The Federal Bureau of Investigation placed a Texas Catholic school teacher on a domestic terrorist watchlist and monitored her for nearly two years based on unverified information, according to documents published Tuesday by a Senate committee.
The Senate Homeland Security Committee released a report with 70 pages of documents on the fifth anniversary of the Jan. 6 Capitol protest that turned violent when Donald Trump supporters stormed the Capitol to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 Electoral College win.
The report says the Biden administration improperly placed Christine Chowder, the wife of a federal air marshal Mark Crowder, on a terrorist watchlist based on an anonymous tip that she illegally entered the Capitol on that day. Yet the FBI was unable to corroborate allegations from the anonymous tip through geolocation data or facial recognition that identified Crowder inside the Capitol.
She was still added to a federal watchlist flagged by the Transportation Security Administration and was surveilled for 23 months, the report says. Officials now say she never entered the Capitol.
Senate Homeland Security Chairman Rand Paul, R-Ky., has led a broader investigation into what he calls the weaponization of federal watchlists.
“The records released today show how an unverified tip that the FBI failed to substantiate led to nearly two years of surveillance of an innocent American,” Paul said in a statement.
“A free society cannot tolerate a system in which programs and authorities intended to keep the public safe are instead weaponized against them due to mere suspicion,” Paul said.
The report says the FBI physically surveilled Crowder’s house at least four times for the purpose of identifying her and her property.
“This case is an example of misplaced priorities and everything that went wrong with federal law enforcement in the aftermath of January 6,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a public statement.
“When a Catholic kindergarten teacher from Texas can be surveilled for more than two years simply for being in Washington, D.C., without entering the Capitol, without committing a crime, we have crossed from legitimate investigation into political overreach,” Patel continued. “That is not equal justice under the law.”
The report says Crowder also faced continuous airport surveillance while traveling.
Nearly a year after the FBI began surveillance of Crowder, the anonymous tipster sent officials a video claiming to show that Crowder exited the Capitol during Jan. 6. The bureau interviewed that individual in May 2022, who claimed Crowder posted videos of herself on social media from inside the Capitol.
In July 2022, the FBI referred Crowder’s case for prosecution based on what proved to be a case of mistaken identity, the documents show, and despite still not identifying her through physical surveillance.
The FBI did not interview Crowder until May 2023, the report says, and dropped the case after she shared evidence that conflicted with the allegations against her.
Mark Crowder testified to the Senate Homeland Security Committee last year that his colleagues were ordered to surveil his wife and family minute-by-minute as they traveled.
