FBI Director Christopher A. Wray or participate in FBI headquarters daily briefings have brought classified materials to their residences and did not properly package them for transport or storage in their homes.
The second anonymous FBI agent said that although the bureau is investigating people not currently employed by the FBI for mishandling of classified materials, he cannot recall an FBI Senior Executive Service official who was ever reprimanded for these violations unless it involved incidents in which the classified material was found in public.