{"id":25400,"date":"2023-03-30T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-03-30T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/uncategorized\/2023\/03\/30\/federal-agents-reflect-on-houses-troubling-weaponization-committees\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T04:54:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T04:54:08","slug":"federal-agents-reflect-on-houses-troubling-weaponization-committees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/congress\/2023\/03\/30\/federal-agents-reflect-on-houses-troubling-weaponization-committees\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal agents reflect on House\u2019s \u2018troubling\u2019 weaponization committees"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When Dennis Lormel was young, he knew exactly what he wanted to be when he grew up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSince I was 12 years old, I wanted to be an FBI agent,\u201d he told Federal Times in an interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At 24, his wish came true. Lormel then spent the next three decades leading financial crime investigations and dismantling terrorist funding pipelines after the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. He retired in 2003.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI served for 28 years and, you know, I cherish that,\u201d said Lormel, who now serves as the president of the Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI,<\/a> which has 8,700 former and active members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lormel keeps tabs on the FBI and issues affecting its members, including the House hearings on the so-called weaponization of federal government that began last month. Lawmakers have criticized several three-letter federal law enforcement agencies, with some even calling to defund<\/a> or disband<\/a> them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Congress is now taking up the White House\u2019s budget proposal for fiscal year 2024, which may fuel debate over funding these agencies at the levels requested. The heated rhetoric risks burying \u201cthreads of truth\u201d of government overreach that may merit legitimate questioning, Lormel said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s troubling for our members,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m an advocate for hearings if they\u2019re objective. I don\u2019t view these to be objective at all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Federal Times reached out for comment from two of the larger federal employee unions, the American Federation of Government Employees and the National Treasury Employees Union, though neither elaborated further on the committee\u2019s proceedings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Culture of unaccountability\u2019<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Chaired by Rep. Jim Jordan, a Republican from Ohio, the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government has tasked itself with investigating the alleged politicization of the FBI\u2019s leadership and other federal law enforcement agencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

House Republicans issued a thousand-page report<\/a> in November based on what they said were whistleblower accounts describing the Washington hierarchy as \u201crotted at its core\u201d and maintaining a \u201csystemic culture of unaccountability.\u201d The panel has also taken up constitutional questions of content moderation on social media, which they say censors conservative voices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the very first hearing, Rep. Jordan listed several agencies that he said ought to be examined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAmericans have concerns about the double standards at the Department of Justice,\u201d he said. \u201cAmericans have concerns about the Disinformation Governance Board that the Department of Homeland Security tried to form. Americans have concerns about the ATF and what they\u2019re trying to do to the Second Amendment. And, of course they have concerns, about the IRS and the thousands of new agents who are coming to that organization.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The subcommittee has held several hearings thus far with another set for Thursday<\/a>. It\u2019s yet unclear what its findings will be or what longterm impact it will have on the agencies it\u2019s investigating. Despite several Republican lawmakers saying they\u2019re not aiming critiques at the agency\u2019s rank-and-file employees, federal law enforcement officers and Democrats have said nonetheless they\u2019re concerned about how this messaging will affect public trust, the agencies\u2019 abilities to recruit and workforce morale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Democrats, including Ranking Member Stacey Plaskett of the U.S. Virgin Islands and Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, shared misgivings about the subcommittee\u2019s intent at its first hearing and noted reports in the past of threats against agents and agencies, particularly following the FBI\u2019s execution of a search warrant in Palm Beach at former President Donald Trump\u2019s Mar-a-Lago property.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the FBI, in 2016, a total of 1,447 federal law enforcement officers were assaulted. In 2019, the latest year for which data is available, that number was 2,136 and about half of them were on patrol or guard duty when they were attacked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Under attack\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis committee is based on the premise that the American people are under attack by the federal government, by the Justice Department, by the FBI, by the Department of Homeland Security\u201d said Massachusetts Rep. Stephen Lynch, <\/a>a Democrat, at the first hearing. \u201cI just regret the impact this this is going to have on people who might otherwise consider serving in those agencies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Pew Research Center report<\/a> from June found that about 20% of respondents say they trust the government in Washington, D.C., to do the right thing always or most of the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of the reasons that this committee has a difficult task before it, is that there\u2019s a crisis of faith, and it\u2019s not just simply with some of our constitutional values,\u201d said Jonathan Turley, a professor at the George Washington University Law Center, in his committee testimony on Feb. 9. \u201cPolls are showing that people have a distrust for the federal government, but also with the FBI.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The special committee is formally<\/a> charged with investigating how federal agencies \u201cfacilitate action against American citizens,\u201d which could include how the executive branch collects and shares information, the laws and programs authorizing it do so and \u201cany other issues related to the violation of the civil liberties of citizens of the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Republicans have said they\u2019re aiming their criticism at the agencies as political bodies or at the top of their leadership, not the men and women working for them or agents in the field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, Congress must understand that its attacks on federal law enforcement agencies and calls to reduce or eliminate them trickle down to the individual agent and seep into public perceptions of officers who \u201chave to work harder to prove themselves,\u201d said Laszlo Simonyi, a former ATF employee of more than 20 years who now serves as vice president of the ATF Association Foundation, which advocates for agency workers and retirees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe laws aren\u2019t going to go away,\u201d he said, of proposals to impose reductions-in-force. \u201cThey\u2019re just going to be enforced by somebody else [if not the ATF].\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ATF often is equated with being anti-Second Amendment, as it was during another subcommittee hearing on March 23. Simonyi said the agency holds people accountable who violate federal firearms laws and equally ensures that law-abiding citizens and their rights to own a firearm are protected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And while any agency can issue its own regulations with the full force of law, they must still be within rules already enacted by Congress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No source who spoke to Federal Times disputed the importance of rigorous oversight and investigation of federal agencies. Rather, they said it must be done in good faith. Watchdogs have uncovered instances of poor law enforcement work by federal agents, including weak controls <\/a>over certain ATF-seized munitions and numerous ongoing investigations<\/a> into whether the Federal Bureau of Prisons personnel used their authority with integrity.<\/p>\n\n\n\t