Trey Paul, FISM News
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At least 665 FBI employees who were being investigated for sexual misconduct quit their jobs or retired before facing any type of discipline or penalties, according to internal Justice Department records obtained through agency whistleblowers by Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa.
The whistleblowers who provided those records say the investigation lasted from 2004 to 2020.
One memo was titled “Retirements and Resignations During Unwelcome Sexual Conduct Adjudications.” It showed that 665 FBI employees, including 45 top-level officials, retired or resigned after an internal investigation into alleged misconduct, but did so before receiving a final disciplinary letter.
The second memo was titled “Inconsistent Adjudication of Non-Consensual Sexual Misconduct.” It noted that partiality was shown to higher ranking FBI officials “compromising the consistency, fairness, and due process of the FBI’s disciplinary system.” The document revealed that higher-ranked FBI employees are “more likely to have their sexual misconduct case adjudicated” and are “subjected to lesser penalties” than lower-ranked employees.
Both bombshell memos prompted Sen. Grassley to send a letter to both Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI director Christopher Wray.
“If the Justice Department and FBI can’t ensure the equal application of the law within its own ranks, how can they be trusted to apply the law equally against the American people?” Grassley asked in the letter.
He also asked this blistering question on Twitter:
Whistleblower disclosures to my office show systemic failure within FBI to protect women employees from disgraceful sexual misconduct; senior level employees get away with it, retire, & get bonuses; when is FBI Dir Wray going to clean house??
— Chuck Grassley (@ChuckGrassley) October 6, 2022
The senator also state that the memos he received “paint a disgraceful picture of abuse that women within the FBI have had to live with for many years. He labeled the alleged abuse and misconduct “outrageous and beyond unacceptable.”
Simply put, these two documents show a systemic failure within the Justice Department and FBI to protect female employees from sexual harassment and sexual misconduct in the workplace and a failure to sufficiently punish employees for that same misconduct. FBI employees should not have to suffer under daily abuse and misconduct by their colleagues and supervisors. Congress has an obligation to perform an objective and independent review of the Justice Department’s and FBI’s failures and determine the accuracy of the data contained in the documents so that the American people know and understand what, if any, changes have been made to solve these significant problems.
Sen. Grassley revealed that the memos were sent to his office after an Associated Press article was released in 2020 that revealed sexual misconduct in the FBI’s senior ranks.
When asked for a response, the FBI told the AP that it “intended to respond to the oversight committee first” and declined to comment specifically on the whistleblower’s allegations or provide its own tally of disciplinary cases and how many of them involved sexual misconduct.
The FBI released a statement reinforcing the bureau’s zero-tolerance policy toward sexual harassment.
“The FBI looks critically at ourselves and will continue to make improvements. The bottom line is, employees who commit gross misconduct and sexual harassment have no place in the FBI,” it said.
It’s important to note Sen. Grassley said he has copies of each document but isn’t releasing them to the public in order to protect the whistleblowers from retaliation. He also said the data does not include FBI employees who resigned or retired before the investigation was opened, so the number may be higher.