The Trump administration allegedly paid off FBI agents fired or punished for misconduct, including one who impeded a probe into a white nationalist group and another agent who appeared at the Capitol during the Jan. 6 insurrection. 

Those are the bombshell claims at the heart of a new probe Maryland Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin opened Tuesday into the Justice Department, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel. 

Raskin “launched an investigation into a scheme inside the Department of Justice (DOJ) to direct millions of taxpayer dollars to FBI agents fired for serious misconduct, many of whom are aligned with Donald Trump,” according to a press release announcing the probe.

Raskin’s letter to Blanche demands details on the alleged payouts, which Raskin said were negotiated by Empower Oversight, a well-funded conservative activist group linked to Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley that has focused on MAGA conspiracy theories under the guise of defending “whistleblowers.”

Raskin cites as an example an FBI agent who allegedly received a payout and reinstatement at the FBI after being removed for refusing to participate in a probe of the white supremacist group Patriot Front, which has been involved in acts of violence and intimidation toward Black people and immigrants. Raskin said this occurred despite revelations that the agent also “engaged in commercial sex overseas while on an official FBI assignment—unequivocal grounds for security clearance revocation and dismissal from the FBI.” The letter notes the agent was reinstated under Patel.

This claim seems particularly noteworthy in light of the Trump Justice Department’s indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which investigates racist extremism and has even previously assisted the DOJ in such investigations. The SPLC is seemingly being targeted for purported fraud in connection with its work against white supremacist groups. Meanwhile, Raskin’s allegation is that the Justice Department rewarded someone for refusing to investigate white supremacy.

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Ja’han Jones

Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog.