Correction: Steven J. Jensen Has Been Appointed to Head the Washington Field Office

On Friday, The Gateway Pundit posted an article about a claim made in an article by The New York Times regarding the appointment of former Section Chief of Domestic Terrorism Operations Section (DTOS) as the Assistant Director in Charge of the Washington Field Office (WFO).

Initially, we called the move “head-scratching” because of Jensen’s involvement, not just in the January 6th prosecutions, but as the DTOS Chief, all of the investigations that ensued under the guise of “domestic terrorism” under the Biden Administration.

The morning following the publication, The Gateway Pundit shared the story with a high-level source who replied, “Fake News.”  This source would absolutely have knowledge of the appointment.

In addition to our source, there was no formal announcement from anyone affiliated with the FBI or the WFO regarding the new ADIC, including a phone call placed to the WFO in which they would not answer but rather transfered us to a switchboard for reporting crimes.  For this reason, we determined that this was likely, as our source had stated, “Fake News.”

Later, we were sent emails purporting to announce internally at the WFO the appointment of Jensen.  The email was dated March 28th and claimed that he was to assume the position the following Monday, which would have been March 31st.

While the email was authentic, the lack of acknowledgment of the appointment by anyone inside the FBI and still no update on the WFO’s website regarding a new ADIC, we were still confident in our source’s assertion of “Fake News.”

We continued to investigate this story, including the call to the WFO to ask who the ADIC was, a simple question anyone affiliated with that office should be capable of answering.  We also reviewed the internal WFO announcement email provided.

Again, after a full week submerged in the office, there was no official announcements or even updates to websites that acknowledged Jensen as the ADIC.

In fact, the Washington Field Office, as of this writing, still has not updated their website.  The “Assistant Director in Charge” is still blank a full week after he assumed the position.

That is not very transparent.

However, this morning, a post on X that was shared by FBI Director Kash Patel’s official FBI X profile all but confirms that Jensen is the ADIC at the WFO.  It is not an official announcement, but the repost from Director Patel seems to confirm its veracity.  It is always the intention of The Gateway Pundit to bring the most accurate reporting possible, and this includes being able to issue corrections or retractions when we are incorrect on a story.

The appointment is no less concerning. 

As mentioned, as DTOS Section Chief, Jensen oversaw the domestic terrorism surge under the Biden administration following the January 6 protests at the Capitol and the infamous National School Board Association letter that prompted the DOJ and FBI to put out a correlating letter and led to the alleged targeting and investigations into Moms for Liberty, a grassroots organization that was fighting against LGBTQ+ agenda in public schools.

In testimony before the Weaponization Committee, George Hill, a former Supervisory Intelligence Analyst, testified regarding the domestic terrorist infatuation at the Bureau from January 6th.

Hill testified that he was “aware of instances where agents were encouraged to tag cases” as “DVE,” or Domestic Violent Extremists.  When asked, “Do you mean tag as DVE even though there was insufficient reason in your view to do so?” Hill responded, “Oh, yeah.  Yes.”

He was asked to cite some examples that he is aware of.  According to Hill:

“So probably the most egregious and one of the things that pushed me over the edge was a tirade by Steve Jensen, who was at the time a section chief with the Domestic Terrorism Section.

And on these phone calls that took place beginning on January 7th [2021] — it took place twice daily for a couple of weeks and then went to daily and then eventually went to weekly.  But these calls took place over all 56 fusion centers, so — and anybody could dial into that number.

After clarifying that the top of the calls was January 6th, Hill continued:

“So there were three individuals that Philadelphia was pushing back on wanting to open up a case on.  And they had done their due diligence

But the Philadelphia office said, well, there’s no evidence of any kind of, you know, violent leanings or insurrectionist leanings, to which Steve Jensen said, you know, I don’t give a blank, they’re goddamn terrorists and we’re gonna round them all up.

…So, essentially, they were case managing with people who were not FBI, from Seattle to Miami, from San Diego to Bangor, with this narrative.”

The calls that Hill was referring to potentially had thousands of people on the calls from all 56 of the fusion centers throughout the country, including major hubs like California and New York.  Participants on the call were muted unless unmuted by the leadership of the call, including Steve Jensen and Timothy Thibault, who was permitted to retire early from the FBI in August 2022 amidst allegations of political bias and misconduct.

Hill stated, “In the instance of the Philadelphia office…when Steve Jensen was essentially telling them, “You’re going to open up these three individual cases,” they could decide if they were going to unmute your microphone,” which would allow the control of any pushback against the de facto order given the findings of “no violent leanings or insurrectionist leanings.”

Timothy Thibault was said to be “the warm-up act” on the calls.  “I would characterize Mr. Thibault’s tone, sometimes bordering on hysterical.  He’s speaking to thousands of people, using the bullhorn that is the FBI and its reputation, to drive the narrative that our democracy almost ended on January 6th.”

Hill continued, “Which would then lead into:  We’re working with these people, we’re working with Silicon Valley, we’re working with other law enforcement partners, we’re looking at maybe past foreign influence…”

Former Congressman Matt Gaetz asked if Hill had ever observed that tone before on one of these types of calls.  “No, never, [on] any kind of call,” he responded.  “It’s just not what an intelligence or law enforcement professional does.”

Later in the testimony, Hill clarified the Philadelphia incident:

“Philadelphia was set a lead from WFO on three individuals, and the expectation was — is that they were going to open up cases on those individuals.

And Jensen took it upon himself to ask on a conference call with maybe hundreds, maybe more, of individuals there, you know, “Where are we on this?” to which Philadelphia responded…”Yeah…they have some things on their social media posts that may be…pro-2A or…they’re anti-abortion, whatever, but that doesn’t mean that they’re insurrectionists seeking to overturn our democracy,” to which Jensen said, “I don’t give a blank.  They’re all bleeping terrorists, and we’re going to round them all up.”

Hill also received an email on October 2nd regarding a letter from the National School Board Association addressed to Joe Biden.  This letter prompted the DOJ to “take action” involving the outlined “threats” to schools.

“So I got an email…I believe it was from Steve Jensen….informing me of a communication that –sent forward from him from DOJ where there was a discussion on wanting to put out some messaging and engage on this letter.”

He received the referenced email over the weekend and, within three days from receiving it, the DOJ responded and Jensen was calling for agents to “engage more in this.”

The NSBA apologized for the optics of the memo in calling for investigations into school board attendees after claims erupted that this would “chill” free speech, however, the Department of Justice memo was not rescinded under the tenure of Attorney General Merrick Garland.