Two FBI agents appearing before a House subcommittee Thursday had their security clearances revoked this month over security concerns, the FBI told the House Judiciary Committee. A letter from FBI acting assistant director Christopher Dunham to chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH). responded to a subpoena from the Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government seeking information regarding the security clearance adjudications of former FBI agent Stephen Friend and Marcus Allen, an FBI agent who is suspended without pay. Friend and Allen have been billed by the committee as whistleblowers. They were expected to testify Thursday in a hearing about alleged abuses by the bureau and retaliation they allegedly faced for raising their concerns. Friend and Allen have 30 days to appeal the decision to repeal their security clearances.
Dunham said that Friend’s top-secret clearance was revoked Tuesday after a referral from the FBI’s Jacksonville, Fla., field office prompted the bureau’s security division to open an investigation in September 2022. Friend’s security clearance was suspended on Sept. 16, 2021. The investigation concluded that Friend presented a number of security concerns related to his personal conduct, handling of protected information and “use of information technology.” Dunham’s provided details about Friend’s clearance revocation, saying he espoused alternative theories about the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Friend entered “FBI space and downloaded documents from FBI computer systems to an unauthorized removable flash drive,” Dunham wrote. “The FBI then required Mr. Friend to attend a Security Awareness Briefing (SAB) regarding his actions, but he refused to do so.” Allen’s top-secret security clearance was suspended on Jan. 19, 2022, and revoked on May 3 after a referral from the FBI’s Charlotte office that prompted the security division to open an investigation. Allen’s clearance was revoked due to security concerns regarding his personal conduct and his “allegiance to the United States,” according to Dunham’s letter to Jordan. Dunham wrote that Allen “failed to provide relevant information to an FBI Special Agent (SA) regarding subjects who were allegedly involved in criminal activity at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.”