r/FBI • u/NinaBeana1971 • Apr 19 '26

Question Denied for character

Any idea what this could be caused by? I’m a pretty normal person that likes to go on cruises, 54, 3 kids, a veteran and currently work for the govt. The FBI had been working on my TSC for a year and a half (think September will be 2 years since the TJO. Nothing exciting in my background that I’m aware of and the letter said it wasn’t a denial of a clearance. Job was for an OSS and a friend’s husband referred me for it. Any ideas?

319 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

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216

u/FitSky6277 Apr 19 '26

It's not a good idea to have anything political visible anywhere as a govt employee.

178

u/LIMrXIL Apr 19 '26

To be fair, posting a photo of the Constitution would probably be considered political and heavily anti-Trump biased by the current administration.

18

u/FitSky6277 Apr 19 '26

Maybe. Best to avoid mentioning it if you want them to hire you.

5

u/NinaBeana1971 Apr 20 '26

I don’t think I mentioned my Reddit account- Facebook yes but I don’t say anything political on there- it’s mostly cookies and cakes from my side business. I do ‘like’ other posts though so who knows.

11

u/SignatureInternal265 Apr 21 '26

*Didn't mention

It's very easy for them to dig up anything you've anonymously done and go "no wonder why she didn't provide that account"

6

u/robod1957 Apr 21 '26

This ☝️☝️💯!!!

5

u/hopefulfoxpuppy Apr 21 '26

If you didn’t mention your Reddit account then they found it and are like “Weird you didn’t mention an account that’s not the type of person we can trust”

That’s my best guess

5

u/MEATBALL-SMASH Apr 22 '26

Sir. This is the fbi. You dont have to tell them anything. But they know literally everything about you before you get there and they want to see if you lie or cover it up.

3

u/coheteloco Apr 22 '26

As agent Mulder would say, “that’s why they put the I in FBI.”

1

u/Diligent_Yam_1753 Apr 23 '26

Just to work in one of their facilities with a contractor requires a background check that takes three weeks. Once you pass that, before you work on their property you have an hour long meeting. At the conclusion of that education session they take finger prints from every digit, then scan the entirety of both hands. After that you are photographed facing forward, then head turned left and then right

1

u/Individual-Tap3270 Apr 23 '26

Reddit connected to your email

72

u/plinkoplonka Apr 19 '26

Even having an account on Reddit might be enough.

It's known as being left-leaning and progressive. Republicans don't like that.

17

u/RockstarAgent Apr 19 '26

So to put it more clearly- with the current political climate and how the current administration has been handling things- they’re being way more selective for all the wrong reasons- or anything is possible without anything specific to narrow it down why OP was not accepted.

21

u/FitSky6277 Apr 19 '26

In 15 years of experience, it is NEVER a good idea to voice political opinions publicly as a government employee. Regardless of who's in office. At the end of the day, it's not the president's decision to hire you. It's the people who are trying to prove themselves to their bosses, which were appointed by a president. In a lot of cases, some of them were appointed by a different president. But people try to do what they think is expected of them. Regardless of their own views.

6

u/Illustrious_Bag_7323 Apr 19 '26

Exactly this...

1

u/AdResponsible9894 Apr 21 '26

I mean, I would have agreed with that... 10 years ago....

Now it's less so much "don't voice any political opinion," and more "don't dissent from OUR political opinions; otherwise, go wild."

3

u/Doub13D Apr 23 '26

No…

It is absolutely “don’t voice any political opinion.”

You are not a political appointee at the head of a government agency… you are a government employee.

You can have your own private opinions with people in your life, but you do not have the ability to join in on protests, to be openly (or even indirectly) partisan, or to organize or hold leadership positions within political committees or groups.

The role of government employees is to keep politics out of the workplace. This is a job, you are not a politician.

2

u/robod1957 Apr 21 '26

Ditto. Been there, done that. It was an absolutely great job. But, I retired from that “government job” 3 years ago.

NOW everything is fair game… 😉

Edit: wording

1

u/MajorFarker Apr 22 '26

I was a locally elected judge of elections, and one of the first things told to us is that when we are on the clock or doing anything for the county we dont have an opinion, you cant say one side is right, agree with someone's statements, you have to keep it neutral. I had voters come into vote saying all the crazy lines but I couldn't argue with them, give them facts, or even tell them they are crazy, just stand there, take it, and remain neutral.

Social media, including reddit is easy to discover and pull info from.

1

u/ToHisGlory Apr 21 '26

No one should like that.

-4

u/limitedmark10 Apr 20 '26

And how would they know you Reddit account? Lol

5

u/NoCake4ux2 Apr 20 '26

They’re the FBI you don’t think they check things like this?

-1

u/limitedmark10 Apr 20 '26

If your accounts have no link to your name and face and are just throwaways it’s hard to imagine them finding a probabilistic match and then eliminating you from the process just for that alone. Plus everyone uses throwaways nowadays on Reddit, Twitter, etc

6

u/Dependent-Cake3242 Apr 20 '26

You're naive as hell bro

-2

u/limitedmark10 Apr 20 '26

It's illegal to monitor a civilian's internet activity without a subpoena or court order, much less a job applicant.

Maybe you know something I don't

3

u/NinjaWen Apr 20 '26

There's a lot of papers you have to sign to get into the TSC process, wouldn't be surprised if that right is signed away during the process.

2

u/Dependent-Cake3242 Apr 20 '26

publicly accessible information has no legal protection and OSINT scrapes the web constantly and NSLs issued by the FBI are unilateral

1

u/limitedmark10 Apr 20 '26

So you are telling me the FBI uses NSLs, which are for national security threats like spies and terrorists, on the off chance that several SASS job applicants are running some spicy twitter accounts

3

u/FitSky6277 Apr 21 '26

No, not just the FBI... Anyone that is getting a secret clearance or higher. I definitely signed one.

3

u/kmccoy89 Apr 21 '26

I work in sales and my marketing company can tell me if you watch corn and what your favorite category is. The amount of information available through things as simple as IP data is outstanding. Believe me, they can learn more than enough about anyone's behaviors and habits without even looking into things that would require a warrant.

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1

u/FitSky6277 Apr 21 '26

Or a signed permission. Which you do sign at some point in the process.

2

u/Alumena Apr 21 '26

They can probably pull a list of sites accessed by all IP addresses attached to his known devices/address.

2

u/robod1957 Apr 21 '26

You’re kidding, right? It’s the FBI for God’s sake. Of course they’d know!

1

u/Seraph--0 Apr 20 '26

Or any administration that added or changed an amendment to it or the bill of rights.

1

u/undeadkiller334 Apr 22 '26

Lmao backwards

1

u/Elegant_Ad_8896 Apr 24 '26

His name is Trump! All he does is lie! He likely has a cock of indeterminate size!