Department of Homeland Security Inspector General Joseph Cuffari’s office has agreed to spend $1.17 million in taxpayer funds to settle claims that he retaliated against a whistleblower, according to a copy of the settlement agreement signed this month and obtained by the Project On Government Oversight (POGO).
The whistleblower is Cuffari’s former deputy, Jennifer Costello. In 2019, Costello made disclosures about Cuffari to Congress and to the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE), whose Integrity Committee examines allegations of watchdog misconduct. Among these disclosures was that Cuffari improperly delayed a report on DHS’s struggles to track migrant children and parents who were split apart as a result of the Trump administration’s family separation policy. Cuffari terminated her employment in June 2020.
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Records Costello supplied to POGO reveal that the Integrity Committee is investigating a number of misconduct allegations against Cuffari, even as he seeks to halt those probes through an ongoing lawsuit. The Integrity Committee has been investigating matters that occurred well after he removed Costello from government service. They include Cuffari’s months-long failure to inform Congress about the Secret Service’s deletion of January 6-related text messages, and whether there was any impropriety related to his handling of a...
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