FBI accused an agent of leaking to Project Veritas. It identified wrong suspect, new evidence shows

A top FBI official told Congress last year it believed one of its agents, whistleblower Garret O'Boyle, was the suspected leaker in an anonymously filmed interview with the undercover citizen-journalism organization Project Veritas. The claim even led some congressional Democrats to urge a criminal investigation of the agent.

There's just one problem.

Video obtained by Just the News, a new whistleblower complaint, and interviews show the bureau identified the wrong suspect.

Raw footage from Project Veritas shows that former Agent Kyle Seraphin, another whistleblower, actually conducted the interview in question. Seraphin confirmed to Just the News he was the interviewed agent, not O'Boyle, whose security clearance was suspended in part on the bureau's assertions that he had leaked to Project Veritas.

The revelations provide another black eye for the agency as Director Chris Wray prepares to come to face to face with lawmakers in a new round of oversight hearings on Wednesday.

"The FBI has escaped accountability thus far for what it did to S.A. O’Boyle. It continues its never-ending cycle of retaliation even to this day," Tristan Leavitt, the president of the whistleblower group Empower Oversight, wrote the House Judiciary Committee this week ahead of Wray's appearance before the panel.

Leavitt's group represents O'Boyle and his letter divulged even more troubling information about the Project Veritas fiasco: The bureau knew O'Boyle wasn't the leaker and did not disclose it to Congress or correct the record, according to a new whistleblower referenced in the letter.

The FBI declined comment Tuesday when asked about Leavitt's letter.

Project Veritas confirmed Tuesday night in a statement to Just the News that its interview was with Seraphin and not O’Boyle.

”After our publishing of the masked interview, FBI Special Agent Garrett O’Boyle was unjustly targeted and punished by the bureau as this suspected whistleblower,” the group said. “He was retaliated against by the FBI, and his family was harmed by these actions.

”We can now reveal that FBI Whistleblower Kyle Seraphin was our source, not O’Boyle. Kyle has given us permission to reveal his identity as our source in order to stop the unjust persecution of his former colleague. As is abundantly clear by now, the FBI is unreliable and not to be trusted, even when identifying their own agents.l

The tale began when then-Executive Assistant Director Jennifer Leigh Moore, who testified to the Judiciary Committee in April and June 2023, provided lawmakers information about the basis for suspending O’Boyle’s security clearance, claiming the FBI suspected he was the agent who appeared anonymously in a Project Veritas video and who allegedly leaked important investigative information.

“We received a referral from our Insider Threat Office that there had been an individual who had leaked information on an FBI criminal investigation,” said Moore, describing what information her office had to support security concerns about O’Boyle.

“And what was the context of the individual leaking?” investigators asked.

“The individual leaked investigative information that compromised the case and had been interviewed apparently, like, behind a shield. And so that had opened up a leak case. It had come in as a referral,” she replied.

When Moore was asked whether the bureau had reliable information that O’Boyle was indeed the agent who appeared in the video under a software mask, Moore refused to provide further information to the committee.

“Yes. And what information does the FBI have now that it was Mr. O’Boyle behind the shield?” congressional investigators asked.

"I can’t talk about that,” she replied.

She later said in a deposition that the FBI was actually not sure which agent had given the interview, according to the letter from Empower Oversight.

Yet, the FBI had in fact sent the Project Veritas video to Quantico for a voice analysis and “conclusively discovered” by early 2023 that the individual under a voice mask was not O’Boyle. The voice analysis revealed that the masked individual was actually fellow whistleblower and FBI agent Kyle Seraphin, who was suspended shortly before Project Veritas published the video in May 2022, according to Empower Oversight.

Just the News obtained the uncensored version of the Project Veritas interview which shows that Seraphin was the whistleblower interviewed by James O’Keefe, who has since left Project Veritas. Seraphin confirmed to Just the News that it is indeed him in the video. Seraphin also told Just the News that the FBI never indicated to him that he was under investigation for his participation in the Project Veritas interview.

When O’Boyle came under scrutiny from the FBI, Seraphin sent an affidavit, which was reviewed by Just the News, to the bureau making clear that O’Boyle provided no information to Project Veritas and noted that the FBI never contacted him in its investigation of O’Boyle’s alleged leak despite helping O’Boyle procure contact information to the House Judiciary Committee.

Nevertheless, the ranking Democrats on the Judiciary Committee and Weaponization Subcommittee used Moore’s testimony to refer O’Boyle to the Justice Department for prosecution, alleging he lied to the committees in his testimony when he rebutted the assertion he disclosed nonpublic information to the public.

“As if the FBI’s treatment of SA O’Boyle and his family when it suspended him wasn’t reprehensible enough, the FBI’s withholding of material information from Congress is more evidence of its vindictive retaliation. By withholding this material information and allowing a false perjury referral based on false information, the FBI is responsible for significant damage to SA O’Boyle’s reputation,” wrote Tristan Leavitt, President of Empower Oversight.

“It continues its never-ending cycle of retaliation even to this day, revoking SA O’Boyle’s clearance and suspending the clearance of our SecD whistleblower client in reprisal for objecting to SecD’s abuse of this process against SA O’Boyle and others. It’s using the same playbook of delay tactics, and will continue to do so until Congress enacts fundamental reforms to the security clearance adjudication process and FBI wrongdoers are held accountable,” he added.

You can read Leavitt's letter below: 

O’Boyle was suspended in 2022 after previously making protected disclosures to FBI supervisors and Congress about alleged violations of FBI policy related to COVID-19, the politicization of the bureau, and about what he believed was a politically motivated investigation into Project Veritas.

O’Boyle also raised concerns about internal bureau guidance released in the aftermath of the overturning of Roe v. Wade that identified pro-life activities as potential threats without raising any alarm about pro-choice activities, such as the protests in front of Supreme Court Justices’ homes.

O’Boyle has told the committee that he believes his suspension by the FBI and the bureau’s revocation of his security clearance were retaliatory for his protected disclosures about bureau activity.

The FBI suspended O'Boyle just as he was planning to move his family from Kansas to Virginia for a job transfer. He had sold his home and was waiting to close on his new one, he recounted in testimony. Yet, O’Boyle was suspended during the move and the FBI prevented him from accessing his family’s belongings being held by the bureau. This left him and his family in limbo for years as the bureau adjudicated his suspension.

In his opening statement at a May 2023 hearing, O’Boyle had strong criticisms about the bureau’s behavior.

“Despite our oath to uphold the Constitution, too many in the FBI aren’t willing to sacrifice for the hard right over the easy wrong," his remarks read. "They see what becomes of whistleblowers; how the FBI destroys their careers, suspends them under false pretenses, takes their security clearances and pay with no true options for real recourse or remedy. This is by design; it creates an Orwellian atmosphere that silences opposition and discussion.”