Whistleblower Attorney: FBI Agents Extremely Vulnerable to Retaliation without Due Process
Legal protections for FBI whistleblowers are “radically deficient” and leave FBI agents extremely vulnerable to retaliation without due process, according to leading whistleblower attorney Stephen M. Kohn of Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto.
Kohn, who has represented numerous FBI whistleblowers, appeared on Fox News to discuss FBI whistleblower protections following recent House testimony by FBI whistleblowers. Without weighing in on the veracity or political motivation of the whistleblowers’ claims, Kohn explained that the lack of access to federal court for FBI whistleblowers who face retaliation is a problem that has plagued the Bureau from one Presidential Administration to the next.
“We have argued for years, you have to give these FBI agents the right to go to federal court, get a judge with real power, real protection, “said Kohn, who also serves as Chairman of the Board of the National Whistleblower Center. “Under the current law, they have to go within the Justice Department, the very Justice Department that may have retaliated. They can’t get a judge to weigh in, thus they are extremely vulnerable to severe retaliation.”
In the 1990s Kohn represented FBI whistleblower Dr. Frederic Whitehurst, who exposed misconduct within the FBI crime lab. Whitehurst’s whistleblower case forced President Clinton to issue an order directing the Attorney General to establish whistleblower protections for all FBI employees.
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