After months of mediating negotiations, Senator Chuck Grassley celebrates a long-awaited resolution for 10 Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) whistleblowers who suffered years of retaliation for reporting waste, fraud, and abuse during the last administration. The whistleblowers, including Garret O’Boyle and Stephen Friend, secured compensation agreements with the FBI after being subjected to demotions, security clearance revocation, and indefinite unpaid administrative leave. The agreements collectively rectify over 12 years’ worth of unwarranted suspension time the FBI served in retaliation against the whistleblowers.
“Whistleblowers risk it all for the sake of simply telling the truth. These 10 whistleblowers’ brave actions were met with intense bureaucratic blowback that caused severe financial and emotional hardship. Their lives were upended for years, but I never stopped fighting until things were made right,” Grassley said.
The senator has staunchly opposed the FBI’s retaliatory tactics of suspending whistleblowers’ security clearances and placing them on unpaid administrative leave while the FBI conducts a prolonged internal investigation. In response, Grassley introduced the bipartisan FBI Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act in July to empower FBI whistleblowers to report corruption and enhance whistleblower protections at the agency.
“I appreciate Attorney General Bondi, Deputy Attorney General Blanche, Director Patel and Deputy Director Bongino’s unyielding efforts to prioritize accountability and bring closure to these whistleblowers’ cases,” Grassley said. “My door remains open to all whistleblowers, and I’ll continue to protect and defend them from retaliation. There is more work to be done.”
Empower Oversight attorneys, who represent most of the affected whistleblowers, released details on the settlement agreements in a letter to Grassley.
“Of these eight settlement agreements:
- None required any resignations as a condition of the agreement.
- Four involve or facilitate voluntary retirements.
- All include lump sum payments for damages.
- Four require full restoration of back pay and benefits to be calculated according to the Back Pay Act, which requires putting federal employees in the same financial position they would have been had they not been subjected to an “unjustified or unwarranted personnel action.”
- Three require the FBI to return the employees to duty, including Garret O’Boyle, Stephen Friend, and Zachery Schoffstall.”
“Your leadership and advocacy for whistleblower protections were essential both publicly and behind the scenes. Without your office, these brave whistleblowers would almost certainly not have received a fair hearing,” Empower Oversight concluded in its letter to Grassley. “On behalf of our clients, their families, and the Americans who advocated for them—thank you.”
Senator Grassley has helped secure whistleblower agreements for several other whistleblowers this year. The others include agreements for the Internal Revenue Service whistleblowers and three Customs and Border Protection whistleblowers. Grassley also introduced the crucially necessary FBI Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act.
