Just after the Senate Judiciary Committee convened a hearing examining how the FBI handles whistleblower retaliation complaints, new allegations arose that the bureau is punishing another act of conscientious disclosure.
“My office has obtained an internal FBI email to a whistleblower,” Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the committee chair, said Wednesday, at a panel that heard from government watchdogs, Department of Justice officials, and whistleblower advocates.
The email Grassley referred to was also received by the Washington Times, which published a story Wednesday morning revealing how an FBI attorney, working within the Office of Integrity and Compliance, told the potential whistleblower that even though he was exposing legitimate wrongdoing, it “does not guarantee that [he] will not be retaliated against, even though retaliation/reprisal for making protected disclosures is illegal.”
The agent decided to report the “abuse of power” anyway, which, according to him, represented a “substantial and specific danger to public health and safety.”
The matter, the Times said, had to do with “political meddling inside a secret terrorism and counterintelligence surveillance program.”
After lodging a complaint, the whistleblower’s performance reviews were downgraded, whereas in the previous years he had received “excellent” marks.
Sen. Grassley said that the likely-illegal punitive response has continued, too.
“[The whistleblower] reported to me this very morning that he was subject to further retaliation,” the chair revealed during the hearing, promising to send a letter to the FBI for more information on the issue.
David Maurer, a director at the Government Accountability Office (GAO), testified saying that the latest allegations point to a “potential area of concern in the over all culture at the FBI.”
“I would have hoped that the response would have been more on the positive sense of welcoming that whistleblower, rather than mentioning the fact that he could be retaliated against,” Maurer said.
Last week, The Sentinel reported how the GAO recently found that the FBI dismissed 90% of whistleblower retaliation complaints. Many dismissals were a result of the whistleblower lodging the complaint with the wrong official within the agency.
Sometimes, the GAO said, the Justice Department had sent misleading information to FBI employees about where they can properly seek whistleblower immunity.
Also testifying at the hearing was the Department of Justice’s Inspector General Michael Horowitz, who’s long been in a tug-of-war with the FBI over access to records. Horowitz previously told lawmakers his office’s investigations, particularly into two whistleblower retaliation complaints, are being hindered by the department’s new policy of withholding documents related to grand jury records and electronic surveillance.
Horowitz noted that the documents are eventually handed over, but only after long delays, which “threatens to compromise the ability of the OIG to complete its investigation within a timely fashion.”
He agreed with Maurer that the latest allegation reveals problems with the culture at the FBI.
Representing the bureau at the hearing was Kevin Perkins, an associate deputy director at the FBI.
“Speaking for myself and [FBI Director Comey], we will not and do not tolerate retaliation against whistleblowers in the FBI, period.” Perkins resolutely told lawmakers.
However, when Perkins was asked if anyone at the bureau has ever been punished for whistleblower retaliation, he couldn’t offer an answer.
“I will have to get back to you,” Perkins told Sen. Grassley. “I don’t know at this point.”
Grassley then asked Perkins to “provide the written policy, the recommended punishment for retaliation, and a description for each time the FBI imposed a discipline for retaliating against whistleblowers.”
“We’ll be in on contact with your staff and provide that for you, sir,” Perkins said.
FBI employees aren’t offered the same protection as others within the federal government under the Whistleblower Protection Act, leaving them vulnerable to retaliation when they report wrongdoing to supervisors and even Members of Congress.
When asked if DOJ regulations should be amended to protect FBI employee disclosures to Congress, each of the government witnesses at the hearing agreed, even the FBI’s representative.
“If someone is disclosing in a whistleblower type of role in a disclosure to Congress, certainly it’s something they should be protected with,” Perkins told Senators.
