(Ken Silva, Headline USA) 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.
His colleagues also apparently discovered his dating profile. They mocked him on a “hall of shame” in response to his stated preferences for a “white,” “Christian,” “woman,” who was interested in “starting a family.”
OK enough posting about the joint Fox/FBI joint propaganda campaign. Time to break some more news… and we've got a BIG one today:
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,… pic.twitter.com/ZQCTz9L0Wa— Ken Silva (@JD_Cashless) May 18, 2025
According to the lawsuit, the harassment of Pemberton was only the beginning of his troubles. He would soon find himself subjected to a potential criminal investigation.
“[The Office of Special Investigations] attempted to have Mr. Pemberton criminally prosecuted for his religious speech, personal identity, and personal relationship preferences by referring him to the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF), Domestic Terrorism Task Force (DTTF) … and Assistant U.S. Attorneys (AUSA),” his lawsuit states.
“OSI’s solicitation of this office to investigate his personal dating preferences raises significant questions as to the motivations behind the investigation itself.”
According to the lawsuit, the DOJ repeatedly said there was no basis for a criminal investigation against Pemberton. Despite that, OSI agents Palmer Jones and Kerri Hartman concluded in an official report that his activity was “notoriously disgraceful.”
“OSI agents also stated that Mr. Pemberton’s personal relationship preferences regarding gender, race, family, and sexual orientation, which are derived from his own personal identity, were ‘concerning,’ and they claimed his interest in starting his own family and exercising his reproductive choices based on his sexual orientation, gender identity, and pregnancy preference made him comparable to a ‘white nationalist,’” his lawsuit adds.
Pemberton was hit with a six-day suspension over the matter. He unsuccessfully exhausted all his internal appeals, and filed the lawsuit months after receiving a “Determination and Notice of Rights” letter from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Feb. 6.
He now seeks $2.5 million in damages for what he said was gross discrimination based on his “membership in the protected classes of race (Caucasian), color (white), sex (male), gender identity (male), religion (Christianity), and sexual orientation (heterosexual).”
The State Department has yet to respond to the lawsuit, which was filed in DC federal court.
Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
