Whistleblower: Child sexual abuse cases ‘no longer an FBI priority’ due to Jan 6 focus

A whistleblower has said they were “told that child sexual abuse material investigations were no longer an FBI priority.” The reasoning is because the bureau has a heightened focus on the January 6 insurrection.  Therefore child sexual abuse investigations “should be referred to local law enforcement agencies.”

The whistleblower was cited in a letter from Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee addressed to FBII Director Christopher A. Wray on Monday. The committee’s letter was spearheaded by ranking member Jim Jordan.

The letter also expresses outrage that the FBI is pursuing January 6 proves and inflating the number of “domestic extremism” cases across the country, and comes shortly after another committee letter that cited whistleblowers claiming the FBI was “pressuring agents” to label cases as “domestic violent extremism” even when they didn’t meet the criteria for the definition.

 “Such a posture is not only a dereliction of the FBI’s mission to investigate violations of federal laws, but it is a grave disservice to the victims of child sexual abuse and other crimes that do not advance the FBI leadership’s political agenda,” Jordan said.

Jordan requested the FBI provide the committee with the WFO’s documents relating to January 6, including all orders issued by the office to other field offices to open investigations, and the number of FBI agents involved in January 6 cases.

“Please provide this information as soon as possible, but no later than 5:00 p.m. on October 3, 2022. We remind you that whistleblower disclosures to Congress are protected by law and that we will not tolerate any effort to retaliate against whistleblowers for their disclosures,” the letter concluded.

 The same whistleblower stated that the FBI was using its Washington Field Office (WFO) to redirect January 6 cases to field offices in various states, while still handling the cases from Washington, D.C., in order to create the illusion that domestic extremism is rife across the country, adds National Review.

“The manipulative casefile practice creates false and misleading crime statistics. Instead of hundreds of investigations stemming from a single, black swan incident at the Capitol, FBI and DOJ officials point to significant increases in domestic violent extremism and terrorism around the United states,” the whistleblower said.

National Review writes:

A host of Democrats have claimed that “domestic terrorism” is the biggest threat the U.S. is facing.

President Joe Biden said last year that “domestic terrorism from white supremacists is the most lethal terrorist threat in the homeland” and has echoed that sentiment in more recent speeches. Attorney General Merrick Garland has also highlighted the alleged threat, saying, “the number of open FBI domestic terrorism investigations this year has increased significantly.”