In many quarters of the right wing attention economy, you’d think Merrick Garland was still the Attorney General, and Christopher Wray still stalked the antiseptically white halls of FBI headquarters. Outrage is still the currency of those who claim FBI Director Kash Patel and his Deputy Director Dan Bongino have capitulated to the vast powers of the deep state and just promoted the chief architect of J6 atrocities — the arch-crony of the plot to imprison soccer moms in federal gulags.
We’re being asked to believe that Director Patel, the guy responsible for dismantling the Crossfire Hurricane hoax, has abandoned his passion for civil liberties, transparency, and the rule of law in just a matter of weeks. Moreover, is it rational to believe that Deputy Director Bongino, who has been one of the harshest critics of FBI politicization and weaponization, has been captured by a cabal of career bureaucrats at the FBI, wrestled from his long held convictions, and made a toady to a diabolical conspiracy?
But, that’s exactly what strident voices want you to believe about the appointment of Assistant Director In Charge (ADIC) Steven Jensen to the Washington Field Office.
It is alleged that Jensen led the crusade against J6 participants, and railed against them in a profanity laced tirade during a conference call involving more than a thousand people, to include representatives from state and local law enforcement. It’s grand political theatre, complete with high dungeon and salacious comparisons to the famous Inquisitor General Tomas de Torquemada. All this grotesque pageantry hinges on the testimony of one, lone man — George Hill.
Hill is a former FBI non-agent Supervisory Intelligence Analyst. He was questioned before the House Committee on the Judiciary on February 7, 2023. Mr. Hill was not under oath, but as is true of anyone providing testimony to Congress, lying is a prosecutable offense.
The pertinent part of Hill’s testimony begins with a discussion of the FBI’s use of threat tags. A threat tag is simply a mechanism used to collect and organize information relevant to investigations. A threat tag isn’t an investigation, nor does it make an individual the subject of a predicated investigation. Essentially, the tag funnels information into categories for analysis.
Hill pointed to bias when categorizing cases as Domestic Violent Extremism (DVE), which represented a shift toward narrative led investigations, and away from fact-based tagging and prioritization of investigative resources. Hill was prompted to cite an example of this bias and referenced a “conference call with literally thousands of people listening.” He admitted the alleged call took place almost two years prior to his testimony, then alleged that Steve Jensen lashed out about FBI Philadelphia’s lack of aggressiveness with regard to J6 cases. Hill testified, “Steve Jensen said, ‘You know, I don’t give a blank. They’re g*****n terrorists and we’re gonna round them all up.”
However, during questioning specific to Hill’s allegation, Jensen was asked, “Mr. Jensen, do you recall ever saying anything along the lines of, you know, ‘I don’t give a blank, these people are g*****n terrorists, we’re going to round them up?’” Jensen responded, “No.” He was then asked, “Is that something you ever would have said?” Jensen responded, “No.” He was asked, “Do you swear?” Jensen responded, “I don’t.”
Lack of candor is an FBI agent’s kryptonite. Lying about any matter is the death knell of an agent’s career, and excludes an agent from ever testifying in court thereafter. It’s widely understood among the agent population that it is far better to confess to a misdeed rather than tell a lie. As is true generally, the cover-up is orders of magnitude worse than the initial infraction.
Given this thorough enculturation and dire consequence, why would Jensen lie about something so easily provable? If Hill is to be believed, Jensen would have had to lie to Congress about a conference call with a thousand or more witnesses. Moreover, Jensen would have to be lying about his general use of profanity, which could easily be disproved by anyone familiar with his day-to-day practices and management style.
Yet, in his accusation, Hill stands alone.
As to Jensen’s diabolical plot to clap soccer moms in handcuffs and drag them by the hair into the labyrinth of the federal prison system, his testimony is dispositive. During the same congressional questioning, Jensen made it clear that his only involvement in Garland’s infamous school board task force was the creation of the EDUOFFICIALS threat tag. As Jensen explains, “that tag was created to attach to any complaints that came in, SPECIFIC THREATS (emphasis mine) against school board officials, school officials or anybody else that would have participated in the school board meetings.” After the creation of the threat tag, Jensen was transferred to the Training Division.
In point of fact, Jensen’s testimony reveals a career FBI Agent who is extremely compunctious about proper predication, the preservation of First Amendment activity, focus on individual criminal activity (as opposed to group association), and close liaison with local and state law enforcement on matters unrelated to federal jurisdiction. He even defended the presence of Proud Boys at a school board meeting. Don’t take my word for it. Read it yourself. Download the PDF and search the keywords, “Proud Boys.”
In a slap-dash Blaze piece Tom Fitton had this to say, “For all I know, he’s a good guy and we’re all misinterpreting it.” Ya think?
Jensen denied Hill’s easily verifiable claim before Congress, and two individuals with truckloads of clout and nothing to gain have vouched for him — FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino. That’s a whole lot of circumstantial evidence contrary to Hill’s narrative. In a recent X post, Bongino had this to say, “…be cautious when you’re told ‘a story,’ and not THE (emphasis mine) story…” Well, you just got THE story. Everything else is just a “narrative ‘trap’” designed to filch engagement.
Bad actors there are, but Jensen isn’t one of them.
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