Who is former FBI agent Nicole Parker testifying in first House ‘weaponization’ hearing?
A House subcommittee held its first hearing on “weaponization” on Thursday as part of the GOP push for investigations into alleged wrongdoing and politicization under the Biden administration.
The House Judiciary Committee’s Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, which is made up of 12 Republicans and nine Democrats, heard testimony from more than half a dozen witnesses on Thursday, including Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wis) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), former Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard — who left the Democratic Party last year — and former FBI agent Nicole Parker.
Parker received attention last month after she publicly announced she had left her position as a special agent over politicization she alleged was happening within the agency.
Witnessing the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York in 2001 while she was working for Merrill Lynch at the World Financial Center is what ultimately led her to eventually apply and be accepted as an FBI agent in 2009, she wrote last month in an op-ed for Fox News.
During her time in the FBI, she said she was involved in investigations such as the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., multimillion-dollar Ponzi schemes, sexual assaults and extortion.
But, she claimed, the FBI’s “priorities and governing principles” shifted while she worked there, despite its mission appearing to be the same.
Parker alleged that “one politicization issue after another” happened within the FBI. She cited an example of when agents wearing FBI vests knelt down with Black Lives Matter protesters in Washington, D.C., in June 2020.
“Although agents have their First Amendment rights, they are not at liberty to publicly express any potential political support while on duty wearing official FBI gear,” she argued.
Parker said the agents not being reprimanded for this was “appalling.” She said two different FBIs have emerged, which she claims is hurting the country’s trust in the agency.
She further contended that the FBI has lowered eligibility requirements, but didn’t specify which requirements changed. Parker said “low morale” has resulted from those changes and agents now tend to “keep their heads low” — which, she said, is one reason that ultimately led her to lose passion for the job.
Parker officially left her position in November.
In an interview with Fox News last month, she also alleged that she witnessed a “constant pattern” of the FBI giving different treatment to certain investigations based on “political persuasion.”
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