Friend of Court Brief Filed in Support of FBI Whistleblower Fired after Reporting Improper Spending
On December 6, 2016, the National Whistleblower Center (NWC) filed an amicus curiae brief in a matter before the Department of Justice in support of FBI Whistleblower Darin Jones. In 2012, Jones reported an improper award of a $40 million contract and other improper procurement spending at the FBI. The FBI fired him from his position as a Supervisory Contract Specialist, which Jones alleges was done as an act of retaliation for his whistleblowing.
The FBI’s position is that Jones does not have whistleblower protection as he did not report the misconduct to the highest-ranking FBI official at his job site, but rather he reported it to his immediate supervisor.
The NWC argues in its amicus brief that the whistleblower protections do in fact apply to Jones if the FBI officials he reported to have the authority to hire or fire personnel. Officials with such powers have had them delegated to them by the Attorney General of the United States. Under current law, FBI employees are protected if they disclose wrongdoing to the Attorney General therefore the Whistleblower Protection Act prohibits these officials from retaliating against a whistleblower. In Jones’s case the FBI officials who fired him were acting on behalf of the Attorney General and they were the very same officials to whom he reported his whistleblower disclosures. Read the full amicus curiae brief here.
H.R.5790 – Federal Bureau of Investigation Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2016, was passed on December 10. The bill contains an important improvement for FBI Employees as it allows them to report wrongdoing to their direct supervisors. This legislation will ensure a logical reporting requirement and allows FBI employees to be protected as whistleblowers when they report wrongdoing to their supervisors. This bill is awaiting the President’s signature.
Stephen M. Kohn, KKC partner and co-author of the NWC’s amicus brief stated, “This is an important step to protect whistleblowers and increase accountability at the FBI—one of the largest law enforcement agencies in the world.” Kohn, who has represented several FBI whistleblowers testified about the dysfunction in the FBI whistleblower protection system before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2015.
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