FBI Confirms Agents Were Ordered to Keep Silent About Clinton’s Emails

Five months after the FBI was first asked whether its agents investigating Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s emails were being prevented from speaking publicly about the case, the FBI has now admitted officially that that is indeed the case.

Fox News reports that a July 1 letter sent by the FBI to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, confirmed that agents had been required to sign a “Case Briefing Acknowledgement.” The document says that disclosing information about the case is “strictly prohibited” without prior approval.

Grassley had first asked the FBI about any attempt to muzzle agents back in February, but did not receive a reply until early this month.

The FBI letter said the purpose of the agreement was twofold: “to maintain an official record of all persons knowledgeable of this highly unusual investigation, and to remind individuals of their obligations to protect classified and sensitive information.” The letter said “no one refused to sign” or “raised any questions or concerns.”

Fox News quoted a recently retired FBI agent as saying that such a step was used only in “the most sensitive of sensitive cases,” and can have a “chilling effect” on agents, who know that the edict not to talk “comes from the very top and that there has to be a tight lid on the case.”

In a July 6 letter to FBI Director James Comey in which Grassley asked a wide range of questions about the FBI investigation, he touched upon the FBI’s order limiting the ability of agents to speak about the case. In light of several “inconsistencies” in the case that the senator listed, he said he found it “even more troubling that the FBI tried to gag its agents with a non-disclosure agreement on this matter, in violation of whistleblower protection statutes.”

“In your July 1st reply to my February 4th letter, you indicated that agents working on this case were required to sign a non-disclosure agreement that failed to exempt protected whistleblowing,” Grassley wrote. “Only after I wrote to you did you advise your FBI agents that they are still free to speak with Congress regarding waste, fraud, and abuse.” (For more from the author of “FBI Confirms Agents Were Ordered to Keep Silent About Clinton’s Emails” please click HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.