Editor’s note: This story has been updated to add a statement from the FBI National Press Office.
The Department of Justice has opened a grand jury investigation into former FBI Special Agent Kyle Seraphin, reportedly in retaliation for his role as a whistleblower over the past two years and for promoting other whistleblowers who sought to expose wrongdoing at the nation’s highest law enforcement agency.
Serafin told The Blaze News that a federal grand jury subpoenaed his social media posts on X/Twitter as well as those of suspended FBI Special Agent Garrett O’Boyle, both of whom have played key roles since 2022 in exposing misconduct within the FBI that threatens the civil rights of agents and members of the public.
In May 2022, Seraphin exposed various abuses at the FBI in a video interview with Project Veritas investigative journalist James O’Keefe III. During the Veritas broadcast, Seraphin’s face was hidden and his voice was masked to protect his identity. In the show, Seraphin revealed that the FBI had opened a “sensitive investigative matter” investigation into the media.
“The FBI is trying to obstruct me, possibly under 1512(c)(2) obstruction of justice charges. [Veritas] “It’s a publicly available video,” Serafin told BlazeNews.
“Mr O’Boyle should have his clearance reinstated immediately, return to his duties and receive pay and benefits for the period of unpaid leave.”
The charge, under 18 United States Code Section 1512(c)(2), was applied to more than 350 defendants who were at the Capitol on January 6. This novel and unprecedented approach to the charge was challenged in the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled on June 28 that the 20-year felony could only be applied if the defendants obstructed the use of documents or other evidence in an “official proceeding.”
Serafin said O’Boyle was notified through his lawyer that he was not the subject of a grand jury investigation. Serafin said he did not receive such notice, which likely indicates he is the subject of the investigation.
“If they are going to do that, it should be made public. [the FBI] “You know what I know,” Seraphine said.
O’Boyle was wrongly targeted
Serafin also revealed that the FBI suspended O’Boyle’s security clearance in July 2024 because he had not paid his salary for the past 18 months, even though the FBI knew it was Serafin, not O’Boyle, who was interviewed for Project Veritas.
O’Boyle was scheduled to start a new position with the FBI in September 2022 and was in the process of relocating his family from Kansas to Virginia. On the day he was scheduled to report to work, his service weapon and FBI identification were seized and his employment was suspended based on false allegations that he had leaked information to Project Veritas.
The sudden suspension of his FBI duties left the O’Boyle family homeless, as all of his belongings were in transit to a new home, and they were forced to travel to Wisconsin, taking refuge in a camper parked in a relative’s driveway.
“If the FBI can do this to its employees, what do you think they can do to ordinary people in our society,” O’Boyle said in an interview with The Blaze News. “The depth of the wrongdoing they perpetrated against me and my family is so deep that it will be nearly impossible to unravel.”
FBI Special Agent Garrett O’Boyle with his daughters Iris and Gwen while he was a police officer in Waukesha, Wisconsin. Photo by Garrett O’Boyle, used with permission.
In response to a request for comment, the FBI National Press Office told The BlazeNews, “The FBI cannot comment.”
Serafin said the whistleblowing cases of both men, and the recent expulsion of a 27-year FBI veteran who was 90 days away from retiring, reveal a bureau that has sought retaliation against insiders who make lawful and legally protected disclosures about suspected misconduct within the bureau.
He said revelations by current and former FBI employees have not led to reforms within the bureau, but rather to a retaliatory campaign to silence and punish people who have spoken out about COVID “vaccine” mandates, the Jan. 6 SWAT raid, investigations of the Catholic Church and a variety of other civil rights violations.
In spring 2022, Serafin was suspended under the pretense of investigation for practicing target practice with a military-style rifle at a shooting range on federal land in New Mexico after a nearby school called local police after hearing gunshots.
Police officers who had contact with Serafin at the shooting range concluded he had done nothing wrong. They left the scene without taking any action, Serafin said. The property was often used by members of the public for target practice.
He said the FBI had actually launched an internal investigation because Serafin had refused to take the COVID-19 vaccine, which was recommended for FBI employees. Serafin had applied for an exemption to the FBI’s vaccination policy based on his Catholic faith because the COVID vaccine was developed using cell lines from aborted fetuses.
Serafin hosted an FBI chat group on the encrypted app Signal that focused on mandatory vaccination.
“They went after Garrett simply because we were connected and we were good friends,” Serafin told The Blaze News. “They knew we were both in a COVID group that I started at Signal that had 300 FBI agents in it, so I believe they coordinated.”
House Judiciary Committee Testimony
O’Boyle gave emotional testimony before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee in May 2023 about the damage that the false accusations and subsequent suspension without pay caused to him, his wife and their four children.
O’Boyle appeared in court alongside former FBI special agent Steve Friend, suspended FBI analyst Marcus Allen and Tristan Leavitt, president of Empower Oversight, an organization that supports and represents government whistleblowers.
On July 22, Leavitt sent a letter to Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz and the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Ethics requesting that O’Boyle’s security clearance be reinstated.
“The FBI is going to destroy you. This government is going to destroy you and your family,” suspended FBI Special Agent Garrett O’Boyle told the House Judiciary Committee on May 18, 2023. (Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images)
“Despite knowing that O’Boyle had accepted the transfer, sold his family home, and had a newborn baby, the FBI violated its own policy by waiting to suspend O’Boyle until he was at his new location, leaving him and his family homeless,” Leavitt wrote.
“The FBI’s actions against Officer O’Boyle were clearly retaliatory, and he should have his investigative clearance immediately reinstated, return to duty, and be paid with pay and benefits for the period of his unpaid leave.”
O’Boyle said the FBI has not reimbursed him $30,000 for the cost of relocating his family from Wichita to Virginia, and FBI officials told him in a November 2022 email that the reimbursement would not be possible until the investigation into O’Boyle was concluded.
Serafin published numerous examples of FBI abuses of power, including internal memos instructing agents to look for threats against local school boards and administrators in domestic terrorism investigations. Many parents responded that they felt the federal government would be used against them if they sought redress for complaints about drag queen story hours or school libraries that stocked children’s books with gay pornography.
Serafin also revealed that the FBI is trying to undercover investigate so-called radical traditional Catholics, many of whom prefer the traditional Latin Mass, as a form of domestic extremism.
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