Lawsuit: State Dept. Officer Referred to DOJ for Investigation b/c of His Pro-Christian Views

[mountaineer]

Lawsuit: State Dept. Officer Referred to DOJ for Investigation b/c of His Pro-Christian Views
'OSI attempted to have Mr. Pemberton criminally prosecuted for his religious speech, personal identity, and personal relationship Ken Ken Silva
May 18, 2025

In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic five years ago, the State Department circulated an “optional” pledge, in which signatories agreed to refrain from attending church.

State Department security officer Mark Pemberton refused to sign the “optional” pledge. As a result, his own agency referred him to the Justice Department for investigation on the grounds that he was involved in “Religiously Motivated Violent Extremism,” or RMVE, according to a lawsuit he filed earlier this month against the State Department.

Pemberton said in his lawsuit that he first told his superior, Diplomatic Security Mobile Security Deployments Office Director Jeff Thomas, he was refusing to sign the voluntary pledge because he couldn’t wave his constitutional rights. Nor could he stop exercising his religious beliefs, he said. Thomas later retaliated by referring him to the department’s insider threat program.

Around that same time, a State Department employee named Kate Shilling reported Pemberton as a “white supremacist” and potential insider threat due to his social media activity, which included posts of a Christian prayer and a photo of a “traditional family” in front of an American flag. ...

https://headlineusa.com/lawsuit-state-dept-officer-referred-to-doj-for-investigation-b-c-of-his-pro-christian-views/

[mountaineer]

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In early 2020, a State Dept. officer refused to sign an “optional” pledge to stay home from church amidst the COVID pandemic. Around the same time, his colleagues found his dating profile, which stated that he preferred a white Christian woman with whom to start a family.

For that, his own agency referred him to the JOINT TERRORISM TASK FORCE for a criminal investigation, and deemed him to be involved with "racially motivated violent extremism," according to a lawsuit filed earlier this month.

https://twitter.com/JD_Cashless/status/1924181404146929894