  PRESS | Home | Premiere | Showings | FAQ | Gallery | Order | Email | |
|
FBI Whistleblowers Less ProtectedBy Michael J. Sniffen WASHINGTON –– Ten years after Congress ordered protections for whistleblowers throughout government, the Justice Department has set up a system to shield FBI agents, but they will have less shelter than other federal employees who report waste, abuse and crime by their co-workers. The new final rules drew sharp criticism from a national whistleblower group and a key FBI overseer in Congress. Under the final rules published this month: –Unlike other federal workers, FBI whistleblowers are not protected from reprisal for reporting misdeeds to Congress, in court during a trial or to immediate superiors. FBI employees are protected only if they report to a short list of top officials and internal investigators at the FBI and Justice. –Other federal workers can have an administrative hearing if they believe they have suffered retaliation for turning in co-workers, but it is entirely up to the FBI director whether bureau employees get a hearing. –When other federal agencies decide whether a whistleblower has suffered retaliation, the employee has the right to have a federal court review that decision. FBI whistleblowers were not given that right. Sen. Charles Grassley, chairman of a Senate subcommittee that oversees the FBI, said Sunday the rules "represent crafty lawyering rather than good public policy." He said the Justice Department "interpreted the law to protect its own interests rather than the public interest in exposing fraud and mismanagement," Grassley said. An attorney for four FBI whistleblowers, David Colapinto of the National Whistleblower Center said: "At a time when the credibility of the FBI is being called into question in light of the Waco, Texas, scandal, the FBI Laboratory scandal and other serious wrongdoing at the FBI, the need for strong FBI whistleblower protection could not be greater." Justice officials counter that they ended a long history of inaction and met the law's requirements. The Whistleblower Protection Act was enacted in 1989 to shield federal workers who report misdeeds from reprisals by their superiors. Examples include being threatened, fired, disciplined, denied promotions or shifted to less desirable work or schedules. Because their jobs are so sensitive, FBI workers were excluded from the act's general protections. But the law required the president to set up a separate FBI whistleblower system with protections equivalent to those guaranteed other federal workers. President Bush ignored that requirement, and so did President Clinton until 1997. Then, amid a scandal in the FBI Laboratory brought to light by FBI whistleblower Frederic Whitehurst, Clinton ordered Attorney General Janet Reno to devise protections for FBI whistleblowers. The argument now is how different FBI protections should be from those other federal workers have. To Grassley, a co-author of the 1989 Whistleblower Protection Act, the new rules fall short of that law's requirement for equivalent protections. "The regulations prevent disclosures of mismanagement to Congress and supervisors in the FBI, and they prevent whistleblowers from appealing their cases to the federal courts," Grassley said. "By letting the fox guard the henhouse, the federal government has unwittingly made the case for vigorous congressional oversight of the FBI and the Justice Department." But Justice spokesman Myron Marlin said, "Congress envisioned a different scheme for FBI whistleblowers. We think ours balances the interests." In the Federal Register, the department said there are too many supervisors to be among those who can receive such sensitive reports. But Colapinto argued it is a much bigger hurdle for an FBI agent to report misconduct to top officials or internal affairs investigators than to an immediate supervisor. In response to complaints about its first draft, Justice added FBI field office chiefs to those to whom whistleblowers can report. The department acknowledged the law says FBI protections should be "consistent with applicable provisions" of two rules that grant court review to other federal workers. But Clinton ordered a system inside the Justice Department. "We feel that a system within the Justice Department was consistent with both congressional intent and the president's order," Marlin said. Administrative hearings were made discretionary, not mandatory, "because we wanted this to be useful to decision-makers. There may be circumstances that don't require a hearing," said a senior Justice official, who requested anonymity. The most famous FBI whistleblower, Whitehurst, who now works for the Whistleblower Center, said, "The final rule is a sham. No FBI employee will be encouraged to come forward to tell the truth under this rule." "I could not have prevailed in my case under this rule," said Whitehurst, who reported misconduct to superiors for years before the Justice inspector general began an investigation. That probe found lab workers did sloppy scientific work and gave court testimony biased for the prosecution; the government paid Whitehurst a record $1.46 million to settle his claims of retaliation.
|
