Senate: Biden FBI Watchlisted Catholic Teacher

Then-President Joe Biden's FBI placed a Catholic school teacher, the wife of a federal air marshal, on a terrorist watchlist based on unverified information, a Senate committee said Tuesday.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, released newly obtained FBI records detailing a 23-month probe into Christine Crowder, a Texas Catholic school teacher who traveled to Washington, D.C., to attend President Donald Trump's rally on Jan. 6, 2021.

According to the committee's release, the FBI labeled Crowder a "domestic terrorist" based solely on an unverified tip from a former friend despite early investigative checks showing negative facial recognition results, negative geolocation data, and no criminal history or extremist activity.

The documents, Paul said, reveal the kind of sweeping post-Jan. 6 federal dragnet conservatives have long warned about: Ordinary Americans treated as suspects for political proximity rather than provable wrongdoing.

Even after investigators initially failed to confirm Crowder's identity, the FBI subjected her to repeated physical surveillance of her home, federal watchlisting, and continuous airport monitoring whenever she traveled.

The committee said the bureau even referred the case for prosecution before it could positively identify her, and that the referral ultimately rested on what proved to be mistaken identity.

"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, arguing the case demonstrates the urgent need to rein in "faceless bureaucrats" who infringe on constitutional rights.

The Washington Examiner reported the findings were released as Senate Republicans marked the fifth anniversary of Jan. 6, and highlighted the committee's allegation that Biden-era law enforcement improperly expanded surveillance and watchlisting practices beyond those involved in the Capitol breach.

The Examiner noted that while some Jan. 6 participants committed serious crimes, thousands of Trump supporters in Washington that day never entered the Capitol and were nonetheless swept into what many Republicans describe as a stigma-driven enforcement culture.

The committee's findings also drew attention because Crowder is married to Mark Crowder, a senior federal air marshal and whistleblower who testified last year that he discovered his wife had been flagged in the system as a domestic terrorist.

He said colleagues were ordered to track his family minute-by-minute during travel — an allegation tied to the now-terminated Quiet Skies program.

Paul's committee has been investigating Quiet Skies and broader watchlisting practices for what it describes as abuse of aviation security tools.

The Senate release said the FBI surveilled Crowder's home at least four times just to identify her and her property, while prosecutors accepted the case largely based on the tip and then requested additional social media analysis.

The FBI ultimately closed the investigation nearly two years later, according to the committee, and only after information surfaced showing the allegation was wrong.

In a statement included in the Senate release, FBI Director Kash Patel called the case "political overreach," saying America crosses a dangerous line when "a Catholic kindergarten teacher from Texas" can be surveilled for years without evidence of a crime.

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, who ended Quiet Skies, said the program had become a "political rolodex" under Biden, weaponized against opponents and misused while real security threats demanded attention.